Photo by ISIphotos.com
By AVI CREDITOR
WASHINGTON – Kris Kelderman waited as long as he could to unleash his "warrior."
Turns out the assistant-turned-acting-head-coach's judgment was spot on.
Andy Najar entered as D.C. United's final substitute in the 106th minute and scored the game-winner a minute later to lead United to a 2-1, extra-time victory over Real Salt Lake in a U.S. Open Cup play-in game.
"We were discussing putting him in a little earlier, but we had some guys cramping and we had to hold on to that last reserve for as long as we could," Kelderman said. "We felt real good about the energy that he would be bringing in, and he made the coaches look good tonight."
Najar, a 17-year-old D.C. United Academy product, used his fresh legs and fast feet to split Will Johnson and Tony Beltran on the right side of the penalty area. After squeaking through in complete control, he flipped a close-range shot past keeper Kyle Reynish to break the 1-1 deadlock.
"He showed a change of pace that you don't see too often with a player of his age at this level, and it was a brilliant finish," Kelderman said. "The kid's a warrior."
Najar's moment of glory stole the spotlight from an otherwise bland game featuring two teams that will face each other again in league play on Saturday.
Kelderman coached in place of Curt Onalfo, who was suspended for the match and United's next Open Cup match after being sent off against FC Dallas in a previous qualifier. Kelderman and Jason Kreis fielded teams of mostly reserves and waited until midway through the second half to bring on some regulars who could bring the game to the next level.
Action picked up after Alvaro Saborio, Fabian Espindola, Javier Morales, Chris Pontius and Santino Quaranta all entered in the 62nd minute.
United struck first after earning a penalty in the 75th minute. After Reynish stopped a Jordan Graye shot, Pontius tried to bicycle kick the deflected rebound into the goal. He semi-whiffed, but got enough of the ball to hit it at Real Salt Lake rookie Collen Warner's arm. The referee granted the penalty, and Luciano Emilio buried the spot-kick to open the scoring.
Six minutes later, Espindola completed a great individual run down the left with a cross that nicked Barry Rice's arm inside his own penalty area, earning Salt Lake a chance to equalize. Will Johnson shot to the lower right corner to even the score.
Rice made up for the miscue by twice clearing balls off the United goal line in the second period of extra time and D.C. nursing its one goal lead.
The win sealed United's place in the Open Cup Round-of-16, joining the Chicago Fire, Chivas USA, Columbus Crew, Houston Dynamo, Los Angeles Galaxy, New York Red Bulls and Seattle Sounders as Major League Soccer teams left in the competition.
United has Najar to thank for that, after his goal-and-assist performance against FC Dallas in the previous play-in game and his game-winner Wednesday night.
"Luckily I got the opportunity and I was able to take advantage and score the goal for us," Najar said through a translator. "There's a real positive attitude with the team right now after beating AC Milan and Chivas USA. After the game tonight we're feeling very good about ourselves, and hopefully we can keep it up."
Here are video highlights from the match:
ESPN has a good article by Leander Schaerlaeckens on him and the evolution of the US youth system.
even if he plays for Honduras its still good that we can produce a guy like that, more often than not he will play for us
he’s the future of US soccer in the sense that he was developed by US soccer programs and the DC United academy, its a good sign of the development of our development programs
Najar is a beast at his age, we could only wish for a US player with that technical skill set.
Wonder what his thoughts are of switching over to the Yanks, I’m not above it… Though secretly I would disdain it : (
Don’t call DC a comeback, we never left! Get in there DC!!!!!!
Najar seems like he can play some ball. This kid is definitely going to be called up by the Honduren NT sometime soon. I don’t think he is the future of U.S soccer, far from it.
On another note. PACHUAMERICA has added another American to the team. Vidal will be joining both Gomez & Torres this season. Castillo is off to Santos once again.
And he’s been associated with USSF development programs, so he could actually play for the US
i was at the game! $12 tix for midfield seats baby!
Morales is a rock in the Quakes’s backline, whereas the rest are brittle and crumble too easily. Bobby convey has energy for the first 30 min., then teeters off, esp. after getting a knock early in 2nd; his crosses tell it all – in 1st half perfect curving cross in penalty area which johnson in lame fashion headed past far post – and in 2nd half bobby’s crosses were 50% off w/o any juice, but a few corners were still sweet. Luiza is a waste of space, as is #33, and dare i say #8 til he scored his goal. the Trinidad duo Glen + Sealy are speedy but often caught in the offside trap, much to the chagrin of the home fans. there weren’t enough 1-2 combos strung together, if at all, other than Corrales (from Salinas baby!) and Convey. Johnson really has issues with the wall pass – he touches it 2-4 times TOO MANY.
an issue that was presented on the Quakes site: the coin toss is the most important at Buck Shaw Stadium (Quakes’s home) on an evening game. even home keeper Joe Canon was susceptible to the bright sunset, and he let some goals in (see last saturday’s match and tonight’s highlights). today he wore a hat, but his timing was noticeably off.
entertaining game indeed!
Why is there no SJ-Columbus thread? Huge regular season game for both teams and all you have are U.S. open cup threads? Ives secret AEG Dynamo agent.
(SBI-You do realize we had writers at the two games we dod commentaries for, right? In retrospect I wish I had thrown up a “Your Running Commentary” but I’ve got a lot going on so it slipped my mind.)
najar speaks english and can read write it…..im guessing its a comfort thing for a 17 yr old in front of cameras and media people. sounds like he is still more comfortable in native language….besides who needs words when he scores goals like the one tonite
Its okay, we have Tristan Bowen. Future stud.
My bad. He’s Honduran. They definitely need him since they couldn’t even score against Azerbaijan.
He can’t go to SA. Guatemala didn’t make it to the WC.
I say we make a Giuseppe Rossi out of him, get American citizenship and cap him.
If that sounds like hypocrisy, no, I’m just jaded. If our best young talents want to squirm away, only fair we should steal a few.
Najar speaks barely a lick of English, but can understand some. He wasn’t in high school long enough to really learn the language one would think.
Najar speaks through a translator? Hasn’t he been in the US for four or five years? Wasn’t there just an interview with him posted yesterday?
Saw Najar play in Bradenton, Florida this spring v. NYRB in a pre-season friendly. The kid is pure quality…
can he play left back? get him on a plane to SA!