Two-goal lead squandered, penalty kick missed in 2-2 draw with Chivas USA D.C. United 2, Chivas USA 2
There’s no doubt the season is aging D.C. United. But there’s a difference between growing up and growing old.
On the verge of a significant lurch toward its first playoff berth in four years, United instead squandered a two-goal second-half lead in a demoralizing 2-2 draw against Chivas (7-12-11) that left D.C. in the same awkward position it has been all summer: not quite in the playoffs, not ready to give up hope, but certainly not ready to contend.
“We played like boys,” said frustrated United head coach Ben Olsen. “Not just the second half, I thought the first half we played soft. We played na?ve… It’s absolutely going to stop. It has to stop or we will not make the playoffs. It’s that simple.”
But United (8-8-10) did have firm control of its first home game in more than five weeks when defender Ethan White pounced on his first career goal in the 47th minute. The rookie from Maryland couldn’t miss from close range after Chivas goalkeeper Dan Kennedy, who would later be one of the visiting team’s two heroes, could only get one hand on Dwayne De Rosario’s shot off a D.C. corner kick.
Six minutes before halftime, De Rosario had toed the offside line to beat the Chivas trap and head in Andy Najar’s free kick for his tenth goal of the year.
Despite a seemingly commanding 2-0 lead, it wasn’t long before United began to unravel, first failing to close down Nick LaBrocca on the right side of the box in the 57th minute. Left alone, LaBrocca lifted the ball across the box, and Juan Pablo Angel charged in, rose over United rookie defender Perry Kitchen for a header to cut the deficit in half.
“Tonight was like some of those early games, where we were just unlucky with youth kicking in on some of the mistakes,” United midfielder Clyde Simms said.
As D.C. struggled to reassert control over a match that was slipping away in familiar fashion, Angel struck again in the 69th minute. This time the danger came from the left, where Ante Jazic bent his own cross into Angel, who converge with D.C. defender Brandon McDonald simultaneously for the first ball. Bt McDonald fell, allowing Angel to free himself from a lunging White with one touch before powering the ball home from eight yards for his second goal of the night.
“I don’t want to say we got complacent,” McDonald said. “I just think we’ve got to see those games out. To everyone in here, it feels like a loss even though we did get a point out of it.”
Three minutes before the end of regulation, goalkeeper Bill Hamid prevented D.C. from falling behind with a reaction save down to his right on a shot from Laurent Courtois, who had been charging down the left side at full speed.
Then, for the briefest of moments, it appeared that luck had smiled on D.C. United in a way that the club has rarely experienced since its last playoff season in 2007. In the 93rd minute, De Rosario sprawled to the ground in the box with only the slightest touch of Angel’s hand on his back, and referee Chris Penso confidently blew his whistle and pointed to the penalty spot.
But chance for rescue faded like a ship passing in the night, as Kennedy correctly guessed and sprawled to his left to deny De Rosario’s penalty kick, silencing the crowd of 14,849.
The seventh tie in 13 games at home fit neatly into D.C. United’s middling fortunes, but players still believe they’re capable of growing into a legitimate playoff threat.
“There’s highs and lows,” United midfielder Stephen King said. “It’s kind of been like that all year. We’re still a young team. We feel like we’re getting better each game, and we just need to make sure that right now, if we want to be a playoff team, we need to learn from this game tonight, and finish out the rest of the season in a more mature way, like men.”
