Wednesday night's 1-1 draw against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium presented a tale of two halves for D.C. United.
In the first stanza, United held possession, looked dangerous going forward, and scored through Josh Gros in the 25th minute to take a 1-0 halftime lead.
"We played very well in the first half," United head coach Peter Nowak said. "We dominated possession. We fell asleep for one moment and we paid for it."
Said Gros: "We did what we wanted to do in the first half. Unfortunately, it was a tale of two halves."
The second half saw United start well in the first 11 minutes before Clint Dempsey smashed home from a Taylor Twellman knockdown after a missed clearance from Facundo Erpen.
"We wanted to step forward and we ended up stepping back," Nowak said.
The middle portion of the second half saw United struggling to maintain their grip on the game as the Revolution poured forward in hopes of finding a winner to increase the six-point gap between New England and fifth-placed New York.
"We didn't keep the ball like we did in the first half," Gros said.
But the fresh legs of Stephen DeRoux, Rod Dyachenko and Jamil Walker spurred United on in the latter stages of the contest and the visitors finished the stronger of the two sides.
"It was a pretty significant upgrade in the last 20 minutes," Nowak said. "At the end, we fought pretty well."
Club captain Jaime Moreno made way for Dyachenko in the 75th minute. Moreno had been struggling to regain match fitness after suffering from tendonitis in the IT band in his knee.
Nowak said his captain needs to find his game legs.
"If he's fit and fresh, it's a different Jaime," Nowak said. "We'll make him get the fitness back."
Despite going out in front, both Nowak and Gros were relatively content to escape from Gillette Stadium with a point in the bag.
"I'm not too concerned," Gros said. "To come into New England on a Wednesday night is tough. We're not happy with it but we're not too concerned."
Said Nowak: "I'm glad then that we picked up the tempo and we didn't sit back and wait. So, we had a couple of chances at the end of the game, but as I said, a pretty encouraging effort from all these guys today. ... Of course, it would be nice to get the three points, but as I said, the way we played was pretty encouraging and pretty good."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
