Game Context
DC won its previous game against Nashville but otherwise had been mired in a string of terrible results. But it was the stoppable force against the movable object because Minnesota entered the game on an eight game winless streak in which they’d earned just two draws amid six losses.
According the MLS power rankings this was #18 (Minnesota) against #25 (DC United).
Formation
Alex Bono started in goal. Tyler Miller didn’t dress for the game and Troy Lesesne wouldn’t say why in the post-game press conference, so it seems like Troy’s Tyler Miller era is pretty definitively over. Some are thinking Miller will be traded when the trading window opens. If the idea was to give him some games before the window to build his value, it seems like it might have backfired. It’s hard to imagine another team looking at his performances and wanting his contract.
At any rate, DC continued its pattern of lining up with three central defenders, but only Christopher McVey in the center was a “real” centerback. Matti Peltola and Aaron Herrera continued to deputize on either side of him. Pedro Santos and Cristian Dajome played wingbacks around a central midfield of Mateusz Klich and Martin Rodriguez. Ted Ku-Dipietro and Jared Stroud played up on either side of Christian Benteke.
Late in the game and with two true centerbacks on the field (Lucas Bartlett having subbed in a halftime), DC went to a back four, and afterward Lesesne confirmed that’s how he’d prefer to line up. With David Schnegg eligible to play after this game, that may be what we see as soon as the Leagues Cup opener against Atlanta United.
Goal Breakdowns
1-0 Christian Benteke 14’
After a Minnesota throw-in deep in DC territory that both teams treated like a corner kick, the ball was played back to Minnesota’s Caden Clark. Martin Rodriguez comes running to pressure him. Clark easily dribbles past Rodriguez, carries it into space and then, with Benteke closing on him, passes the ball forward along the ground to Robin Lod. Lod was wide open for that pass during Clark’s run, but by the time Clark actually passed it Dajome had ran into position to intercept.
Dajome carried it forward and before Lod could catch him, he slotted the ball forward to Benteke, who had drifted behind Minnesota’s players. He receives the ball just inside the Minnesota half. There’s only one Minnesota player with an angle on him, but since it was a pseudo-corner kick situation, it was forward Bongokuhle Hlongwane, not one of their defenders. Hlongwane closes and thinks he can win the ball because Benteke accidentally takes a long touch, but Benteke pokes the ball through his legs right as he arrives and from there Hlongwane’s momentum takes him out of the play. Hasani Dotson runs hard and catches Benteke as he enters the box, but Benteke holds him off and then slides the ball under diving goalkeeper Dwayne St. Clair and into the goal.
Benteke was lucky to get away with that one long touch, but his nutmeg, holding off Dotson, and finish are all greatly to his credit. DC’s aggression defending after the set piece and then on the counter is to the whole team’s credit. They don’t have the sort of fast players who are consistently dangerous in transition, but they still made Minnesota pay.
Tani Oluwaseyi 32’
After some headed balls, Stroud plays the ball forward along the ground to Benteke. Held up by a defender, he tries to tap it sideways to an onrushing Ku-Dipietro, but the pass misses, allowing Caden Clark to play a one-touch long pass forward to Jeong Sang-bin at midfield. He lets three DC players converge on him and then plays a ball over the top toward their center forward, Tani Oluwaseyi. McVey steps forward and heads it downfield to Hassani Dotson, who heads it sharply back. McVey steps forward again…but this time he completely misjudges the ball and it goes over his head to a running Oluwaseyi. Oluwaseyi takes one touch and hits it past Bono at the near post before Peltola can intervene.
There’s not much to say about this. McVey isn’t nearly as good in the air as Bartlett, and part of being “good in the air” is quickly judging the flight of the ball. The commentators blamed DC’s aggressive posture for leaving McVey isolated with Oluwaseyi, but that’s just the job for a central defender against a center forward. You don’t have to win every ball, but you can’t let yourself get so completely bypassed.
Teemo Pukki 80’
Minnesota has the ball out wide and sends in a deep cross toward Oluwaseyi. Santos heads it downfield, but not very far, so he charges out of the box to try to win it. So far so good, but he badly misjudges the bounce of the ball and ends up running under it instead of heading it again like he intended, leaving it to be easily collected by Oluwaseyi. That was Santos’ first mistake, but DC has numbers back and there are only a handful of Minnesota attackers in the area. Jackson Hopkins is following up right behind Santos, in fact. So things still seem okay.
