Having underachieved thus far for much of 2007, D.C. United produced their best performance of the season to earn a comprehensive 4-2 victory against the league-leading New York Red Bulls on Sunday afternoon, giving D.C. continued bragging rights over their northern neighbors while reminding the rest of MLS that the Black-and-Red remain a force to be reckoned with.
Ben Olsen returned to his old haunt on the United wing and produced an astonishing display of composed finishing to notch his first professional hat trick, and just the seventh in club history, in front of a lively crowd at RFK Stadium.
Olsen opened the scoring with a header in the 15th minute, then secured the points with a short-range left-footer and a blistering drive from outside the box in the second half.
"Hey, it's just one of those days," said the charismatic veteran and U.S. international. "After the first goal, you always feel a little more confident in your play, more confident to do some of the things that you don't usually do, like score goals."
Asked afterwards about the audacious dipping volley that completed his hat trick, Olsen cracked, "At that point I was playing with house money. I just gave it a shot and sometimes one out of a hundred will sneak in there."
While Olsen's achievement made him the center of attention in an upbeat United locker room, one of the biggest smiles belonged to Fred, who sparked D.C.'s second-half dominance with a series of aggressive runs that discomfited the Red Bulls defense and set up Luciano Emilio for the 49th-minute goal that gave the home side a lead they would not relinquish.
Roving United's left wing for the first time, the Brazilian looked quite comfortable against New York, covering plenty of ground and combining well with strikers Jaime Moreno and Emilio.
"Individually I think we did well and overall as a team we did extremely well," said Fred. "We needed to win this game. Playing at home, it was important for us to go at them. That's what I needed to do and that's what I did."
United were leading 2-1 when Bobby Boswell received his second yellow card in the 60th minute for tugging back Jozy Altidore, but the defender's dismissal seemed to galvanize the home side as they adopted more of a counterattacking style and reaped the benefits with two more goals.
"There was a little bit of extra space and it just meant that other guys had to make further runs from the back," said holding midfielder Brian Carroll, who played well after missing last week's match in Los Angeles with a quadriceps injury.
Carroll and his fellow midfielders also helped the United back line handle New York hitman Juan Pablo Angel effectively, keeping numbers around the Colombian striker and limiting his looks at goal.
"We didn't really give him much," said D.C. goalkeeper Troy Perkins. "We made him play in spots he doesn't want to play in - there were times when he was coming all the way into midfield to get the ball. So that's kudos to our midfielders for shutting the distribution down."
Having finally shown an extended glimpse of their full potential, United will look to continue their climb up the Eastern Conference standings when they play host to the Chicago Fire at RFK on Saturday night.
"People thought we were a little soft, easy to beat, at the beginning of the season," said Josh Gros. "Now we've got a six-game unbeaten streak, so we're doing well and I think teams will start to notice."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
