Late Gabriel Pirani goal salvages 1-1 draw for DC United
DC United needed a Gabriel Pirani golazo in the first minute of second half stoppage time as they fought to a 1-1 draw against the New England Revolution Wednesday night at a rainy, dreary Audi Field. Ilay Feingold’s goal in first half stoppage time held as the scoring until Pirani’s blast brought DC United level late.
Lineups
DC United (3-4-3): Luis Barraza; Lucas Bartlett, Kye Rowles (c), Aaron Herrera; Conner Antley (Randall Leal – 66′), Boris Enow, Brandon Servania, Derek Dodson (David Schnegg – 46′); João Peglow (Gabriel Pirani – 81′), Jacob Murrell (Kristian Fletcher – 74′), Hosei Kijima (Jared Stroud – 73′)
Unused Subs: Jordan Farr, Matti Peltola, Garrison Tubbs, Rida Zouhir
New England Revolution (4-2-3-1): Aljaz Ivacic; Tanner Beason, Mamadou Fofana, Wyatt Omsberg, Brandon Bye; Matthew Polster, Alhassan Yusuf; Ilay Feingold (Peyton Miller – 67′), Carles Gil (c), Tomas Chancalay (Luis Diaz – 67′); Ignatius Ganago (Maxi Urruti – 82′)
Unused Subs: Alex Bono, Keegan Hughes, Jackson Yueill, Donovan Parisian, Erick Klein, Andrew Farrell
Before the match, Joon-Hong Kim removed from the substitutes list due to a knock he picked up during warm-ups. He was replaced on the bench by Jordan Farr, and after the match, head coach Troy Lesesne said that Kim would need evaluation. “[Kim] just got a little bit of something in his hip and we have to evaluate it and hopefully he’ll be [back] in as soon as possible,” Lesesne said.
As the match started, DC United hoped that wasn’t a bad omen on the night. They started out quickly, trying to create scoring chances and get shots off. Throughout the first half, several chances were had by the Black-and-Red, but they weren’t able to generate many shots on goal. The New England Revolution were able to block several shots, biding their time in what was a back-and-forth, chippy affair until the match entered first half stoppage time. There, on a counterattack, Carles Gil fed Brandon Bye on the long pass on the right flank, and Bye crossed into the box. There was bad defending by DC on the cross, and the ball bounced off Herrera as he tried to deflect it out. The ball fell to Ilay Feingold, who punched it home to make it 1-0 to New England.
While it was 1-0 at the break, DC United felt things could pick up as the match went along. “It wasn’t going our way already, so what do we have to do? Let’s go out, take some chances, give the balls to our special players,” defender Aaron Herrera said after the match, recalling the halftime team discussion. As the match went on, DC United continued to push and press while the Revolution started to wilt. That’s where DC United felt they had the advantage.
“You could see how strong we were physically, and I think you’ve seen that in a number of matches,” Troy Lesesne said after the match. “We’ve been able to keep trying to push and sustain the attack. A lot of credit goes to our sports performance and medical department. I mean, they’ve really worked these guys extremely hard and set a high standard for us. And I think we’ve taken a step this year in that regard. So I think this is a really important observation and a lot of credit goes to [DC United Director of Human Performance] Dave Rhodes and his entire staff.”
DC United thought they had an equalizer in the 66th minute when Jacob Murrell was able to corral a ball in the box and turn and fire it into the net. However, his goal was called back, with the referee ruling that Murrell’s arm aided in his collection of the ball. Defender Lucas Bartlett after the match thought the call was “harsh,” but the match remained 1-0 to New England.
The last 15 minutes of the match felt like a flurry for DC United, who continued to press for the equalizer. Still, it felt like despite the number of shots, New England would leave Audi Field with the win. However, Gabriel Pirani finally was able to break through just as the clock hit 90 minutes. After several shots by the Black-and-Red that were blocked, a headed pass and deflection later, Pirani was able to put a laser shot into the back of the net from just outside the box. It was a golazo, and it leveled the score at 1-1.
DC United and New England each had a final chance, but the whistle blew for full time and both teams left with points. As they look forward to a trip to play FC Cincinnati on Saturday, they hope that final golazo, which was their first goal in league play since May 3rd, can be the one that helps open the floodgates to get more goals.
Pirani’s goal was perhaps the hardest hit shot that I can remember since Ted Ku-DiPietro’s goal against Philadelphia.
DC United alumni have had a good week. Klich had a nicely struck goal himself last night, and had an assist on Saturday. Ku-DiPietro had an assist on the weekend, hit the crossbar and created a number of chances with incisive passing since being added to the Rapids’ starting lineup. Ian Harkes was serving in delicious crosses on the weekend, producing two goals in SJ’s comeback, and he hit the crossbar from a long way out last night. Derek Williams was a force in Atlanta’s win on Saturday, including scoring the opening goal. I could probably go on…
Our niece was fostering a dog named Slumber Party, and Slumber Party was hanging out at our house for a bit earlier this week. Turns out that Slumber Party was part of the adoption event as part of Bark at the Park at Audi Field yesterday. I hope she found a good home!
