By AVI CREDITOR
WASHINGTON – Danny Allsopp netted his first goals with D.C. United in the 12th and 34th minutes, and 19-year-old goalkeeper Bill Hamid made them stand up, as United snapped its season-long slump with a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Wizards in front of 10,038 at RFK Stadium.
The match hardly resembled the teams' encounter back on March 27, when the Wizards (2-3-1) opened the season with a 4-0 drubbing of Curt Onalfo's side.
United (1-5-0), with a new-look lineup that included Allsopp and Adam Cristman up top, Boyzzz Khumalo on the right, Hamid in goal and Jaime Moreno, Santino Quaranta and Troy Perkins on the bench, played with the urgency and eagerness expected of a team looking for its first points of the season.
Allsopp pushed things in the right direction by holding up a long pass from Rodney Wallace while facing pressure from Kansas City centerbacks Jimmy Conrad and Pablo Escobar. Allsopp maneuvered to the left, around Conrad, and struck a blast by keeper Jimmy Nielsen to give United a 1-0 lead, its first lead and home goal of the season.
Later in the half, Cristman took advantage of an Escobar blunder in the back, pouncing on a weakly touched pass attempt and finding Allsopp cutting through the area. The Australian striker confidently finished to double the D.C. advantage.
The goals were the first two ever scored by an Australian in Major League Soccer.
Hamid, who impressed in his first professional start and became the youngest keeper in MLS history to win a match, looked to have a clean sheet lined up, but halftime substitute Kei Kamara finished off a Josh Wolff cross in second-half stoppage time to slice the deficit in half.
Hamid, who shook off some early nerves and shaky touches, was credited with five saves, and his confidence evolved throughout the match. At the hour mark, he ended up inside the goal when he caught a Ryan Smith cross that was headed into the upper-right corner of the net, but he managed to keep his hands and the ball outside of the goal area to deny the left winger.
His two most impressive saves both came in the first half, when he rejected close-range attempts by Chance Myers and Jack Jewsbury.
The win was the first league victory with D.C. for Onalfo, and it came against the organization that fired him a year ago. United will try to add to its win total on Saturday when it travels to Pizza Hut Park to take on FC Dallas.
Kansas City, playing without the suspended Davy Arnaud, remained winless on the road and won't play until May 15, when it hosts the Chicago Fire.
———-
Were you impressed by D.C. United tonight? Disappointed in Kansas City? Surprised that United's lineup was able to be so effective? Do you think Bill Hamid should permanently supplant Perkins in goal?
Share your thoughts below.
1. Attendance: those are very good numbers for MLS in a mid-week game for every market other than Seattle or TFC. And that said, we (DCU) needs to do better. Even with the Nats playing in DC at the same time, and DCU posting an 0-5 record with dreadful play, what was really about 8,000 isn’t acceptable. But sadly, mid-week games in MLS don’t draw, but they’re a reality with a world cup year.
2. Hamid is extremely impressive. Besides what I’ve seen, Ives indicated as much in the preseason.
3. Yeah, it is shocking that Perkins has had such a terrible season. I don’t think it’s about being unathletic. He’s played with poor judgment and confidence–aren’t those the qualities that he should enhance by being in the NT pool and going to Europe and playing in big matches? The deal with Philly may end up being a fleecing not b/c DCU gave up too much but b/c Perkins may end up being on the bench. Who knew?
4. Kudos to DCU’s youth academy which has 3 players from the academy on the roster. That said, it’s a terrible indictment that the team is relying on 17 y.o. Andy Najar and 19 y.o. Bill Hamid as likely starters. It’s a great sign when MLS teams start getting academy players in key roles. But it’s a lousy sign of team management when they HAVE to turn to academy players.
Allsopp for SA 2010!
DC United’s academy did a service to Honduras with Najar, but goodness have they found an amazing shot stopper in Hamid. He impressed in the pre-season and had the game of his life last night. His save at the end of the 1st half was unbelievable.
