Defenders Pedro Santos and Derrick Williams scored their first goals for D.C. United to spark a 3-0 rout over visiting FC Cincinnati on Saturday night.
Cristian Dajome added his second goal since his arrival to D.C. (7-8-5, 26 points) in a trade from Vancouver in late April to help his new club snap a two-match losing streak.
The Black-and-Red were surprisingly comfortable in their third three-goal victory of the season, doing all of their damage before halftime against the current Supporters’ Shield leaders.
Tyler Miller made two stops to keep his sixth clean sheet of the season.
Cincinnati (13-2-4, 43 points) was shut out for only the second time this season while seeing a 10-match unbeaten run halted. Both of Cincy’s losses have come on the road by a large margin, with Saturday’s defeat following a 5-1 loss at St. Louis on April 15.
The visitors finished with 10 men after Ian Murphy was sent off for his second bookable offense in the 79th minute.
D.C. was on the front foot from the opening even before their duo of defenders acquired this offseason gave them a two-goal lead.
Santos started it in the 10th minute on an attack created in part by a mistimed clearance attempt from a Cincy defender that allowed a pass from the right flank to reach Christian Benteke.
The D.C. striker sprayed the ball wide to Mateusz Klich, who eventually tried to return the favor with a cross from near the byline.
Benteke just missed on connecting with a header. But Santos was waiting at the back post where he collected it, took the ball to his right and then drove a low finish between Roman Celentano and the left post.
Williams doubled the lead seven minutes later through a well-worked set piece.
Donovan Pines reached the long, diagonal free kick from the left flank at the opposite side of the penalty area and headed it back across the goal.
Celentano sprawled to make a good save after Dajome ran onto Pines’ header, but the rebound fell for Williams to smash into the net.
Dajome added his goal just before halftime on a shot from a tight angle that squeezed through Celentano’s legs on an opportunity created by even more strong hold-up play from Benteke.
–Field Level Media