But things swiftly get worse. Oluweseyi wins a ground duel against Hopkins. The ball gets played in to the top of the box where Dajome disrupts it, but it ends up going right to Robin Lod. He plays a pretty simple diagonal pass to Teemu Pukki who is wide open on the right side because McVey and Santos have both moved to the center of the field. Pukki still has Bono and a recovering McVey to beat, but he’s a great finisher and makes it look easy. Bono gets a hand to it, but it’s not enough.
It’s not easy to be sure who was at fault on this one. After he gets beat, Santos just drifts around in the middle of the field watching the ball, so he’s a strong choice. But McVey misplays this as well, stepping inside aggressively when the ball comes back to the box instead of staying wide where Pukki was. If Santos was there, that’d be okay, or vice versa, but they can’t both come inside.
Aaron Herrera 2-2 90’
DC is throwing everyone forward at this point, desperate for a goal. Aaron Herrera crosses it into the box where Benteke, Bartlett, and McVey are waiting. McVey heads it forward and Bartlett tries to run on to it, but Minnesota centerback Miguel Tapias intervenes to kick it toward the sideline. Dajome is in the vicinity, but Joseph Rosales gets there first, only to mistouch it over the endline to give up a needless corner.
Rodriguez kicks the corner, as DC often does, to Benteke at the far post. As Rodriguez hits it, Herrera is drifting in front of the goalkeeper as a distraction, and Tapias, who had been marking him, lets him go and backpedals to track the ball in the air. He doesn’t get back far enough, however, so the ball goes over him to a running Benteke who emerged from a clump of players a step ahead of the man marking him, defensive midfielder Carlos Harvey.
Benteke heads it back across the box to where Herrera is standing completely alone about three yards from the goal. It comes in at the perfect height, he just has to wind up and head it into the goal.
3-2 Christian Benteke 90+3’
Minnesota is trying to get a winning goal, but Oluweseyi misplays a cross and Gabriel Pirani recovers the ball deep in DC United’s half. Pirani dodges one challenge and tries to carry the ball downfield, but Carlos Harvey rushes in and knocks the ball away. Martin Rodriguez chests the ball down and quickly plays the ball past Harvey to Pirani on the sideline. Pirani gets the ball and holds off Harvey, who fouls to keep Pirani from getting past him.
It’s not far inside Minnesota’s half, but of course DC loads up the box anyway. Rodriguez hits the free kick into the box. Bartlett reads the flight of the ball much faster than anyone else and gets in the perfect position to jump and head the ball down toward the penalty spot. As he does, Benteke starts sliding in that direction. Instead of tracking Benteke, Carlos Harvey tries to kick the ball out of the air as it passes and completely misses. That leaves Benteke alone to trap the ball in the box with his back to goal. His touch to trap it is perfect, allowing him to spin and hit the ball past St. Clair and inside the far post.
Player Ratings
Alex Bono - 5 - He had one potentially bad giveaway that Minnesota completely failed to capitalize on but otherwise had a solid game. Not really at fault on either goal.
Matti Peltola - 5 - Nothing too remarkable, but I think we were better once Bartlett subbed in for him after sixty minutes.
Christopher McVey - 4 - I like McVey and think his quality on the ball really helps us at times, but both goals involved him botching his positioning.
Aaron Herrera - 8 - Rarely got forward but he played unusually strong defense, then got in a great position for the crucial tying goal.
Pedro Santos - 5 - Another game where he played hard for ninety minutes. He had a sensational slide tackle to regain possession with the team down 2-1.
Cristian Dajome - 6 - For the most part, just a solid game. His assist is a bit generous considering how much Benteke had to do afterward, but it was still an excellent pass.
Mateusz Klich - 4 - He always provides a decent minimum performance (on offense, anyway) but the high-end creative flashes from earlier in the season are getting scarce. Sometimes players, especially older players, can get ground down over the course of the season. I wonder if that isn’t the case with Klich.
Martin Rodriguez - 5 - Standard Rodriguez game, shuttling the ball and not a lot more than that. His excellent set piece delivery was crucial to the second and third goals, however.
Ted Ku-Dipietro - 4 - Like Klich, his upside is in flashes of creativity that seem to have dried up. He had only 11 touches, fewer than Pirani’s 16 in twice as many minutes. Maybe he should have a spell as a substitute.
Jared Stroud - 5 - More involved than Ku-Dipietro but not very effective against a team that was mostly sitting back and defending.
Christian Benteke - 9 - He hasn’t been very involved in the run of play lately and still isn’t reliably able to link up with his teammates. But what a night even so! He had a great assist and two even-better goals, neither of which were just tap-ins. In MLS, a designated player needs to be able to win you some games singlehandedly. Benteke won this game for DC United.
