DC United got an important Eastern Conference win at BMO Field beating Toronto FC 2-0 to retain second place. Bill Hamid got his first start between the posts for United since opening day and earned his first shutout of the year.
I was glad to see DC get the three points here. Toronto is winless on the year through eight games, and there was no reason for DC to be the first to lose points against them. Chris Pontius opened the scoring for DC with his fifth of the season, and Hamdi Salihi got his second goal of the season on a nice scissor kick (which strangely was not included in the MLS Goal of the Week voting).
At halftime, I was a little concerned since the score was still 0-0. Like Montreal, this isn’t a club you want to lose points to. So seeing Pontius make it 1-0 in the 55th minute was a nice relaxer. Another good thing to pull from this match is DC won almost every stat catagory against Toronto. They outpassed them, had better passing accuracy, and had more possession. Grant it, that doesn’t always win matches, but its nice to see it.
Kudos goes out to Brandon McDonald for getting two assists. You don’t often see a center-back getting two assists, much less one assist, in a match. McDonald help set up both goals, which was impressive. Also, some kudos has to go to the DC United defense. On Wednesday, they were lit up for five goals against San Jose, yet they bounced back with a different line-up and got the goose-egg. And they were able to do it without Emiliano Dudar and Dejan Jackovic.
DC United has kept the good start to the season up. We are almost one-third through the season (time flies doesn’t it?) and DC has 18 points. If they kept this pace up, they would have around 50 points, give or take a little, at the end of the season, which is good for a playoff spot. Another interesting fact to throw out there while I’m at it: DC has scored 20 goals so far in the season. As of now, that is the most in the Eastern Conference, and second most in the MLS behind San Jose with 21.
The next match will be against Houston, which will be much tougher than Toronto, especially in the brand-new BBVA Compass Stadium. More on that later this week.
