D.C. United and the Philadelphia Union took the field at RFK Stadium on Saturday desperate for a win. United hadn’t so much as scored a competitive goal in 2017, while Philly’s winless streak was at ten games (extending back to August 27, 2016) as Ricardo Salazar blew his whistle to start the match. “Desperate” is overused sometimes these days, but on Saturday, it was a fair descriptor for both the teams and the soccer on display.
United won, allowing a hardy (if undersized) crowd to have a sigh of relief. Not only did they get to see a win, but they got to see a back-up forward prove he can succeed in MLS.