D.C. needed extra time to advance to the next round of the US Open Cup

D.C. United entered Tuesday night’s round of 32 match against the Charleston Battery with a lot of optimism after beating the Colorado Rapids in league play at home on Saturday night. 

It took 120 minutes to separate the deadlock between both teams, but it would be The Black and Red that would walk away with the victory as they defeated the Battery 2-0 to advance to the round of 16 of the Open Cup. 

“It was a tough match, and we knew it was going to be,” said D.C. United Coach Troy Lesesne: “You look at this competition, and inevitably, a team from a lower division is probably going to knock off an MLS team. This happens every single year.”

Hosei Kajima is starting in his second game in a row. Photo Credit: D.C. United

D.C. returns to Open Cup play after a year's absence 

This would be the first time in two years that D.C. would participate in the Open Cup after not participating in last year’s tournament due to an agreement where eight MLS teams and nine MLS NextPro teams would participate in last year’s tournament. The eight teams that qualified for the Concacaf Champions Cup, except the Houston Dynamo, which did not take part in last year’s tournament. This allowed the next seven highest-ranked teams to field their first teams for the tournament. The rest of the teams decided to field their MLS NextPro teams, which prevented D.C. from participating in last year’s tournament due to not having an MLS NextPro team. 

Extratime 

D.C. would open up the scoring in the 95th minute of the first half of extra time. D.C. caught Charleston flat-footed on a counterattack that started in their end. The ball found its way to Randell Leal, who sent it a through pass to Jacob Murrell. Murrell would control the ball and cut back, creating space between him and the defender. Murrell would shoot the ball from 25 yards out, beating a flying Luis Zamudio as the ball hooked and ended in the top far corner to open up the scoring. 

“He seems to only score these types of goals.” Said Lesense. 

This is not the first time Murrell scored a highlight-reel goal. Back in March, the second year forward from Georgetown University scored a late equaliser with a bicycle kick against the Chicago Fire. 

“Hopefully not. Hopefully, I start scoring some tap-ins and keep getting into good spots to score.” Said Murrell, “But every one-off like that is really special to me.”

Charleston would go to 10 men in extra time as midfielder Juan David Torres was shown a red card for yelling at the referee. 

D.C. would close out the game in the 102nd minute, after Fidel Barajas connected with Leal on the left-hand side. The Costa Rican international played a threaded pass to Jarrod Stroud in stride. Stroud got to the ball and got off a one-time shot, as the ball went past a standing Zamudio and rolled into the back of the net. 

“Through the end of the second half, we started to create a couple more chances,” said Stroud, who also entered after halftime. “I think they got a little bit tired, and the game opened up a little bit. And then obviously we put on some fresh legs and created some nice chances.”

The Game 

Lesense decided to feature a few starters in the lineup for the match-up against Charleston on Tuesday night. These included David Schnegg, Brandon Servania, Kye Rowles, and Hosei Kajima, along with a few other important players such as Boris Enow and Matti Peltola. He also played several of his backups, such as Derek Dodson and Murrell. 

 In goal, Lesense opted to go with South Korean goalkeeper Joon-Hong Kim as his starter, giving Luis Barraza a break. Kim, United’s starter to start the season, lost his starting job last month to Barraza. Lesense also chose to start rookie Hakim Karamoko on the right-hand side. Karamoko, who was drafted in this year’s draft, 10th overall, made his MLS debut a couple of weeks ago in Philadelphia. 

Christian Benteke also featured in the line-up on the bench, but did not get to see any action during this match. 

After a lackluster first half, where neither team created any serious goalscoring opportunities, it would not be until the 65th minute where the first big goalscoring opportunity was created. Kajima played a ball to Dodson, who passed the ball back to Leal, Leal played the ball to Dodson inside the box. Dodson let off a one-time shot that Zamudio was able to swat the ball away from danger. 

D.C. almost grabbed the winner in stoppage time after Stroud crossed the ball to Murrell inside the box, but the striker was not able to connect with the ball, sending the game into extra time. 

D.C. will now host Charlotte FC in the round of 16 of the Open Cup at Audi Field on May 21st. 

What’s next for D.C? 

United will now focus its attention on league play as they travel to Canada to take on Toronto FC at BMO Field. 

D.C. has now won three out of their last four games, and on how this momentum has helped the team’s morale, Lesnese had this to say: 

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“We needed this.” Lesense said, “We need to start to build momentum. This victory is very important for us tonight. When you look at the last four matches, we have won three out of the last four and start to talk about our ability in that way, and in terms of putting together that many wins. I can't say that enough because Saturday is going to be another tough test. Now that we've progressed in this competition, we're going to see a lot of Saturday and Wednesday matches throughout the entire month of May, and that's what any player wants.” He concluded, “We're looking forward to being able to turn the page to Toronto this weekend.”

D.C. will face Toronto this Saturday, May 10th, with kickoff scheduled for 4:30 pm.