Luis Barraza’s heroic performance helps DC United hold NYCFC to scoreless draw
DC United and New York City FC fought to a scoreless draw Wednesday night at Audi Field. Luis Barraza’s 6 recorded saves helped the Black-and-Red get the result just a few days after a road loss to Toronto FC.
Lineups
DC United (3-4-3): Luis Barraza; Lucas Bartlett, Kye Rowles, Garrison Tubbs; David Schnegg, Matti Peltola (Jackson Hopkins – 81′), Boris Enow, Aaron Herrera; Hosei Kijima (Jared Stroud – 59′), Christian Benteke (c) (Jacob Murrell – 20′), Randall Leal (Rida Zouhir – 59′)
Unused Subs: Joon-Hong Kim, Conner Antley, Derek Dodson, Brandon Servania, Fidel Barajas
New York City FC (4-3-3): Matt Freese; Birk Risa (Nico Cavallo – 73′), Thiago Martins (c), Justin Haak, Tayvon Gray (Mitja Ilenic – 73′); Andres Perea, Maxi Moralez (Aiden O’Neill – 46′), Jonathan Shore (Maximo Carrizo – 65′); Hannes Wolf (Agustin Ojeda – 81′), Alonso Martinez, Julian Fernandez
Unused Subs: Monsef Bakrar, Strahinja Tanasijevic, Tomas Romero, Seymour Reid
The match started with both teams feeling each other out in the first 10 minutes of the match. DC’s defense got its first test in the 11th minute, when on the break, NYCFC got the ball to Alonso Martinez. Martinez’s shot rattled the woodwork before the ball ricocheted out of bounds.
DC United had to deal with the loss of their captain in the 20th minute. Christian Benteke picked up a knock, which forced him to leave the field briefly for treatment. A minute after he got back on the field, he sat down on the field, too hurt to continue. He was subbed off for Jacob Murrell. After the match, DC United head coach Troy Lesesne said that he would await a full evaluation, but that he was “t I’ll have to wait until we fully look at it and then we’ll take it from there. But I’m “hopeful that [the injury is] not going to be something that’s going to be too long term.”
The story of the match was DC United goalkeeper Luis Barraza, who had several brilliant saves throughout the match. Facing his former club, Barraza had several point blank saves to deny his former roommate Alonso Martinez throughout the match. “[NYCFC’s] a really, really tough team to play against and to defend deep,” Barraza said after the match. “I think we did just enough this game to keep [Martinez] at bay.” Barraza mentioned that he planned to send a text to his former teammate to “get some banter going.” He had to work hard during the match, and his 6 saves – though he likely should have been credited with a few more – gave DC United a chance to get out of the match with points.
DC United had a couple of scoring opportunities on a night where they were hard to come by, especially after Benteke was forced to leave the match. In the 66th minute, they got their first shot on goal when Rida Zouhir had a the low hard shot from 25 yards. However, NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese was able to make the save. Thirteen minutes later, off the corner kick, United had another chance. Zouhir’s corner fell to Lucas Bartlett, who headed the ball towards net. David Schnegg had a great chance on it with a flying flick that Freese stopped with his own point blank save. The Black-and-Red defense was able to contain NYCFC, despite the Pigeons’ many chances, and the match ended scoreless. After the match, DC United head coach Troy Lesesne credited several defenders for their play, but none more than Barraza.
“The entire group really worked hard tonight to defend and keep a clean sheet, but you have to say Luis is the person that led us in that area,” Lesesne said. “And I know this one meant a little bit more than a lot of the other results that we’ve been able to get with Luis since he stepped in goal, but he really stepped up big tonight.”
Jackson Hopkins made his season debut as a substitute late in the match, stepping onto the field for the first time since last summer’s Leagues Cup. Hopkins, the DC United Homegrown Player who has battled several injuries over the past 10 months, was excited to have the opportunity to once again get back out there with the team.
“It’s been a long time…it feels amazing to be back,” Hopkins said after the match. He went on to say that he felt good in his limited minutes, and Lesesne did his best to pump him up as he was about to sub on. “Troy just kind of told me to be myself, and he really hit me pretty hard on the chest, so that got me amped up to get out there,” Hopkins said with a chuckle.
“Jackson Hopkins being able to come back from a long injury and a couple injuries in the span of the last 10, 11 months…it’s been a long journey for him, and we need Jackson [to be] the guy that can make plays,” Lesesne remarked. “It’s important for him to get back on the field, and I think everyone that came on tonight put in a shift and helped us see out a clean sheet.”
“Just to get him 10, 12 minutes…now we hope to build that up a little bit more in the next couple of matches as well for him.”
