D.C. United and the visiting Chicago Fire halted losing streaks as they played to a 1-1 draw on Saturday night.
A rare goal from D.C. United’s Christopher McVey in the 20th minute — just the third of his professional career — was canceled out by a Kellyn Acosta equalizer in the 53rd minute as D.C. (4-5-6, 18 points) snapped their two-match losing streak but failed to capture a win for a third straight outing.
The Fire, despite seeing their winless skid reach eight, ended their four-match losing streak.
Neither team had a shot on goal until the 19th minute when a header from Christian Benteke forced a nice diving save from Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady.
Brady, however, could not stop the next D.C. chance, as McVey poked it past the Chicago goalkeeper to cap a free-kick routine and give his team a 1-0 advantage.
Chicago (2-8-5, 11 points), without Xherdan Shaqiri after he reported early to Switzerland’s Euro 2024 training camp, had its best opportunity of the first half as Acosta had a good look at goal in the 41st minute, but his driven effort sailed harmlessly to the right of the frame.
In the 53rd minute, Acosta atoned for his missed opportunity. The U.S. international took his own deflection off a through-ball attempt to Hugo Cuypers and struck it past D.C. goalkeeper Alex Bono to make it a 1-1 match.
Chicago nearly made it 2-1 a few minutes later as Andrew Gutman placed a dangerous cross to the far post toward an on-rushing teammate, but it was just a bit too far.
The Fire pressured D.C. throughout the second half as they sought a go-ahead goal. D.C., on its end, saw Steve Birnbaum connect on a no-look header in the 90th minute that gave Brady a bit to think about before going out of play.
Chicago, though, came closest to a winner in second-half stoppage time, but Maren Haile-Selassie saw his attempt deflected out of play by Birnbaum to keep the score level.
–Field Level Media
