Sunusi Ibrahim netted two goals, Ariel Lassiter had a goal and two assists and host CF Montreal ended a seven-match winless drought by beating D.C. United 4-2 on Wednesday night.
CF Montreal (4-7-4, 16 points) had not won since April 13, losing four and drawing three in the interim. They held a 3-2 lead before D.C. United went down a man at the end of the first half; the match saw six yellow cards on top of the red card given to D.C. defender Matti Peltola.
Christian Benteke scored his 12th and 13th goals of the season for D.C. United (4-6-6, 18 points).
Montreal’s Jules-Anthony Vilsaint intercepted a lazy backward pass by D.C. United in their half of the field. On the counterattack, he tapped a pass to Lassiter, whose third goal of the season split goalkeeper Alex Bono’s legs in the sixth minute.
Vilsaint, however, suffered an apparent hamstring injury and left the match in the 19th minute, replaced by Ibrahim.
Benteke’s first goal was the result of a fluky sequence. As D.C. attacked, he lightly pushed Montreal defender Gabriele Corbo, who went down clutching his leg directly in front of goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois (two saves). Benteke received Lucas Bartlett’s pass into the box and Sirois couldn’t defend Benteke’s lob shot with his teammate lying in his path. Corbo was limping but stayed in the match, and the 29th-minute goal stood after review.
Montreal got its revenge just five minutes later. Ruan sped to the right corner and lifted a cross into the box, where Ibrahim leaped backward to send an impressive header into the goal.
The hosts were on the attack again a short time later, and Bryce Duke drew a D.C. foul right in front of the penalty arc. Lassiter lined up to take the free kick but slid a short pass to Mathieu Choiniere, whose shot avoided the D.C. wall and found the net for his second strike of the year in the 38th.
Benteke roofed a cross from Jared Stroud four minutes later to pull D.C. within 3-2 before halftime.
Peltola checked Ruan to the ground during first-half stoppage time and was shown his second yellow card of the match.
In the 73rd minute, Ruan connected with Lassiter, whose pass into the box reached Ibrahim for a one-time goal, his fourth goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
