Ah yes, the 1-95 rivalry. Earlier this week, I saw some members of the Sons of Ben calling out Charlie Davies on his twitter account. It was gonna be a really interesting match.
It was indeed an interesting match, and really entertaining too. Both teams played it rather wide open, with plenty of chances between the two. Keepers from both clubs made fantastic saves. Hamid in particular had his hands fall. Danny Mwanga had a great shot on target that pretty much everybody thought was going in, but Hamid made a wonderfully athletic save, stretched, and kept it out. Le Toux also looked a little more dangerous today. In the 26th minute, he put a shot just wide.
Adding Dwayne De Rosario to the line up at DC seemed to pay immediate benefits as well. He looked more comfortable than he ever did in NY, and much more active. Right before the half, the Canadian International drew the Philly defense to the side of the box then passed the ball to Josh Wolff, who slotted the goal to give DC a 1-0 lead going into the half.
Unfortunately for the Union, their defense continued to plague them. Just four minutes into the second half, Perry Kitchen tried to make a play on a chip from Paunovic, but knocked it in the back of the net for an own goal and tied the game at 1-1.
After that things really started to heat up. It got pretty intense DC seemed to take the lead for good in the 58th minute when Andy Najar blasted in a shot from long range that's got to be a candidate for goal of the week. The strike put DC up 2-1.
However, once again, the Eagles couldn't hold the fort defensively, and the Union took advantage in the 84th minute. Le Toux and Sheanon Williams combined to get the ball to Carlos Ruiz, who has been on fire since the Gold Cup. Ruiz redirected the ball into the back of the net to equalize the match at 2-2, which was the full time result.
It really was a fun match to watch, and DC probably felt a little hard done by not to get the three points. DeRo clearly made the team better on offense, and the addition of McDonald helped on defense, but lets face it, they're really going to need to step it up on the defensive end and cut out the mistakes if they really want to make a playoff run.
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