Glad to get the first win under our belt. Let’s move on to the next one…
Game should have had more goals then 2-0 neither side took chances too well. Hamid looked good for a young buck much better then Perkins has all season. Wallace needs to be better, tracking on KC’s goal was horrendous.
he’s 19 and starting over a once considered national team fringe goalie, Chris Seitz and all his hype (kills me to say this as a Terp)didn’t manage to take over from Rimando, unless your name is Iker, at 19 most keepers aren’t doing a lot
For a Wed. evening after the during the worst season opening in club history, I’d say 10K isn’t too shabby.
Certainly better than 6k in New England…
10k isn’t bad at all on a weekday.
For a mid-week game with an 0-5 team playing a .500 team that shellacked us in the opener 10K isn’t that bad.
People can talk all they want about “true fans” supporting the team win or lose but in all sports winning teams have bigger turnouts (to state the obvious).
If DCU can turn their season around and the USA makes a splash at the WC I think they’ll do just fine at the gate…and maybe even exceptionally well.
Ask Zach Thornton…..
Hamid needs to lose some weight. How can you be a professional athlete with a gut like that?
I think back to that awful cross by Smith in the first half that went too far — Myers just didn’t have his head in the game, didn’t expect it to get through, and it went out.
All that needs to be said http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/05/1927086/three-quick-thoughts-on-a-loss.html
That Sucked.
I’d like to see Najar back in the middle. Give Allsopp and Cristman some good service and DC could be dangerous again. Castilo definitely needs work.
Chance Myers looked terrible, for a #1 pick. I think Vermes agreed.
He could have saved Myers a lot of embarrassment by just subbing him at the half.
definitely agree, gotta start Hamid on saturday, go with the same 11 assuming all are healthy, good to see DC United play well, if only we can get a stadium…it’s good for the MLS to have DC United playing well
Onalfo has been terrible and has made terrible decisions since he got here.
The Perkins deal was not a fan favorite to being with and now seeing our utterly overpriced keeper riding the bench for an unproven 19 year old just makes the management out to be bigger donkeys.
Think it’s a solid number to have considering our situation and the timing of it. Getting around DC, even around kick-off is tough enough during the week with rush hour coming to an end.
Yea, I agree. Perkins is not the type of crazy athletic keeper that’s going to make up for a horrible backline. Playing Hamid was an interesting gamble, I’m sure the backline upped their game knowing they had a new kid behind them.
Confidence will come, but his reflexive saves were a good indication of his potential. Should be fun to watch him play, hope he keeps starting.
I’m not so sure he was ever as good as being a legit 3rd choice GK for the National Team nor do I think he’s deserving of all the blame for DC’s woes and an actual back-up.
Though, with Hamid’s confident and strong showing…he just may ride the pine for a bit now.
Who knows? Maybe he lands elsewhere, say…..in New York??
Anyone else think 10k+ attendance would be a fairly generous number?
No question Big Bill should get the start in Frisco
Happy with the win
crowd was to be expected
Castillo needs time
we need these guys to pull out a hand full o’ wins before the summer signings Payne (bluntly) mentioned in todays Washington Post write up.
Wow what a difference a year makes for Perkins. He was looking like a surefire bet as the 3rd national team goalie and is now back in the MLS with the possibility of losing his job to a goalie who is 19! Crazy stuff.
Wow! FCD with their first ever win at Houston … ever. Yeeahhh! 7 points and back in the mix. Ready to make it 10 on the weekend. C’mon FCD.
Good to hear Hamid got in there toinght. Perkins has looked a bit shaky since returning to United. Does anyone think Hamid will start Saturday vs. FC Dallas? Congrats to Coach Onalfo as well. It’s been a tough ride for the good coach. Glad he got a win.
Congrats to DC on their firrzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….snoooooooooore zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzsnkkkks……..
Yes. No. Not sure I’d agree with that premise. And, Yes.
FC Dallas win their first of the season defeating Houston (1-0) @ Robertson Stadium after going a man down in the 73rd.
GET IN!
Wizards defending was awful. Constant giveaways in the back. Offense wasn’t exactly unlocking the defense, either. Looks like KC is heading for a regular season similar to RSLs last year.
And 5990 for New England. Hmm
No DC fan but happy to see a young American keeper look so promising
crowd of 10,038, i know it’s during the week but…….. that sucks! maybe with a few wins maybe some more fans will come out. nice to see them get their 1st win. even dicks stadium with the Galaxy and Rapids playing, no one is in the stands.