Slumber Party! That is brilliant. She’s gonna rock her forever home!
I just rescued a Basset Hound, Bernard (Bernie, feel the Bern!). Got him a month ago. I brewed Saison Bernard in his honor. The dude is velcro. He is also zero energy, which is hilarious.
For the second straight outing, Rowles and Enow put solid performances on the field.* Nothing brilliant, mind, just competent and effective.
I like what I’m seeing from Peglow, and feel like he could really break out next to a quality #10. He doesn’t have any single skill/attribute of dominance that he can hang his hat on and force the game to change, but he’s bright, well-rounded, plays defense, consistently works hard, serves up a nice cross, looks for combinations… it’s a strong package.
Pirani… was Pirani, a guy who struggles to be a flat-track bully on the flat track. A good team could have the luxury of designating him as a roll-the-dice game-changing sub specialist, but we’re nowhere near that good.
The team remains desperate for two actual DPs to rely on alongside Benteke, but instead has Pirani, Peltola, and the space where Klich used to be. 🙁
* Barring any contribution they may have made to the cluster—- of defending on NE’s goal… watching in person, I was too distracted by the overcommitments of Antley and Barraza to parse whether anyone else was also botching that play.
Neither Pirani or Peltola were brought in to be DPs though, we cannot blame the absence of those two DPs on the presence of these two. I know that in general DCU fans don’t have a positive opinion on Pirani, my take on it is different. Pirani is a better player than say Stroud (who is having a bad year in comparison to last year) but struggles to fit in on a team that is not built to play to his strengths. The team relies on long passes and struggles to create interconnectivity. Pirani’s game favors the short passes, the give and take. Coach Lesesne is averse to playing build up football and tends to rely on the Hail Mary pass (and I call it Hail Mary because long passes rarely meet their intended mark) even in Benteke’s absence which doesn’t make any sense because our only available forward in the now doesn’t have the built, the speed or the skill to win those balls and go forward. I just find it an odd fit between player and style of play. But in all honesty, I prefer Pirani keeps getting playing time because he’s one of the very few players on this squad who is not afraid to take shots and his shots tend to be on frame as opposed to say Aaron who could have won us the game if he had a more accurate shot.
And on the goal New England score, that goal is on the keeper. If you are going to come out you best make sure you get that ball.
Hmmm. I wouldn’t characterize Lesesne’s intent as averse to build-up play. The team generally tries to work the ball through shorter interchanges. But, as you say, they often struggle with the progression, and it falls apart in the final third. Insofar as Pirani is mismatched, it comes from the team-wide inability and/or unwillingness to drive at the opponent with the ball… he’s very South American in wanting to coordinate multi-player rushes, but everybody else is trying to work rotational triangles. I still don’t see how he’s going to pan out at this level when he’s almost always a quarter- to half-second too slow with his decisions in those rushes, but it certainly doesn’t help him that his teammates are usually either too slow (Murrell, Badji), erratic and un-technical (Stroud), and/or circumspect (Peglow, Servania, Kijima, Herrera when he joins the attack centrally) to play that way.
I haven’t seen any good replays. Did Murrell handle the ball? I don’t think VAR had a chance as the ref blew the whistle before Murrell shot.
Just rewatching it now. Yeah, he handled it. I think Murrell has some really great attributes, and I’ve been kind of disappointed that he hasn’t more thoroughly seized this opportunity, or converted at least one or two of his chances.
Was anyone else dumbfounded that Servania was left on the field given that he could barely move at the end? Every passing substitution window felt like a slow motion trainwreck coming quicker and quicker, just glad there was no extra time carnage!
I thought we were out of substitutions when Servania went down. Pirani was the last substitution made and that happened before Servania went down.
In the long view, this is probably irrelevant, as it seems unlikely that United could be battling for a playoff spot, but Chris Brady has been added to the Gold Cup training roster, replacing Schulte. Since the USMNT is playing on June 7, presumably that means Brady won’t be in goal that night for the Fire against DCU.
That will help, Im sure, but DC is also going to be missing a lot of valuable players that night. Goff reported that he’s expecting Herrera, Rowles, Peltola, and Fletcher to all be out. That’s a lot to overcome, especially Herrera
[…] Late Gabriel Pirani goal salvages 1-1 draw for DC United (The DP)In case you missed it, D.C. United finally broke their scoreless streak in their mid-week match against New England. […]
The foul on Enow was a clear red card. It was a lunge, straight leg, exposed cleat into the ankle. The defender missed the ball completely. am not sure why it was not reviewed by VAR (or was ignored by VAR).
I was surprised Peltola didn’t get to play in the last game. I am still a fan of him and feel he has a very high upside. He is a much better passer than any of the other midfielders (except Leal who also doesn’t see the field much). He does make an occasional blunder but generally is a good defender and gets the ball quickly off of his feet. I think the weakness in the Lesesne’s eyes is that he is a more positional rather than and aggressive player.
My only other comment is that the substitutes by far outperformed the starters. The game picked up after the subs came into the match.