D.C. United had to settle for a 1-1 tie with Mexican side Monarcas Morelia in their SuperLiga Group B opener at RFK Stadium on Wednesday night, grabbing a crucial early lead only to allow an exasperating late equalizer to their shorthanded visitors.
It's the second consecutive home match in which the Black-and-Red have been left cold by a draw that should have been a victory. Much like last week's 3-3 deadlock with FC Dallas, United's bright spots were negated by momentary carelessness and on this occasion it was Monarcas defender Diego Martinez who punished the home side with a blistering 79th-minute volley past Troy Perkins to snatch a precious point for his team.
"It's very disappointing," said D.C. boss Tom Soehn. "Obviously, we played a pretty solid game over all. Martinez scored a great goal. If you're going to go down like that, at least it's going to be a play like that that's going to beat you."
United playmaker Christian Gomez turned in a man-of-the-match performance that began with a wickedly bent free kick into the lower corner of the net for a 1-0 lead just seven minutes after the opening whistle. But teammates Luciano Emilio and Fred missed golden opportunities to double that lead and they would eventually pay the price for their wastefulness.
"Once again we did what we wanted to do, we got the early goal," said Bobby Boswell. "I thought we played pretty strong defensively. You've got to give them a lot of credit for fighting and scoring a world-class goal there, but we had chances to put the game away well before that ever happened and we just didn't do it."
Emilio's 35th-minute miss would loom the largest, as RFK's dual-sport configuration made itself a crucial factor. The normally deadly Brazilian was betrayed by an irregularity in RFK's turf-covered baseball infield, looping his eight-yard shot over an empty net after Rod Dyachenko and Fred had knitted together an adept combination along the left side.
"The ball bounced in front of me and hit my shinguard," Emilio said, "so I wasn't able to control it, because it hit where the baseball configuration is. So that had an effect on that play."
Twenty minutes on, Boswell found himself at the center of a storm of controversy. Battling Monarcas star Luis Angel Landin for possession, the D.C. defender claimed he was grabbed "in a spot that no man likes to be gotten a hold of" and he responded with a kick to the Mexican international's leg. That prompted Landin to shove Boswell in the back and after a lengthy consultation with his fellow officials, referee Courtney Campbell sent off the Morelia striker and showed Boswell a yellow card.
"Maybe I overreacted a bit, but the ref didn't call it and he was going to be going the other way so I did my best to stop him and maybe I kicked him a little harder than people would have liked," said Boswell. "But I didn't see him coming behind me and he just pushed me and I knew I wanted to stay out of that mix because I knew a card was already coming my way."
United looked to maximize their numerical advantage by maintaining possession and forcing the Mexicans to chase, but Monarcas - displaying impressive fitness for this stage of their preseason - created several chances on the counterattack and Martinez finally converted one after finding a glimmer of space at the corner of the D.C. penalty box.
"You just sit there and hold your hand up," said Perkins. "It was a world-class strike and a world class goal and that's a highlight around the world right now."
That moment of brilliance made all the difference, as United were unable to convert several good chances in the final minutes and had to swallow another unkind result on their home field.
"We're very disappointed with how this one went down. Overall it was a pretty good performance, it's just that soccer can be cruel - one shot tonight," said Ben Olsen. "He did very well with it; the guy hit an unbelievable goal. But over all 90 minutes, it was a pretty good performance. We could still manage the game better at certain times, keeping the ball and making them work harder. But I think we were a little unlucky today."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major LeagueSoccer or its clubs.
