WASHINGTON -- As D.C. Unitedās promising season came to a screeching halt at RFK Stadium, Ben Olsen could only offer an explanation as harsh as this nightmarish match felt: the loss of a competitive edge.
Sure, United had trouble with the Montreal Impactās counterattacking posture in a 4-2 Eastern Conference Knockout Round defeat on Thursday night. And yes, breaking them down became even tougher after Laurent Cimanās very early goal.
But after Unitedās first Knockout Round loss in its second such appearance, D.C.ās boss insisted defeat was simpler than shape and tactics.
āI donāt know if weāre reading our own press a little bit and thinking it was going to be easy and we were going to walk to the championship,ā Olsen said in his post-match press conference. āBut thatās not how it goes. Thereās that edge there of [having] confidence. You need the edge and you need confidence, and if one starts to fade a little bit with each guy in this league, thatās enough to get punished for it.ā
United had lost just twice in its last 14 league matches, and one of those was last Sundayās regular season finale against Orlando City SC, in which Olsen played mostly reserves.
But D.C. went behind after only four minutes, and mightāve even been lucky not to trail sooner when Ignacio Piatti failed to punish D.C. for a giveaway only seconds into the encounter.
After Laurent Cimanās opener -- the first scored by the defenseman since July of the 2015 regular season -- United couldāve still entered halftime optimistic had Matteo Mancosu not struck for the first of his brace three minutes before the break.
Mancosu pulled away from defender Bobby Boswell to tap in a simple finish of Piattiās inch-perfect cross.
āI think if we wouldāve gone in maybe 1-0 going into half, we wouldāve been OK,ā defender Steve Birnbaum said. āYou know, weāve been pretty good at not giving up soft goals like that throughout the year. I donāt think we did a good job in the back this game. All over, I didnāt think the energy was there.ā