DC United @ Chicago Fire 9/7/24

DC pushes for the playoffs in the Windy City

Game Context

DC entered the game two points out of the last playoff spot and with some tough games left on the schedule. Only the very best teams can feel confident going into road games in MLS, but if any team was beatable on the road, this Chicago team was a good candidate.

Complicating matters, the game was played during the international break. This meant DC’s two defensive midfielders, Matti Peltola and new arrival Boris Enow, were absent with Finland and Cameroon respectively. Aaron Herrera was out as well with Guatemala, and while there’s more cover at his position there’s a case to be made for him as the second or, really, at worst third-best player on the team.

Chicago wasn’t hit as hard but was missing a few players as well. They’ve had a terrible season and were below DC in the standings but due to MLS’ forgiving structure were still very much alive in the playoff chase.

According the MLS power rankings, this match pitted #20 (DC United) against #26 (Chicago) out of 29 teams.

Formation

For once, the broadcast got the formation right. Alex Bono in goal, of course, and then three at the back: Christopher McVey, Lucas Bartlett, and Garrison Tubbs. Pedro Santos and Cristian Dajome manned the wingback spots with Mateusz Klich and Martin Rodriguez playing a double pivot in central midfield. Gabriel Pirani and Jared Stroud flanked Christian Benteke in attack.

This was the first start for both Tubbs and Pirani since DC’s disastrous 0-5 loss at Orlando City in the beginning of July. Tubbs returned to the field due to Herrera’s call-up and, probably, Matai Akinmboni’s injury, whereas Pirani has shown real improvement as a substitute in previous matches and earned a look ahead of Ted Ku-Dipietro.

One new wrinkle this game was that Russell Canouse is finally back from injury and got his first 2024 minutes subbing on in the 85th minute for Tubbs. It looked to me like Santos slid back into Tubbs’ spot in the back three, Murrell came back to play at left wingback, and DC finished the game with 3 defensive midfielders in a line flanked by the wingbacks, a kind of 3-5-2 with a flat line of five in the middle. But it wasn’t very long and I didn’t go back and really look carefully, so maybe it was some sort of 4-4-2?

Goal Breakdowns

26’ Christian Benteke 1-0

Jared Stroud takes a shot that is blocked by a defender and goes out for a throw-in on the left side. Santos goes to take the throw. Klich makes a sudden run down the sideline and gets free of his defender. Santos throws it to him and Klich hits a one-touch, looping cross to the top of the box where Benteke is waiting. A Chicago defender makes a lunging jump to head the ball and misses entirely, giving Benteke time to trap the ball with his foot. It’s not the greatest touch, but he gets it out from under his feet and hits what looks like a pretty mild shot that deflects off another Chicago defender’s foot and past the helpless goalkeeper.

It’s lucky in the end, but Klich in particular did well to get the cross off and Benteke got the shot off. Poor all around from Chicago (letting Klich get so open and then not marking Benteke tighter).

29’ Gabriel Pirani 2-0

DC is working it around the back and a Fire defender goes to press Santos when he gets the ball on the endline. Benteke comes way back into DC’s half to make himself available as an option and receives Santos’ pass with a man tight on his back. Benteke turns his man and leaves him in the dust like a savvy holding midfielder, then passes it ahead to Santos who has overlapped forward while Pirani cuts inside. I think Santos tries to hit a through ball for Pirani to run on to, but he doesn’t put enough on it so it ends up being a terrible pass directly to the out-of-position defender who was belatedly reacting to Pirani’s run. That defender, kind of inexplicably (let’s say it was the pressure from Pirani though) just puts it out of bounds. The commentators complain about DC “forcing” it to Pirani even though the right ball could have put him in at least to the endline.

