In the midst of all the Copa America and European Championship drama, DC United traveled to Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ this past Saturday (June 29) to play the New York Red Bulls. Missing Christian Benteke due to red card suspension and lots of others due to injury, the roster was threadbare and expectations were low. But there is still fight in this team; they overcame another red card and survived a barrage of Red Bull attacks to get a hard-fought 2-2 draw.
DC started Tyler Miller in goal, Peltola, Bartlett and Herrera on defense, Santos, Rodriguez, Klich, Stroud and Dajome in midfield, and Murrell and Ted KDP at forward.
The match started well. Stroud did a nice give-and-go with Murrell (with a good bounce) to score in the 6th minute. However, things went south in the 20th minute when Dajome got a second yellow card on a clumsy challenge and was sent off. Two minutes later Peltola was called for a foul in the box on Sean Nealis, and Elias Manoel converted the penalty to tie the game at 1-1. DC hung tough under pressure, and in the 4th minute of first half stoppage time Santos nailed a beautiful free kick into the upper corner to put DC up 2-1 at halftime.
The Red Bulls sieged the DC goal in the second half, and in the 78th minute Cameron Harper equalized with a shot from about 12 yards. The game ended 2-2.
With a thin bench, the substitutions were limited and late in the game; Pirani for Ted KDP in the 81st minute, McVey for Rodriguez in the 90th minute (great to see him back out there, even for a few minutes), and Jeremy Garay (just called back from loan due to the player shortage) for Murrell in the 6th of 10 minutes of stoppage time. They also bought time for a tired DC to rest and see out the game, which they did.
New York had 71% of the possession and 23 shot attempts, but only 4 on target. DC only managed 8 shots (3 on goal) and 2 corner kicks, but they made their opportunities count.
DC returns home this Wednesday (July 3) to host FC Cincinnati.
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