D.C. United wins Group East 7!
The Black-and-Red booked their ticket to the Leagues Cup Round of 32 on Wednesday night with a dominant team performance resulting in a, 3-0, victory over Club Santos Laguna playing at the home venue of the Philadelphia Union.
“For the first time this season, this was the most complete performance that we’ve had,” said D.C. head coach Troy Lesesne. “In the match, we were on the front foot for large parts of the first half [and] we scored a great goal. The challenge was: how are we going to come out in the second half? Are we going to come out and be a little bit passive and allow Santos back into the game? We didn’t do that. We found the second and the third. I loved the way the guys continued to hold the standard for a clean sheet.”
United’s new 4-4-2 diamond formation quickly allowed them to find joy down the flanks by pushing their fullbacks forward. In the opening minutes, left midfielder Cristian Dájome saw his begging cross roll through the penalty area without being stabbed home soon after hitting the near post himself from a teammate’s cross.
In the 28th minute, the crosses paid off. This time from the right wing, 2024 MLS All-Star Aaron Herrera picked out the perfect cutback for striker Christian Benteke who scored with his feet, passing the ball into the bottom left corner for a 1-0 lead.
As the half progressed, Santos Laguna fought back with a few speculative shots of their own, forcing a single save out of D.C. goalkeeper Alex Bono in the opening stanza. Still, the Black-and-Red continued to show the benefits of the adjusted formation by overloading the center of the park, making it very difficult for Los Guerreros to play through midfield, taking their lead into halftime with 60 percent possession.
Once the teams switched sides, United put their domination onto the scoreboard.
Immediately, United doubled their lead through their other striker — homegrown Theodore Ku-DiPietro. This time Benteke played the hold-up role, getting the ball to Mateusz Klich, who spotted Ku-DiPietro. On his first touch, the 22-year-old cut back against the grain, leaving his defenders behind and opening the space to finish.
“I’m very happy for Ted Ku-DiPietro tonight,” said Lesesne. “He’s had so many good performances this year and created so many opportunities for us. The challenge that we’ve put forward to him is saying: can you capitalize and score goals or get assists in these moments? Tonight he did that.”
United’s high press continued to cause Santos problems, with Ku-DiPietro capitalizing again 10 minutes later, continuing his fantastic performance by picking the pocket of Emmanuel Echeverria and feeding Jared Stroud’s halfspace run toward the end line. Finding himself in the space Ku-DiPietro created, Stroud assisted D.C.’s second cutback goal of the night for Dâjome.
Each of United’s five attack-minded players recording a goal contribution exemplifies the team nature of the Black-and-Red’s impressive performance on the night.
“It’s not just about the results that we’re getting. It’s about the performances that the players are putting in,” said Lesesne. “If we can continue to put that type of performance together and do it for 90 minutes then I think we can go very far in this competition.”
The team from the nation’s capital now awaits the results from group East 5, where they will face the second-place finisher in the Round of 32 on Aug. 9. If that second-place finisher is Mazatlán FC, United will host their knockout round match against Cañoneros. Otherwise, DCU will travel to either New England Revolution or Nashville SC.