Substitutes
Gabriel Pirani - 6 - Nothing spectacular, but I thought he’s done enough over the past few games to justify starting.
Lucas Bartlett - 6 - Solid at the center after coming in and got the assist on the winning goal.
Garrison Tubbs - NA - Another quick cameo.
Playoff Expectations?
After the Minneapolis game, DC is just one point away from ninth place and the playoffs. Should we be getting excited about a return to the post-season? MLS is famous both for being generous about playoff places (9 teams make it in the East this year and only six don’t) and also for it being “easy”. Just get hot at the end of the season and you’re in, people say, because parity means the teams are always going to be tightly bunched. And so it is: after a terrible run of form that saw DC go 11 games without winning, two wins have brought them to the brink of playoff position.
We’ll look at the remaining schedule to see what we can learn in a second, but first a reminder about the format. The 8th and 9th place teams play each other in a play-in game, then the bottom four of the remaining eight teams play the top four. So the important spots are #4, #7 and #9. #9 makes the playoffs at all and would probably surpass most DC United fans’ expectations for this rebuilding season. #7 and above avoids the play-in game. #4 and above gets you a home game.
For this season, I’ll also throw out #5 as being notable because the Eastern Conference has three really intimidating teams: FC Cincinnati and Inter Miami are in a back-and-forth race for the supporter’s shield and no one wants to go up against Leo Messi or Lucho Acosta in a knockout game. Then there’s MLS Cup-holders Columbus, who lag behind in third because early in the season they were focused on Champions Cup, but they have gone 9-1-1 in their last eleven games, including a recent 5-1 rout of a very strong LAFC team. To avoid matching up against these heavyweights in the first round, DC would have to ascend all the way up to #5.
Last season, the point amounts for these places were:
#4: 55 points
#5: 55 points
#7: 49 points
#9: 43 points.
#12 (DC’s 2023 finish): 40 points
DC has 26 points and there are nine games left in the regular season, so a record of four wins, two draws, and three losses—sounds like a very good set of results, doesn’t it?—is, alas, only enough to get to 40 points and level with last year’s team. Five wins, two draws, and two losses would get them to 43 points and play-in game territory.
So…yeah…only an incredible run would even get them to #7. It’ll take a very strong performance just to get to #9, but if the opponents are weak, maybe it’s possible? So let’s look at DC’s nine remaining games with the opponent’s overall points and points in the last six games marked.
The good news, I guess, is that there are a lot of beatable teams here. The bad news is…well, let’s do a little tier list of the games based on table position:
Elite teams: Columbus
Strong teams: NYCFC, @Nashville, Charlotte
Peers: FC Dallas, @Toronto, @Chicago, @Philadelphia, @New England
(If you look at just the last six games, maybe FC Dallas moves up a tier and Nashville moves down?)
But yeah, the good news is there are roughly five teams that are down in the cellar with DC. But five of the nine games are on the road, including four of the five “peer team” games. And although DC’s results at Audi Field this year haven’t been great, so you might wonder how much it matters, they still have better results at home than on the road.
It’s not that DC can’t get a result against stronger teams. They beat Charlotte and tied FC Cincinnati on the road, after all. But there’s a distinctly uphill quality to the remaining schedule.
The first game after Leagues Cup is at home against FC Dallas. It’s not “must win” but it’s the only home game against a weaker team left. Anything less than a win there would make already dim playoff hopes even dimmer.
Coming Up
On Saturday (just a few minutes from “press time”) DC plays a friendly against Scotland’s Celtic. It doesn’t mean anything and I’d expect a lot of starters to be rested (editors note: the lineups are out and indeed, nearly all starters are on the bench). Might even be some academy players filling out the squad? But hopefully we’ll see David Schnegg and Dominque Badji getting used to the, uh, “grass” at Audi Field and their new teammates (editor’s note: they are both starting).
Next up is a trip to Atlanta United to start Leagues Cup. Atlanta is really struggling, sitting one point below DC United with one fewer game played. Having sold off their previous “generation” of DPs, they are planning to reload with massive expenditures this summer, not to mention hire a new coach. But none of those reinforcements should be present for this game.
Then DC hosts Mexico’s Santos Laguna. They were 15th out of 18 teams in last year’s Clausura and have just one point in three games in the new Liga MX season, and they’ll be playing unusually far from home.
DC United is obviously not good enough to really feel confident against anyone, but these are both games where DC really can get a result. The top two out of the three teams will advance to the knockout round. Last year a single goal from Erik Hurtado was enough for DC to unexpectedly advance, so sometimes it doesn’t take much.