Anyway, Santos again throws it in, this time to Benteke standing motionless ten yards away and not covered by any Fire defender (???). Fortunately for the Fire, Benteke’s first touch is comically awful and pops the ball twenty feet into the air. Three players converge on him while he waits for it to come down, but he calmly volleys it over to Klich. Klich quickly plays it in to Pirani’s feet. Pirani has his back to goal just outside the box with a central defender two yards off him, but he spins, touches the ball through the defender’s legs, and then curls it past the goalkeeper to the far post.

Pirani has often seem kind of downbeat so I was glad to see him run to hug one of the assistant coaches after the goal. DC’s subs are milling around near the goal and you can see Russell Canouse put his hands up as Pirani is kicking the ball, before anyone else has reacted. Russ believes in you, Gabi, and so do us fans. Well, some of us. More than before, anyway!

54’ Andrew Gutman 2-1

Chicago has the ball in their half and someone plays an unusually good through ball into DC’s box, but Lucas Bartlett comes sliding in at the last second to knock the ball out for a corner. Bartlett is then first to the ensuing corner, heading it over the pack of players behind him and out of the box. Andrew Gutman collects it and volleys it just inside the far post. Fotmob says the shot was 0.03 xG. I think this is truly a blameless goal for DC. This is why you try to score multiple goals: so that if you lose the clean sheet on a goal the player might not score again with ten more tries, you still win the game.

Player Ratings

Alex Bono - 5 - No chance on Gutman’s goal or Acosta’s near-goal. Not much else to do. For some reason the “kick goal kicks long to Benteke” hasn’t been working out lately. Not sure whose fault that is, if anyone’s.

Christopher McVey - 6 - He did a cool turn and had some other good moments, but that kind of risk-taking often brings with it a few mistakes as well and did this game.

Lucas Bartlett - 6 - Solid game as usual with some really important last-man slide tackles this time. Chicago seemed to come in thinking to beat DC’s press by kicking it long, but Bartlett cleaned up most of those balls.

Garrison Tubbs - 5 - Not a bad outing, I guess. At times he was surprisingly good with the ball at his feet, which is encouraging, though under pressure he was shaky and turned the ball over a few times. I thought he was a bit fortunate with his challenge on Fabian Herbers in the penalty box. Herbers did an elaborate jumping fall that seemed out of proportion with the contact, but Tubbs did come in late.

Mateusz Klich - 7 - Two assists makes him a good candidate for MOTM, and he served up a wide open header for Jacob Murrell as well that Murrell hit straight at the goalkeeper. He doesn’t always look like a DP but games like this really distinguish him from DC’s other central midfield options.

Martin Rodriguez -5 - Had his usual “calm” game but when Chicago kicked up the intensity in the second half it seemed like he struggled to adjust.

Cristian Dajome - 6 - He’s playing hard and had another quick carry forward that drew a yellow card.

Pedro Santos - 4 - Defensively sturdy, which maybe is all you can ask, but he completed only 24 of 44 passes. He’s really helping the team but they need better play out of these minutes next year.

Jared Stroud - 5 - Worked hard as always. That hard work results in him getting the ball in good positions, but then not a lot happens. This is a career year for him but I feel like DC needs to upgrade this position.

Gabriel Pirani - 7 - Recently, Charlie Boehm was on Roche’s Pitch Pass podcast and made some noises about how Pirani “didn’t fit what the team wants to do” and was a failed experiment. I prefer to see him as a raw and still-developing attacking player, like Lucho Acosta circa 2017. The way he doesn’t fit is that he really doesn’t seem able to muster the defensive workrate Troy Lesesne must want. But on offense, his tidy short passing in the attacking third is really valuable for this team because it lengthens possessions while Benteke gets himself set up in the box. He didn’t see a ton of the ball this game, but he was 80% passing when he got it. And of course with all due respect to Klich’s entry pass, Pirani created the opportunity for his own goal with a moment of brilliance that no one else on the team is really capable of.

Christian Benteke - 7 - His goal wasn’t pretty, but he got it in the goal. Although he didn’t do as well on long balls as normal, he had some excellent moments in the buildup to the second goal.

