D.C. United tied the Montreal Impact at home on Saturday night, with Eddie Johnson opening his DCU account with the late equalizer. Montreal, coming off a midweek game, gave United some trouble at home, but the Black-and-Red did well to battle back and get the point.
“The biggest thing is we didn’t start the game with enough energy,” Assistant Coach Chad Ashton said post-match. “We needed to make them play 90 minutes at a high pace, and I don’t think we did that. I think we picked the energy up and showed a little more urgency in the second half. We knew the entire week they are very dangerous on the counter attack, and they proved that. In those games, we’ve got to show up with a little more energy.”
After the Impact’s Jack McInerney found the back of the net off a Justin Mapp assist, DCU Head Coach Ben Olsen made some adjustments— substituting Luis Silva for Davy Arnaud and later Lewis Neal for Bobby Boswell, dropping Perry Kitchen into the backline.
In the 84th, Johnson found his first tally of 2014. He came close a few times in the first half, and we could all feel it coming. Chris Rolfe found Fabián Espíndola out wide, who provided great service to Johnson. Johnson rose up, and calmly headed the ball into the corner, leaving Troy Perkins with no chance of making a save.
"It's just a goal scorer's mentality,” Ashton explained. “When they get one, they start to have confidence and goals start to come. That's a huge positive coming out of the game."
We’ve been saying it all along—the flood gates will open after he gets his first. With a midweek game ahead of him, he can carry that momentum onto the pitch this Wednesday.
Although all are glad the Black-and-Red found the equalizer, Ashton believes the squad needs to be better to get the win at home against Houston.
“Everybody could have been a little bit better,” he said. “Other than Bill [Hamid] bailing us out three or four times over the course of the game, and [Chris] Korb bailed us out a few times— I would say he had a very good game— other than that, I thought we were kind of average joes. We have to have more people have better games at home in order to get three points.”
D.C. United hosts the Houston Dynamo this Wednesday at 7pm. Buy your tickets now.
