Not the ideal result for D.C. United coming out of the World Cup break, but the performance overall had the Black-and-Red feeling proud.
“I think we are pretty pleased,” Assistant Coach Chad Ashton said. “I thought we had good shape, we knocked it around nicely and did a lot of good things.”
The only thing missing: a goal.
“The one thing we were missing was just the final product, the final ball, bringing it down, finishing— we just didn’t manufacture enough right in front of the goal,” Ashton stated.
Though still armed with plenty of offensive firepower, a notable piece missing from D.C. United’s lineup was Fabián Espíndola, out with an MCL sprain suffered before the break against Montreal.
“You notice [that we’re missing Espíndola] at the end of the game when you don’t see his name on the score sheet,” Ashton explained. “He’s played such a role in such a high percentage of goals (66%), so now when you don’t score a goal; you go okay where was that? I think we missed him, and we missed Davy [Arnaud] too.”
Of the 14 shots DCU did get, only two were on target, but Seattle finished the match with just five shots total, which is a testament to the stalwart defending of United’s backline—holding the top team in MLS to just five strikes.
“I thought [the backline] did well,” Ashton stated. “We had both [Chris] Korb and [Sean] Franklin on the left both the first and second half. They haven’t been out there this year, and they both adjusted well. I thought the partnership of Steven [Birnbaum] and Bobby [Boswell] was very good, very dominant. We didn’t give away a lot of chances.”
Though there were many positives on the night, United didn’t pick up three points.
“We are pretty happy with everything, just not the final score,” Ashton concluded.
United takes travels to Toronto to take on TFC this Saturday, July 5th at 7 pm. You can watch live on CSN.
