Missed opportunities, some bad luck and the inability to finish led the league-worst D.C. United to another loss Sunday afternoon.
A ninth-minute Nick DeLeon own-goal set the tone for the United as they went onto fall 2-0 to the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill., extending their winless streak to 11 matches.
“Overall, it was a lot of possession on our end,” said United coach Ben Olsen. “Again, we just can’t finish.”
In eight out of 13 matches this season, D.C. United (1-10-2) have failed to score a goal. They're averaging 0.38 points per game and 0.46 points per game.
“The goals, hopefully, will start to come and maybe some of the luck will start to go our way,” Olsen said. “We had a lot of the ball, we had a lot of the passes. Connected, we talked about going in to our forwards, back and wide and exploiting some of their weaknesses. I thought at times we did it, but we’re still not consistently threatening enough. That part has to be fixed.”
In an attempt to spark his offense, Olsen started Carlos Ruiz up top, while Chris Pontius, Dwayne De Rosario, Kyle Porter, DeLeon and Perry Kitchen manned the midfield in a 4-2-3-1. With plenty of attacking talent in the Starting XI, the United still were unable to beat Chicago goalkeeper Sean Johnson despite possessing the ball 63 percent of the time.
OPTA Chalkboard: United dominate possession but can't capitalize
Center back Conor Shanosky missed a chance in the 16th minute when his header at the end of Porter’s corner went over the crossbar. De Rosario missed another chance that nicked the bar in the 38th minute. Ruiz had an attempt to knock home a header in the 56th minute, but sent it over the net.
“They get a break on a set piece, an own-goal. And that’s how things are going for us right now,” Olsen said. “We have to stay together and try and get out of this situation.”
United, who played their third match in eight days, will attempt to record a win for the first time since March 9 on Saturday at Gillette Stadium against the New England Revolution.
