DC and St Louis Underwhelm with a 1-1 Tie

DC United 1-1 St. Louis City SC

WASHINGTON, DC–As the long break for the World Cup sits on the horizon, DC United Coach Rene Weiler continues to contend with an inconsistent scoring touch.  It appears that he has settled on a competent starting squad which has enough control of game flow to always be in contention but often lacking the ability to penetrate a well-organized defense.

Time and again, United’s scoring is dictated by mutual choices whether to choke the game or play freely.  In each case the tendency is to match goals as long as United’s defense holds.  Ties like 2-2 and 4-4 or a PK loss to a lower division side join six games with a one goal difference.   More timely scoring would put United well above .500.

In Saturday’s 1-1 game versus St Louis, both goals came from excellent long shots but with buildup that was not so much coherent as lucky.  Great finishes, but from grit rather than beautiful buildup.

Coach Weiler, “liked it that the team came back, and with this fighting spirit at the end, I think we deserve at least this point.”  He acknowledged, “some of our players, they didn’t play the best game tonight.”

After what appeared to be a solid performance for 62 minutes, Matti Peltola averred that it was not from fatigue, as he worked hard, but, “I think it might be something to do with tactical decisions from the coach, but also myself needing to improve and try to help the team better from my part on set pieces.”  Jared Stroud came on, bringing a riskier attacking mentality in contrast to Peltola’s more well-rounded approach, attempting to get the tying goal.

Joao Peglow secured that goal with a rocket in the 90^th minute and DC nearly pulled out the win shortly thereafter as Louis Munteanu took advantage of chaos in the box as he bundled the ball over the line only to be cited for offside.  Yet another tie entered the books.

There is a ray of hope with the return of Tai Baribo from injury as he put in a full game following 64 minutes against Chicago.  He admits he is not yet up to full speed, “I’m playing with the injury, you know, obviously I’m feeling much better, but it’s still there a little bit, but in the game, you know, I don’t think about it.  Again, I need the break to recover the body, but I’m sure everybody, not just me.”

Every interview saw the coach and players acknowledge fatigue over the recent barrage of games while noting that opponents had the same problem.  Peglow explained how he handled it, “We’ve been kind of showing that throughout the whole season that we’re hard to play against. We fight till the end, obviously.”

He has been buoyed by Weiler’s encouragement until he finally got his first goal this season, “He motivates me and gives me confidence every single day, but honestly, you know, if it’s a goal or an assist, whatever it is, I’m just happy to help the team up.”

There was a note of optimism in each interview as the players look forward to Montreal then a long break to rebuild.  Peltola expressed it best, “When you play all the time – – – it might be sometimes mentally a bit hard – – – at least personally.  So, I know, honestly, I’m just excited for next week’s game already.”

Montreal comes in with a history of higher scoring games with more definitive results symbolized by only a single tie.  That record might portend an interesting scoring battle with more excitement for the fans on Saturday.

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