After riding high off getting a win at home in front of their home crowd last week. D.C. United looked to get another three points at home against CF Montreal Saturday night, in front of 16,133 fans that gathered to attend the game at Audi Field in Washington D.C. Saturday night.
Despite the best efforts from both teams, neither could break the deadlock ending the game in a 0-0 draw after 90 minutes.
“We expect more than this.” Said D.C. United head coach Troy Lesesne “We created a number of chances but not enough in the end, and it never felt like we were in our typical way.”
This was D.C. United’s first shutout in almost a year, having gone 31 matches without recording a clean sheet. The last time D.C. kept an opponent with zero goals, was ironically against Montreal, defeating the Canadian outfit 1-0 at Audi Field last March.
The Game
The first big scoring opportunity of the game came in the 7th minute, after Boris Enow won the ball in the midfield and played off to Joao Peglow. The Brazilian winger passed the ball to Christian Benteke, who was waiting for the ball at the top of the box, beating his marker and taking a shot that rolled safely into the hands of Montreal’s goalkeeper Johnathan Sirois.
Montreal would create their own goalscoring opportunity six minutes later after midfielder Dante
Sealy laid the ball off to Fabian Herbers who was waiting from outside the box. Herbers took a shot from distance, but the ball went past goalkeeper Joon Hong Kim and out of bounds. Montreal would have another opportunity to break the deadlock after a Sealy cross found Prince Owusu inside the box, however his header would go over the goal and out for a goal kick.
In the 25th minute Herbers had Montreal’s best opportunity to open up the scoring in the match. After receiving the ball on his own half, Herbers went on a run leaving two D.C. defenders behind him as he got into the D.C. area unmarked. The German midfielder took a shot at goal, the ball ended up hitting the crossbar and going out of play.
“We didn’t have the same type of aggression and pressing style that you usually see,” Lesesne said. “That’s something we always demand. We never want the opponent to be comfortable, and they were comfortable many, many times.”
One minute later D.C. thought they had opened up the scoring themselves. Enow won a 50/50 ball in the midfield and headed the ball towards Benteke, who passed the ball back to Jarod Stroud. Stroud played a long ball to the Belgian forward who beat the mark of defender George Campbell, controlling the ball with his chest and putting the ball past Sirois to give United the go ahead lead at that point. However, the referee of the match Guido Gonzalez Jr. went to VAR to check the play for a potential handball.
“I chest it, and then I touch it with my hand,” said Benteke “Nowadays, when you score, you are happy, but you’re not sure. You look at the ref — you don’t know if you can celebrate.”
After a short review, Gonzalez saw that the ball did indeed hit Benteke’s hand after trapping the ball with his chest but also seeing the forward swat the ball forward with his hand disallowing the goal.
D.C. had another opportunity to take the lead a few minutes later after Aaron Herrera played a through ball to Gaberiel Pirani who shot the ball towards goal in front of Sirois who was stretched out to try to stop his shot, however the ball would go to the right of Sirois and out of play.
“We didn’t have enough of that type of combination play that was at that speed,” Lesesne said. “We took an extra touch, or we played it wide again, and we just never really threatened.”
Benteke would have another opportunity to give D.C. the lead close to half time, but his opportunity would go over the crossbar and out for a Montreal goal kick.
D.C. United kicked off the second half creating goal scoring opportunities. In the 51st minute a David Schnegg found a wide-open Stroud who crept up the back post leaving him one on one with Sirois. Stroud’s shot however would bounce off Montreal’s goalkeeper who conceded a corner kick.
Montreal had a chance to take the lead in the 74th minute off a free kick from Bryce Duke, but Kim was equal to the shot and was able to repel the ball away, Owusu collected the rebound on Kim’s save, but the South Korean goalkeeper was able to get a hand to the ball and send it out for a corner kick.
“We talked about it for the last three games, it was a goal of ours” said D.C. center back Lucas Bartlett on getting the clean sheet “If you don't concede, do you have a chance to win the game.”
With the result D.C. drops down to eighth place in the Eastern Conference with six points, while Montreal is tied for last place in the Eastern Conference with one point.
D.C. next game will see them travel to Central Florida as they will visit Orlando City as they will play each other at Inter & CO Stadium in Orlando, FL next Saturday March 22nd. Kickoff will be at 7:30 pm.
