Controversial call denies DC United points in loss to Charlotte FC
DC United saw an apparent 75th minute goal by Louis Munteanu not counted, and the Black-and-Red lost to Charlotte by a 2-1 score before 15,073 at Audi Field on Saturday night. Lucas Bartlett’s early second half goal was able to equal out an Ashley Westwood first half goal, but Allan Saint Maximin’s second half goal ultimately was the difference.
“In the end, you know, we deserve more. It is worth more than this result. But it’s crazy. We scored two goals and only one counted,” a visibly frustrated René Weiler said after the match. “I don’t know what the VAR are checking. I don’t know what the referee is doing. We had the images and even the fourth one told us, yeah, but maybe they don’t have these images. So the team deserve for sure more. But yeah, we scored two goals, but they only gave us one. It’s crazy.”
The match started slow for DC United, but the intensity was there from the start. The first chance of the game went to Charlotte FC, when in the ninth minute, Idan Toklomati was able to slide around Kye Rowles on the end line to get close to goal. He passed it off to Ashley Westwood, but Westwood’s one timed shot went wide of the net.
The Black-and-Red’s first chance of the game came in the 17th minute off a set piece. Keisuke Kurokawa passed the ball off to Brandon Servania, who fired from 35 yards. Charlotte goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina was able to calmly collect the ball. On the other end, Charlotte raced down and Liel Abada got a shot on Sean Johnson from the right side of the box. Johnson was able to make the save.
Just a minute later, DC United had another set piece opportunity. This time, João Peglow passed it forward to Louis Munteanu, who chipped it to the middle of the box. Kye Rowles got the free header on goal, but Kahlina was able to make the save.
In the 22nd minute, Charlotte struck first. They were able to work the ball around, and Allan Saint-Maximin, after some nifty moves, tried to get the ball into the middle of the box. The ball was deflected out of the box, but Ashley Westwood pounced on the rebound and fires it from 25 yards. The ball zoomed into the upper right corner of the net, giving Charlotte the 1-0 lead.
DC United came right back after the restart. Kye Rowles got another close range chance on goal that was saved, and Louis Munteanu had a shot on the break saved by Kristijan Kahlina a couple minutes laters. The intensity of the match continued to elevate as the half went on. DC continued to push and get chances on goal, but Kahlina was able to keep them DC off the scoreboard.
In the 36th minute, Sean Johnson had a world class save to keep the deficit at one. On a Charlotte cross in by Brandt Bronico, Liel Abeda gets the point blank volley. Johnson was able to slide across the net to get a hand on it and deflect it out of play.
United came right back down, and after some passing in tight spaces, the ball was passed over the the top of the defense by Tai Baribo to Louis Munteanu. Munteanu got a flick on it, but pushed the ball well high of the net.
DC United kept pressing for an equalizer, but they weren’t able to get a goal before the halftime whistle.
The second half started ad DC was able to be aggressive early. And that paid off quickly. Just 2 minutes in, after a foul by former United defender David Schnegg on Kimito Nono, Keisuke Kurokawa served in the cross and Lucas Bartlett was able to head it home to level the score at 1-1.
DC kept the pace up, getting a few opportunities in the minutes after the Bartlett equalizer. Tai Baribo had a great turn and fire shot in the 51st minute with his left foot in the box. The shot hit the crossbar and glanced over the net.
The intensity of the match continued, but in the 71st minute, disaster struck for DC United. Charlotte got the ball on the break, and after DC wasn’t able to clear the ball out of the box, Ashley Westwood was able to find Allan Saint-Maximin. Maxi was able to get some space down on the end line and fire a low shot past Sean Johnson to give Charlotte the 2-1 lead.
Four minutes later is when the controversial moment occurred, when a shot from the top of the box by Louis Munteanu rattled the crossbar and down for what everyone in the stadium thought was a goal as video replays showed the ball apparently crossing the line. However, the ref allowed play to continue.