Substitutes

Ted Ku-Dipietro - 5 - Much better off the ball than Pirani, but as usual he was a turnover machine in possession and didn’t take his few shots very well.

Dominique Badji - 6 - Kind of a thankless job replacing Benteke, but he did well, working a give and go with Dajome that almost resulted in a really dangerous shot. He also earned a foul in stoppage time that almost iced the game by itself. I think there’s a case to be made that the top three attackers on the team are Benteke, Pirani, and Badji.

Jacob Murrell - 5 - Good run to get an open look at goal, but didn’t beat the keeper.

Russell Canouse - N/A - Wonderful to see him back on the field for a cameo. I thought he had really improved his game in possession last season, so I’ll be watching carefully to see if he is back at that level. Chicago weren’t able to muster much of a last minute push so not much to go on yet.

Chart-Topping Benteke

As you probably know, no one has scored more goals this season in MLS than Christian Benteke at the moment. Luis Suárez and Chicho Arango could argue their seasons are statistically better in various per minute ways and someone might still beat him out by the end of the season, but it’s DC’s captain with the lead right now.

Whatever the final tallies are, this is a season to savor as a fan. Benteke’s season is one that will be remembered in the record books and still has an outside chance at being DC’s top scoring season ever. DC’s top five single-season goal scorers ever are:

1. 23 - Raúl Díaz Arce, 1996

2. 20 - Luciano Emilio, 2007

3. 19 - Ola Kamara, 2021

4. 18+ - Christian Benteke, 2024

5. 18, Roy Lassier, 1999 and 1998

Not too shabby! One thing that leaps out about that list is that most of these teams won silverware: MLS Cups in 1996 and 1999, the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 1998, and the Supporters’ Shield in 2007. I’m not the world’s greatest soccer expert but surely it’s much easier to score a ton of goals if you have a great team around you.

But it’s not the only way. Ola Kamara’s 2021 team was 16th overall and missed the playoffs. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: it was a season where Kamara was really the only one doing the scoring. Paul Arriola was second on the team with 6 goals and Nigel Robertha and Yordy Reyna each had 4 goals (this season, Gabriel Pirani is second on the team with 4 goals).

The big difference between 2021 and this year is that while Benteke is now almost universally appreciated, Ola Kamara went through that season (and tied for the league lead in goals) with fans griping about his “poor finishing”. This annoyed me at the time because it wasn’t really true, but the reason why fans could complain at all is that Kamara actually only scored 10 goals from the run of play that season. He only rose to third all-time for DC on the strength of 9 penalties (tied for DC’s most all-time with 2005’s Jaime Moreno and second in league history behind Philadelphia’s Dániel Gazdag in 2023).

Benteke has only taken 2 penalties this season (and he made both of them) but doing the all-time list by non-penalty goals doesn’t help him move up:

1. 20 - Luciano Emilio, 2007 (no penalties because Jaime was taking them!)

2. 19 - Raúl Díaz Arce, 1996 (and 4 for 4 on penalties)

3. 17 - Roy Lassiter, 1999 (and 1 for 2 PKs)

4. 16+ - Christian Benteke (and 2 for 2 PKs)

5. 15 - Roy Lassiter, 1998 (and 3 for 3 PKs)

Like Ola Kamara, in Benteke’s past seasons fans have complained about his finishing. So what do the expected goals say? Unless you are a “finishing truther” stats nerd who really believes finishing is always a myth, outscoring xG consistently would suggest a good finisher and underperforming in xG would be a poor finisher. Luis Suárez, for example, leads the league in “Goals Minus Expected Goals” with +6.2. Suárez has scored 16 goals without functioning knees; you can just look at his highlights and see he is scoring some goals that MLS forwards normally don’t.

For Benteke, I thought there might be a little bit of justice to the finishing complaints because his npG-npxG since 2017 at Crystal Palace when advanced stats are available was -6.6, -2.4, -3.1, +1.7, -0.9. And then in his first two DC United seasons, he was: -0.8 and -2.5. Other than the first 2017 Crystal Palace season, it’s nothing huge, but it does seem consistent.