Having more players available will help for DC United, as they prepare to play on the road once again this weekend to play Nashville SC. The status of Christian Benteke will be in question, but Lesesne hopes to continue to rotate his players to keep them fresh during this busy stretch of the season while still pushing for positive results.
Barraza was exceptional but DCU’s second best defender was the left post. Without Benteke (and maybe Peglow), we don’t have the quality to threaten consistently the opposition.
Crossbar played a strong role in defense too. As for Barraza’s work, his first save off of Martinez denied Enow the chance for a nice hockey assist, as his operating lever is stuck on the “turnover: setting.
This team put in effort but it sucks
The ghost of Bill F’ing Hamid was haunting the field….
Hope and Barazza doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the same way. But it is what we are. Looking back, I can remember more of our keepers than our strikers ( don’t worry Leonard Pahoy, we will never forget you!)
Pajoy (sp?) was truly remarkable….
Thanks for the wrap-up and post-game report, Donald. Much valued.
It was great to see Hopkins out there. He showed some nice creativity including one pass that found Stroud in a good position to threaten the goal. Lots of fire, too — surprised he didn’t get a yellow card after twice very dramatically objecting to foul calls.As miserable as this season has been to watch unfolding, if Hopkins can finally get minutes and develop the promise he showed early in his career, this season will not be a total waste. That’s a big “if,” though.
I too was gratified. I touted Hopkins on my antiquated “eye test” a few years back, and am willing to eat my retinas, but I hope he can spring into action so we can trade him to Miami for $50 in TAM.
The defending was better, but that’s clearing a very low bar. If NYC had anyone on their squad who could actually shoot, we would have lost 2-0. The center backs don’t communicate, the starting DM pairing continued their quest to rack up a season record for bad decisions from that role, and if Barraza had the ability to play that well regularly he wouldn’t be here in the first place.
Clear Starters
Benteke
Herrera
Schnegg
Kijima
Might Prove to be Starters
Peglow
Servania
Young and Still Working On It
Hopkins
Fletcher
Good Rotationals on a Winning Squad
Bartlett
Stroud
Antley
Filler/Backup
Badji
Peltola
Rowles
Tubbs
Dodson
Murrell
Waste
Pirani
Enow
MacNaughton
Insufficient Data
Leal
Zouhir
Still a wooden spoon contender as constructed. There’s enough decent material here that we could get out of that hole quite quickly, but that would require the team identifying, procuring, and paying for a quality CB with leadership skills and someone who can operate behind Benteke and drive the attack.
It’s Rowles that I find curious. I was just in Edinburgh, and my Hearts buddies were surprised that he is desultory here.
If we take it another step, who would be clear starters on a safe to bet on playoff team? It’s probably just Benteke and Herrera. Kijima would be a valuable player just about anywhere, though perhaps though he needs a real home on the pitch to become more than just a utility knife. Schnegg might just be a victim of my high expectations of a guy from Europe.
Really, you’ve highlighted the major issue with the spine of this team, probably dating back to Boswell’s second stint with DC. No one has been that combination of dominant in the box, keeping the backline organized, and having that dawg in them, so to speak. Not Birnbaum, not Brillant, certainly not any of the guys playing CB now. Not even trying to knock any of them (even those deserving of it): they are or clearly were quality players and met some of those criteria, but no good team is missing an undisputed CB1 for a decade.
Kijima does pose a selection problem, in that he is versatile enough to be useful anywhere in midfield, but will probably only hit his peak value in a #8 role; and since his stamina doesn’t match his heart and motor, he’ll tend to run himself into the ground as a #8. I think he would shine brightly working with an actual #6 and an actual #10, such that he potentially wouldn’t feel the need to carry the load all by himself.
Schnegg I wasn’t sold on either until last night. He was our best outfield player by a country mile, constantly progressing the attack without leaving the team wide open on the counter (though he does have a limited ceiling as a defender). He’s not an all-star type, but left back is hard to fill properly, and he’s more than good enough to just be our guy there for several years.
I thought nothing could be more demonstrative of the importance of the center back leadership problem than Antley’s performance against Colorado, where despite being a USL veteran hired to fill in wherever when needed in the defensive half, he was so much better as a communicator and leader than anything we had brought out so far this season that he instantly became our best center defender, even with his limitations and flaws. Having an actual starter grade center back with command presence would be transformational for this squad, though still not enough on its own. For starters we’d be able to ditch the 5-2-3 and play a game more like what Lesesne wanted from the get-go. That in turn would help the midfield, though without further talent infusion the benefit there would be limited in scope.
Pirani has had flashes of brilliance, but its just so frustrating that he’s inconsistent and can’t keep from getting bodied off the ball.
I just don’t see a path forward for him at this level. The technique is there, but he lacks the athleticism, passion, or speed of thought to leverage that technique in the service of success. It was a reasonable gamble, but the flush busted. 🙁
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