DC United fell victim to the Cupset. The Black-and-Red were eliminated from the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in the Round of 32 Wednesday night at Audi Field, losing 6-5 on penalties to USL League One side One Knoxville SC.

The first half was full of chances for the Black-and-Red, beginning in the second minute. Midfielder Hosei Kijima took a shot that was stopped by One Knox goalkeeper Jonathan Burke. But, DC United was on the front foot early, driving forward and getting shots.

In the ninth minute, Keisuke Kurokawa, after receiving the through ball from Kye Rowles, was able to get the ball at the mouth of the goal to Louis Munteanu. Munteanu put a back heel on it, but the ball went just wide. Five minutes later, One Knox had their first chance of the evening on a breakaway. Braudillio Rodrigues got the pass over after some fighting for the ball to Babacar Diene. Diene’s shot required an Alex Bono diving save, which he was able to make.

DC United had plenty of chances throughout the first half. However, of the eight first half shots they took, six went wide of the net and one was blocked. They just couldn’t get the ball on frame to put more pressure on One Knoxville’s keeper.

Two minutes into first half stoppage time, One Knox had a great chance off the corner kick. Finn McRobb got the header off Real Gill’s corner, but Bono was able to grab it. There were calls from One Knox for a penalty on an apparent takedown in the box, but there was no call by the referee and no VAR in the US Open Cup. The match went to halftime scoreless.

The second half began with DC United making several changes in the hopes they could spur the offense. Once again, they were on the front foot to start the half, but were not able to get a shot on goal. In the 55th minute, the Black-and-Red had a great chance with some great passing, but substitute Gabriel Pirani once again shot the ball wide.

In the 61st minute, finally DC United broke through. Matti Peltola received the ball in the middle of the field from Brandon Servania about 40 yards from goal. He took a couple of dribbles and unleashed a 25-yard laser that found the left side of the net. His strike gave DC United the 1-0 lead.

The Black-and-Red then tried to avoid the increased pressure from One Knox as they sought to preserve the lead and close out the match. However, in the 75th minute, One Knox equalized. Braudillo Rodrigues received the pass 25 yards from goal and, after falling down while passing the ball, was able to get back up to receive the pass again. He took a shot that was saved by Alex Bono, but the rebound fell to an area where Babacar Diene could pounce on it. He did, sending the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-1.

Three minutes later, One Knox struck again. This time, it was Jaheim Brown on the cross, and Denis Krioutchenkov, who had just subbed into the match, was waiting in the middle of the box to place it past Bono to make it 2-1 to One Knox.

Now, DC United was in desperation mode to avoid the Cupset. And they were able to level it just a couple minutes later. After a delay due to an injury, DC United kept the ball down in the attacking end. Finally, in the 83rd minute, Silvan Hefti, who had just subbed on for Conner Antley, was able to get the cross in after making a quick move past a One Knox defender into the right side of the penalty area. Nikola Markovic made an over the shoulder kick on the ball to punch it into the net to level the match at 2-2.

Now, there was new life for both teams as the game entered the final minutes of regulation. However, after seven minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew his whistle and the match headed to 30 minutes of extra time.

Extra time started, and both teams were fighting to stay alive in the US Open Cup. In the 93rd minute, Eli Conway was able to sneak a shot on goal that was saved by Bono to maintain the 2-2 score.

In the 97th minute, hard work paid off for DC United. As the ball was hit back towards Alex Bono, Bono kicked the ball downfield to clear it. João Peglow sprinted past everyone and One Knox goalkeeper Jonathan Burke, seeing Peglow arrive at his doorstep, misplayed the ball. Peglow was able to outhustle him to head the ball into the net and make it 3-2 to the Black-and-Red.

DC United continued to push, not settling for the one goal lead. In the 104th minute, off a corner kick, but ball fell to Silvan Hefti. Hefti wasn’t able to collect the ball to get a shot, but he sent it back for Peglow, who fired a shot from outside the box that went wide. A minute later, as the match ended stoppage time of the first extra time period, Pirani got on the break and scored a goal, but it was immediately waved off for offside. The referee blew the whistle for the end of the first extra period shortly after.

The second extra period began with DC United looking to hold on and secure the win. However, DC United couldn’t hold it. In the 113th minute, on a crisp pass from Will Perkins, Denis Krioutchenkov got behind the defense and chipped it over Alex Bono to level the score at 3-3. It was Krioutchenkov’s second goal of the evening.

Once again, the game was all knotted up and both teams were trying to get the game winner. However, they weren’t able to get it, and the match headed to penalties. Each team hit their first five penalties, and this match would need an extra round. In the sixth round, Gabriel Pirani’s shot was stopped by Jonathan Burke, and Kyle Linhares stepped up with a chance to win it for One Knox. Sending Alex Bono to his right, he calmly hopped and then slotted the ball the opposite way to win it for the USL League One side.

“They deserved to win this game,” DC United head coach René Weiler said after the match. “They had much more mentality, more fighting spirit. When we scored a goal, we went 3 steps back, we didn’t play with the same energy. So it was, for me, a really bad game with a bad result at the end.

Weiler was not happy about the “heart” and mentality of the team for this match. After Peglow’s goal to make it 3-2 to DC United, Weiler said he didn’t like the response of the team following that. “It’s unbelievable how we played after this goal…so passive,” Weiler remarked. And no one pushed the ball forward and created a lot of distances…No, I didn’t think that this is now the decisive moment, but I thought that we should win this game.”

Instead, the Black-and-Red once again have to put another loss behind them and move forward. And once again, lack of mentality was a central focus from the team. “I think the main thing is heart. We talked about tactics and all that, but I think they should play with more heart,” Nikola Markovic said, who started his first match for DC United and scored the equalizing goal in regulation.

“[Mentality] shouldn’t be something that is our main focus in the game, because that should already be there, in my opinion,” Matti Peltola said. “That’s the starting place. So if that’s something we need to focus on, day by day….We need to, especially in a game like this, we need to demand more from ourselves. We need to have the mentality from the beginning so that we don’t give the opponent any hope or any chance to get through the 1st round. And today we didn’t do it, and this is the result.”

DC United will need to dig deep when they travel to Philadelphia this weekend to take on the Union, their dreams of once again lifting the US Open Cup deferred for at least another year.