But this season he’s +3.7, good for 9th in the league. Add the penalties into the mix and he’s 7th with +4.1. Maybe he’s “gotten better at finishing” this year, or maybe some luck is finally averaging out for him (like the deflection against Chicago).

Maybe more important is that he is second in the league in non-penalty expected goals with 12.3, just behind Denis Bouanga’s 12.4. That means he is elite at getting shots off from dangerous positions. And of course his teammates and coaching staff deserve some credit too, although watching the games this year it’s been hard not to feel like a few better teammates would result in even more goals.

While we’re here, it’s worth noting that Benteke leads the league in fouls committed with 63, a good five fouls ahead of second place, a guy familiar to DC fans, St. Louis’ Chris Durkin. This means with several games left to play, Benteke is tied for fourth in DC history in fouls committed. If you’re a long-time fan, try to close your eyes and name the players who are ahead of Benteke on the all-time list.

The actual answer? Surprise, it’s…no, just kidding, it’s exactly who you’d think (and exactly when):

1. 76 - Corey Talley, 2000

2. 75 - Geoff Aunger, 1999

3. 68 - Richie Williams, 2000

4. 67 - tie: Dema Kovalenko 2003, Geoff Aunger, 2000, Christian Benteke 2024

It is ridiculous that some of the thuggiest thugs to ever play the game are getting bumped down DC’s all-time list because of how the refs treat Benteke’s aerial battles…but oh well. This all-time record looks more achievable to me than the goal-scoring one, so why not? Dare to be great. Although rest assured the league record—Philadelphia’s Julian Carranza with 92 in 2023—is safe.

Finally, I wrote about it early in the season in more depth but yes, Benteke still leads the league in aerial duels won. No, it is not close. He has 257 and Lucas Bartlett (yes, DC’s Lucas Bartlett) is in second place with 94. That’s not a typo. Benteke has more aerial duels won than the second, third, and fourth place players combined. If you just looked at that article, you’ll know what it means when I note his aerial duels won per 90 has dropped to 11.3 as the refs have gotten nitpicky and DC sometimes plays it out of the back. So it’s not going to be a world record, but he’s already cleared the MLS record, which was set by…Christian Benteke. Now admittedly, this stat has only been kept since 2018, so apply your asterisks, but let’s wrap up with a look at MLS’ top 6 in aerials won in a single season:

1. 257+ Christian Benteke, DC United, 2024

2. 241 Christian Benteke, DC United, 2023

3. 174 Steve Birnbaum, DC United, 2019

4. 163 Steve Birnbaum, DC United, 2018

5. 154 Zlatan Ibrahimoić, LA Galaxy, 2019

6. 143 Steve Birnbaum, DC United, 2022

Pretty good list to be on! Two of the greatest players ever to play the game. Oh, and Zlatan.

Standings

DC is now technically in 9th place and above the line, but Atlanta and New England have played fewer games. Atlanta in particular is still 9th in PPG.

As mentioned above, Benteke now leads the league with 18 goals. Chicho Arango has 17 but injured his hamstring at the end of August. Luis Suárez has 16 goals on far, far fewer minutes and if I had to place a bet I think he will end up winning the league’s Golden Boot, but he’s still got to go out there and do it.

Coming Up

Unfortunately for the playoff push, DC has three tough games coming up.

First up is NYCFC, which hasn’t won in their last six but is solidly a playoff team. 

Next is a trip to Philadelphia, theoretically an easier game, but (a) it’s Philadelphia and (b) they’ve won three of their last four, including a 2-0 road win over Red Bull New York.

Then Columbus, one of the league’s best teams, comes to Audi Field. They just lost a ridiculous game against Seattle playing a field player in goal, so they’re mad, maybe so mad they’ll still be mad when they arrive.

The schedule lets up a little bit in the last three games, but some unexpected points from these next three games would really help.