In front of a sellout crowd of 20,162 faithful, D.C. United clinched first place in the Eastern Conference. With a 2-1 win over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night, United cemented its positioning in the postseason with one remaining Regular Season game.
“Our goal was to win the Eastern Conference coming into the year and we’ve done that,” said D.C. United midfielder Chris Pontius who scored his first goal of the year on Saturday night. “It wasn’t the prettiest of wins but we will take it.”
Pontius, who missed most of the 2014 Regular Season due to hamstring surgery, played 69 minutes against the Fire— his most this season— finished an Eddie Johnson cross in the 31st minute. WATCH
“It's just great and I'm happy for him,” said Head Coach Ben Olsen. “I know that road; it's a long one… I think he's excited about being fit again and helping this organization.”
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Eight minutes after halftime, Johnson tallied his seventh of the season, intercepting a pass from a Chicago defender and finishing what proved to be the game-winner. WATCH
“As far as [Johnson’s] individual performance, the way he holds the ball up and occupies centerbacks is still as good as it gets, and for him to explode by Jeff [Larentowitcz] like that and finish one is something I think we all have been waiting to see all year long.”
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Though the possession and accuracy stats may be tipped in the Fire’s favor, the final score keeps United’s momentum going heading into Playoffs.
“You don’t want to be the team that peaks early,” Pontius said. “You want to be that team that’s peaking at the right moment. We still have one game left against Montreal, and we still have some things that we can work on. So, there’s a lot things that we can sharpen up.”
D.C. United takes on the Montreal Impact this Saturday, October 25, 4 pm. Tune in on dcunited.com/live (restrictions apply).
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