D.C. United lost 4-1 to the San Jose Earthquakes in their third match of the 2021 Major League Soccer Regular Season. Despite outshooting the Earthquakes 17-12 and out-possessing the home team, United fell to the more clinical Earthquakes for their second defeat of the season.
Head Coach Hernán Losada only made one change to D.C. United’s starting 11 from their first two matches with Homegrown Moses Nyeman entering the lineup in place of an injured Russell Canouse. Chris Seitz started in net with Antonio Alfaro, Frédéric Brillant, and Brendan Hines-Ike playing as the three center backs with Julian Gressel and Joseph Mora as the wing backs. Junior Moreno, Yamil Asad, Edison Flores and Moses Nyeman started in the midfield and Erik Sorga led the line as the lone striker for the Black-and-Red.
The two sides played an exciting, back-and-forth first half. San Jose opened the scoring in the first minute when Javier Eduardo Lopez scored on a curled effort from outside the box. United responded well to the early goal and created a chance shortly after when Julian Gressel’s shot from the right side of the box was saved by San Jose’s goalkeeper in the fifth minute. The Earthquakes doubled their lead in the 26th minute when Cade Cowell slotted home off a breakaway.
United found a goal of their own in the 31st minute when Antonio Alfaro scored off a corner kick. Edison Flores looped in a ball to the back post where Brendan Hines-Ike headed it back across net to Yamil Asad, who chested the ball down to Alfaro smashed it into the back of the net for his first career MLS goal. Right before the break the Earthquakes scored their third goal of the first half when Jackson Yueill connected on a first-time strike from outside the box sending the Black-and-Red into halftime down 3-1.
United came out the better side in the second half and continued to push forward to get back into the match. Their best chance came in the 83rd minutes when Julian Gressel intercepted a pass from the San Jose Goalkeeper and slide the ball off to his left to Erik Sorga, only for the striker to see his effort cleared off the line. As United pushed numbers forward, the Earthquakes added a late goal and the match ended 4-1 in favor of the home side.
United midfielder Felipe Martins entered the match at halftime and played the final 45 minutes, which marked his first appearance since August 29, 2020 after recovering from a knee injury.
D.C. United’s next match will be against reigning MLS Cup Champions Columbus Crew SC on Saturday, May 8 at Historic Crew Stadium at 1:30 p.m. EST. Tune into NBC Washington, TeleXitos, and www.dcunited.com to watch the match.