After the ball eventually went out of play, there was a quick stoppage to let the play be reviewed. After review, it was determined that the ball did not cross the line, even though replays were very close and looked like Munteanu had the equalizer. The referee was not called to the monitor. When asked by the pool reporter to explain the decision behind the call, the official statement from PRO was “The VAR checked the play and had no clear video evidence from the angles available to him to confirm that the whole of the ball crossed the goal line.”
“[It’s] unbelievable how they can’t see it. Unbelievable.” Weiler said, visibly frustrated. “We are in 2026 and after that game with a lot of chances, of course we have to be more efficient, but that’s the first time that we scored two goals and only one count.”
Despite the controversial call, DC United continued to press forward, but they couldn’t get anything to happen. In the 6th minute of stoppage, DC United had a corner kick opportunity, but it was not meant to be as the ball bounced around the box before Charlotte cleared it out, and the whistle blew a few seconds later for full time.
“No, for me, after 25 minutes we played a much better game,” Weiler said. The last 20 minutes before half time we were better. Better than Charlotte, but. Yeah, we created goal scoring chances, but we didn’t score. But overall we. We did a good game. But I repeat, unfortunately, not with a good result.”
DC United have not beaten Charlotte FC since April 2023 in league play, with their only win in that time frame coming on penalties during the 2025 US Open Cup (better known as the Jordan Farr game). Since April 2023, DCU is 0W-1D-5L against Charlotte in league matches. They hope to get back on track next weekend when they travel to the Pacific Northwest to face the Vancouver Whitecaps.
So, hopefully we can now start to get Markovic and Ordaz more minutes for evaluation and growth. ‘Cause we aren’t nicking a playoff spot given the road defeats we have upcoming.
Props tonight for Nono, who had some really bad defensive work against ATL but turned around and had an excellent night guarding Maxi 1v1… it’s telling that Charlotte’s second goal came on an inadvertent pick-and-roll that left Rowles on Saint-Maximin instead of Nono. In general the backline did very well; I’ve finally gotten comfortable with the Bartlett-Rowles pairing, and felt like Charlotte did very well to score 2 off of the opportunities we allowed them.
On the attacking end, this was probably Munteanu’s best overall game to date. He even beat a man on pace to an open through ball! But the team is writing checks it doesn’t have the speed or technique to cash. We need a DP playmaker, and the U-22 slot *has* to go to somebody who can stretch the defense. The lack of that threat vector is strangling our growth.
I’m not a signs and banners type, but am considering the need for a “free Matti” placard to bring to the stadium on 10/14.
Munteanu looked to pass sometimes too, rather than just automatically shooting whenever he was within 20 yards of goal. The passes didn’t really work out in this game, but I was heartened to see that he was evolving somewhat from just “shoot on sight.”
I am not as sussed about the call on the goal, as when Villarreal refs, we lose any home field advantage anyway. As stated in the game thread, Louis needs to learn to shoot where the goalie isn’t. Do we have a team psychologist for that? Yes please, let’s rotate the squad and prepare for next season.
An odd comment to make about Louis, given the discussion about the possible goal not given. He missed a good chance in the first half, but not for shooting at the goalie. Just didn’t get it high enough to get it over the goalie’s dragging back leg.
Seeing it live, I didn’t think it was a goal — I’m not sure a lot of people did. The buzz was at how close it was, how good a strike. Then, they showed a replay, and a bunch of us were out of our seats yelling for VAR to award a goal. The replays we’ve seen aren’t conclusive, but it brings up the question of why other leagues have goal-line tech, and MLS does not? I guess the answer, as everything, comes down to money, The financial stakes of winning or losing, or drawing, in MLS just aren’t that high. Not compared to European leagues. So, it’s not deemed worth the investment.
Taylor Twellman usually likes to throw it to a goal cam (or at least he has in past years). Seems like if that’s something they can do for one game, they should be able to do it for all games.