D.C. United 1, Revolution 1
It’s been two seasons since Ben Olsen was in the heat of a typical scrappy match between attacking-minded D.C. United and opportunistic arch rival New England. He got a full dose Friday night.
After a nice shove out of bounds by Revolution midfielder Wells Thompson in the 74th minute, Olsen responded by clutching a fist full of Thompson’s jersey and offering an exchange of pleasantries as both players earned a yellow card.
The decade-seasoned Olsen then got the best of his third-year counterpart at the end, beating him to a back post header off a free kick by Jaime Moreno in the first minute of second-half stoppage time to salvage a 1-1 draw out of a match United (1-1-3) should’ve won in front of an announced crowd of 14,441 at RFK Stadium.
“It’s a tie,” said Olsen. “It ends up still being disappointing. I still think, with the way we played, especially in the first half, we could get more out of that game. One positive is that we started playing some attractive stuff in the first half, and that was nice to be a part of.”
Moreno and Christian Gómez both were sharp in orchestrating United’s attack early, running with aplomb at a Revolution team playing without six regular starters due to injury. But D.C.’s tests were mostly routine for New England backup goalkeeper Brad Knighton, who notched five of his seven saves on the night in the first half.
“You leave this game very frustrated because I thought, especially the first half, that they were ripe for the picking,” said United head coach Tom Soehn. “I don’t think we did a good enough job of managing the space and hitting the weak side and causing them more trouble.”
Unsatisfied at the break, Soehn added Santino Quaranta as an offensive spark and just before the second-half whistle, also replaced under-the-weather Clyde Simms with Andrew Jacobson. But it was the Revolution (2-0-2) that stole into the lead, converting one of just two shots on goal in the match when Shalrie Joseph latched onto MLS’ all-time assists leader Steve Ralston’s early cross for a close-range header in the 50th minute.
“The cross was too quick for me to come out of the goal,” said United goalkeeper Louis Crayton, “I got a tip on it but I was wrong-footed.”
D.C. struggled to reassert itself – although rookie Chris Pontius send two certain scoring chances skyward from less than ten yards in the 58th and 64th minutes – until the final moments. Fred, who came on in the 65th minute for a cramping Gómez, was fouled deep on the left side.
Moreno, becoming the first player in MLS history to reach 100 goals and 100 assists on the play despite cramping himself, lofted the free kick to the far side of the goal, where Olsen crashed into Thompson and the ball, which then hit Revolution defender Pat Phelan on the way into the goal.
“I always say it doesn’t really mean a lot to me,” said Moreno of his record. “But I guess numbers, they count in America.”
Olsen, however, did let Thompson know about the goal, leaving the New England midfielder seated on the grass shaking his head with his arms across his legs.
“He’s a good kid,” said Olsen. “It’s New England/D.C. I figured I’d try and start a fight to get us moving or something… It’s a heated game. No hard feelings. He’s a competitor. Those guys are great competitors. That team always has them.”
“The one positive is we’ve been losing goals at the end of games from mental errors,” said Soehn. “Today, I think we came back. I’ve always said we’re a young team, I’m not saying that anymore. We’ve had enough games now where we need to start showing some maturity, and sticking in there and getting a goal back at the end is a positive, but I feel like we gave away two points today.”
