D.C. United took the pitch in Seattle on Friday evening looking to break a dubious streak: the Black-and-Red hadn’t won a match against the Sounders since 2011 and hadn’t emerged victorious at CenturyLink field since 2010.
But Friday’s matchup offered a glimmer of hope -- a near full-strength D.C. side would get a shorthanded Sounders bunch, missing an injured Obafemi Martins; Clint Dempsey and Marco Pappa would also be absent, away on national team duty. The Sounders — losers of their last three — seemed ripe for the picking.
It all came unraveled for D.C., however, in the opening 30 minutes of the match.
They were dealt an early blow inside of five minutes when starting forward Luis Silva was forced out of the match with what the club would later describe as a groin injury, the latest in a series of chronic ailments that have limited the forward’s minutes throughout 2015. Some twenty-five minutes later, things went from bad to worse when Silva’s strike partner Fabian Espindola was sent marching after a retaliatory elbow on Seattle defender Zach Scott.
Down a man, United fell back and defended diligently, seemingly content to try and extract a precious road point from the encounter. Though thoroughly out-possessed, D.C. absorbed pressure well through the 80 minute mark — it seemed readily apparent that Seattle would need something truly special to emerge victorious.
And in the 88th minute, they’d get just that -- defender Tyrone Mears ran onto a loose ball outside the box and smashed home the game-winner in a 1-0 result for the hosts, a 20-yard rocket to the far post that United ‘keeper Andrew Dykstra had little chance at saving.
After the match, D.C. head coach Ben Olsen expressed pride in his side’s gutsy effort, but also bemoaned what he felt were a pair of instances where referee Silviu Petrescu failed to play advantage — in one instance possibly costing United the game-tying goal.
"I’m as proud as I’ve been in a while of this group,” Olsen told the media in attendance. "The effort they put in, the way they looked out for each other out there -- in the end it takes a wonder strike from them to get all three points.
"And saying that, we go down and tie it. The referee needs to learn how to hold his whistle a little bit longer several times in the game. He’s too excited to make the call and he doesn’t say the play -- one time we’re in a breakaway and the other time we score a goal. That’s what referees need to do. You can always come back. So, again, I think in the end we deserved something out of this.”
Looking back at the incidents in question, Olsen may have a point, in particular on what could’ve been the equalizer in the 91st minute. Davy Arnaud collected a goal kick about 30 yards from goal and was brought down by Seattle forward Lamar Neagle. During the collision, the ball squirted forwards to D.C. midfielder Miguel Aguilar, who touched it forward and coolly slotted it around Seattle goalkeeper Troy Perkins. Petrescu, however, had blown his whistle immediately upon the initial foul.
United had other opportunities to tie, or even win the match -- fullback Taylor Kemp struck the crossbar in the first half with a driven, 25-yard free kick while midfielder Nick DeLeon was left wanting at the 90 minute mark when his screamer pinged off the woodwork and ended up out of bounds. Dykstra, too, was excellent, filing in for an injured Bill Hamid, something Olsen was quick to note after the match.
"He was great,” said Olsen. "In our minds, he’s a capable starter in this league and a very good goalkeeper. We have a lot of faith in him and I thought tonight he handled the box very well, made some key saves and again there’s nothing he can do about the goal. It’s a great strike. Give Mears credit, he took it well - it was going to take something like that, though, to beat us tonight, the way [we] were defending and looking after each other."
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