After a crazy last-minute goal secured a point on the road in Chicago, D.C. United was looking to get their first three points of the season when they hosted Sporting Kansas City on a chilly night at Audi Field in Washington DC on Saturday night.
D.C. was looking to break a 239-day winless streak at home. The last time D.C. won a home match was back on July 13th, 2024, defeating Nashville 2-1. D.C. United was able to do just that in front of their fans and snapping the long winless streak at home defeating Sporting KC by the final score of 2-1.
“Every single time that we come here, we feel a huge responsibility to get a result at home but not just for the actual night itself,” D.C. United head coach Troy Lesesne said. “It’s really more about starting to deliver more for our fan base and starting to really change the momentum.”
Peglow makes his Red and Black Debut
This game marked the regular season debut of Joao Peglow. The Brazilian winger was signed by D.C. in early January from Polish side Radomiak Radom.
“He’s absolutely a fantastic player, and we saw that all through preseason,” Lesesne said. “We were really happy when we were able to sign him because we thought that he could have these types of performances that he had tonight. He’s just involved in everything creative that we do.”
Peglow was sidelined by injury that would make him miss the first two games of the season, and derail his regular season debut with the club, but made an immediate impact throughout the game and be an integral part of United’s success at home Saturday night.
The Game
D.C. created the first big scoring opportunity at the start of the game in the 3rd minute, after a run down the wing by David Schnegg who sent a cross to a waiting Gabriel Pirani inside the area, who took a one time shot towards goal in the direction of John Pulskamp, but the Sporting KC goalkeeper was able to block Pirani’s scoring and send the ball out for a corner kick.
“We want to be a front-foot pressing team,” said D.C. defender Kye Rowles. “That’s our aim. We executed the pressing really well tonight and were winning it in really dangerous areas.”
While Kansas City held most of the possession in the first half, they were not able to create a clear goalscoring opportunity in the first half, opposite of D.C. who had less possession of the ball, but was able to create goal scoring opportunities, but were not able to capitalize on those opportunities. However, the goals would come flying in the second half.
Sporting KC opened the scoring in the 53rd minute. After a Shapi Suleymanov played a long ball to Jake Davis who came barreling down the wing and played a low cross to captain Erik Thommy who one timed the ball past Joon Hong Kim to give KC the lead momentarily.
However, the lead would not last for Sporting. In the 59th minute Suleymanov took down debutant Peglow in the box, which was in the line of sight of referee Rosendo Mendoza who awarded a penalty to D.C. Christian Benteke would be in charge of taking the penalty and the Belgian striker did not miss, slotting the ball on the right of Pulskamp, netting his third goal of the season. With this goal Benteke also ties Luciano Emilio in 4th place as the club's all-time leading goal scorer.
Last week Benteke missed a penalty kick late in the game against Chicago, Lesesne said this about him converting a penalty kick this week:
“I told him after the game how proud I was of him for stepping up after last week’s penalty miss,” Lesesne said. “This is a big responsibility that he carries on the team.”
Lesesne has expressed that Benteke is still the focal point of the offense, but were looking to create more scoring opportunities for other players and come together to become more providers and goal scorers, this is what the striker and team captain had to say:
“I think it’s nice to have the feeling that it is not about me, but it’s about the team” Benteke said “It’s good because when the focus is not on me, I will get more chances because then the opponent to take care of Peglow {Joao Peglow}, about Gabi {Gabriel Pirani}, Jacob {Murrell} and about Jarod {Stroud} and it’s a good thing for me.”
D.C. would double their lead not long after that. It was the 68th minute, D.C. had won a throw-in, which was taken in short by Schnegg to Jared Stroud, who returned the ball to the Austrian left-back. He placed a back pass to Peglow, who sent a cross into the box to a wide-open Hosei Kajima inside the box. Kajima elevated himself and connected the ball with a header that went past Pulskamp to get his first goal of the season and his first as a member of the Black and Red.
Kijima talked about his goal and explained how he watched a video on Linkedin during the offseason and how that helped make the run in the box to score the game winner.
“The run in behind has to come when the ball goes into a negative direction and then the [defensive] line steps up,” Kijima said. “It’s very difficult to track.”
Kansas City had a chance to tie the game late after a Manu Garcia free kick was played deep into the area for center back Jason Miller, however Kim put his body on the line and collided with Miller to secure the ball and the victory for United.
“We have to win at home,” Benteke said, “if we want to be the team that we want.”
With this result D.C. moves up to fourth place of the Eastern Conference with five points, while Sporting Kansas City sit in 14th place of the Western Conference with zero points.
D.C. will stay in the friendly confines of Audi Field this week, as they host CF Montreal at home next Saturday March 15th. Kickoff is at 7:30 pm.
