Philadelphia cruises to victory against D.C. United at home

D.C. United entered the week on a high after breaking their four-game losing streak with a massive win against the New York Red Bulls on the road last Saturday night. 

For D.C., going into a match on the road against another tough team in the Philadelphia Union, was made a little more difficult for The Black and Red as they missed two of their biggest offensive threats in striker Christian Benteke and midfielder Joao Peglow. 

Benteke was ruled out for Saturday’s match due to a quad strain that he picked up during the match against the Red Bulls. The coaching staff decided to sit him out for this match, while Peglow, who scored the two goals that gave D.C. all three points last week, picked up a hamstring injury during training before the match, keeping him out of the game against Philadelphia.

On a sunny afternoon in Chester, PA, Philadelphia defended its home field advantage at Subaru Park by defeating D.C. hardly by a final score of 3-0. 

David Schnegg is trying to win the ball from a Philadelphia defender. Photo Credit: D.C. United

“Many, many phases, we’re on top of the game,” Said D.C. United head coach Troy Lesense. “We just have to tighten up and punish the other team whenever we have our chances. And then we have to dig things out a little bit more to prevent the goals we are giving away.”

The Game 

Philadelphia opened up the scoring in the 15th minute. A Francis Westfield short throw-in found Indiana Vassilev. Vassilev returned the ball to Westfield, who sent a cross to the back post, finding an open Jakob Glesnes, who let out a blistering volley to the far post to beat Luis Barraza to give the Union the lead. 

“It’s disappointing, especially after last week,” said center back Kye Rowles. “It kind of pushes us back down a little bit. I’m thinking in my head, and it sounds stupid, but I thought it was a good team performance, and unfortunately, they were just better in the boxes.”

D.C. created a goal-scoring opportunity of their own in the 24th minute when a Jarrod Stroud cross found Jacob Murrell inside the box. In a chance to recreate his bicycle kick goal from their week 2 match against Chicago, tied to beat Andre Blake with a bicycle kick, however, his attempt would sail over the crossbar. 

“I’m never going to begrudge someone to try to go and score a goal in that situation, and Jacob is more than capable of doing that, but those are the big moments, right?” Lesesne said. “We didn’t capitalize on ours, and they capitalize on theirs, and this is what we have to correct.”

D.C. would have another great opportunity to tie the game three minutes later after a long ball found Dominique Badji in stride, leaving him one-on-one with Blake. Badji’s ensuing shot off a bounce sailed over the crossbar and out of bounds. Despite trying to create chances in front of the goal, United showed that they sorely missed the goal-scoring prowess of Benteke and Peglow. 

“We obviously miss Christian, and we miss Peglow,” Lesesne said. “That said, the first half, we were really in control, and we created a number of big opportunities and chances, and we didn’t give much away.”

Murrell had another chance to tie the game for D.C. on a two-on-one with Stroud inside the box; the midfielder chose to shoot the ball instead of playing to his teammate across the mouth of goal, forcing Blake to make a save, and the Philadelphia defense cleared the ensuing rebound. 

Philadelphia doubled its lead in the 52nd minute. Danley Jean Jaques got past the mark of Hosei Kajima, laying off a shot from 23 yards out, beating Barraza near post. 

The Union would put the final touches to the scoreline in the 77th minute when a Glesnes long ball found Mikael Uhre forward the ball to Uruguayan striker Bruno Damiani inside the box. Damiani turned Lucas Bartlett inside the box, getting a low shot to the near post to put the ball in the back of the net. 

“Many, many phases, we’re on top of the game,” Lesesne said. “We just have to tighten up and punish the other team whenever we have our chances. And then we have to dig things out a little bit more to prevent the goals we are giving away.”

With this result D.C. United drops to 13th place in the Eastern Conference with 9 points, while Philadelphia moves up to 3rd place in the Eastern Conference with 19 points. 

D.C. will play at home for the first time in two weeks hosting the Colorado Rapids at Audi Field, next Saturday May 3rd at 7:30 pm.