A Winning Road Trip!!!
- Jim Shine
- Apr 20
- 3 min read
DC United rode two brilliant goals from Joao Peglow and defense/counterattack tactics to leave Harrison, NJ last night (April 19) with a 2-1 away win over our archrival New York Red Bulls. The photo above shows DC players (in white) celebrating the first goal.
I'll go over the game details in a bit but since this has been one of our main road trip destinations over the years, I want to blog about the experience first.
A long but pleasant day started at noon at Innovation (formerly Key) Elementary School in Arlington. First stop for our bus. Then to Audi Field, then to the park-and-ride in Adelphi (where the Beltway and I-95 north merge), then to the park-and-ride in White Marsh (just north of Baltimore). Then north we went into Delaware and then New Jersey, with plenty of liquid refreshments.
Due to traffic, we arrived late to our watering hole, O'Donnells Pub, but we made the best of our limited time there. O'Donnells provides free hot dogs for us. You can see the metal container for the dogs at the far end of the room:
At 6:45, we gathered in front of O'Donnells for our march to the game. It's a fair walk, probably a good 2/3 of a mile or so, getting from O'Donnells to our gate in the rear of Sports Illustrated Stadium (formerly Red Bull Arena).
We took up residence in our usual Section 220, and out came the banners. Once the game started, so did our drums.
Now the game itself:
DC started the same lineup as last week against Cincinnati:
Barraza in goal
Schnegg, Rowles, McNaughton, Bartlett, Herrera on defense (although it could be argued that Schnegg and Herrera were up in midfield)
Kijima, Servania, Peglow, Stroud in midfield (although it could also be argued that Peglow and Stroud were playing at left and right forwards respectively)
Benteke at forward
Subs: Badji for Benteke (29th), Murrell for Stroud (67th), Enow for Kijima(67th), Peltola for Servania (83rd ), Derek Dodson for Peglow (83rd ).
DC played a defensive game, allowing the Red Bulls most of the possession (67% to 33%) and hitting on counterattacks. It worked well; they had the first two shots and most dangerous chances early on.
Major curveball: Benteke went down on his own at midfield around the 20th minute and got treatment on his thigh. He tried to continue for a few minutes but it obviously was hampering him and Badji replaced him in the 29th minute. Looked like a quadriceps strain to me.
However, the rest of the half was the Joao Peglow show. In the 35th minute, Peglow headed the ball forward and twirled around Red Bull defender Tim Parker, breaking in alone on goal, and before the Red Bull defense could recover he slotted home a nice shot to the far post. 1-0 DC. What an unexpected treat after losing Benteke!
But wait, there was more. Peglow just missed the net in the 41st minute, and then sent a bicycle kick into the goal from near the endline in the 44th minute. Amazing shot. Bicycles are hard enough but this one was from a sharp angle. 2-0 DC. The half ended with this score, and we were all kind of pinching ourselves at this wonderful scenario.
The second half was more even. The Red Bulls pulled a goal back in the 57th minute on a nice shot from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting to make it 2-1. It looked offside at the stadium but on reviewing the tape it was not. DC had a few counterattacking chances but basically defended the rest of the way, and survived 9 Red Bull corner kicks (with good goalkeeping from Barrazza) to claim a 2-1 victory. Despite the possession difference, DC had 12 shots (4 on goal) vs 10 and 2 for the Red Bulls. DC did have only 1 corner kick, but Peglow's brilliance was enough.
Lots of jubilation in the stands. The players came over to give their usual thanks:
After the game, it was a trip south in reverse: New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland (White Marsh and Adelphi), DC (Audi Field) and finally Arlington in the wee hours of the morning. Long but enjoyable day.
Our 2025 schedule has another road trip next Saturday (April 26) to Subaru Park in Chester, PA to play the Philadelphia Union. If you like tailgates, I think you'll really like a road trip, and this is the closest one (and due to the 430pm starting time, you should be home in time to watch Saturday Night Live if you are so inclined). You can sign up for the Philly road trip here.
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