It’s been a week like none other for D.C. United.
It started with a historic 7-0 drubbing at the Philadelphia Union that interim head coach Chad Ashton dubbed “embarrassing,” as he apologized to fans for the club’s Heineken Rivalry Week performance last Friday night. It was the worst defeat in the MLS original's entire 28-year existence.
Rumors about Wayne Rooney’s arrival as the full-time head coach came to fruition with a press conference at Audi Field Tuesday, and then there were reports of free-agent superstar Luis Suarez’s possible arrival to the Black-and-Red.
Following all of that, on Wednesday night, D.C. United rallied to earn a 2-2 home draw against the Columbus Crew, with Ola Kamara scoring the stoppage-time equalizer, much to the delight of Rooney, who took in the game from the Audi Field stands.
“I thought the response was fantastic,” Ashton said after the match. “To play well for a half, create some chances, not give a lot away, to go down twice and show character and show fight, especially coming off the last performance is fantastic. Great to see a response from the team. They've taken in a lot of information in the last 24 hours and to be able to take that in and go out there and execute it fairly well, I thought it was really impressive.”
Rooney can't coach the team until his work visa is sorted, but he can provide information to the coaching staff, who then relays that to the team.
The players essentially had one training session to take in new ideas and then implement them on match night, which impressed Ashton.
“It was a new look for us. It was a lot different and the way the guys took it in and understood it was impressive for the first time out,” Ashton said. “Obviously the more they get to do that and execute and work on it, it's going to get better and better. So for it to start with really not a ton of preparation so well, I think it really bodes well.”
D.C. had to contend with another star showing from new Crew club-record signing Cucho Hernandez, who netted a second-half brace to give the visitors the lead on two separate occasions. But Taxi Fountas leveled first in the 80th minute before Kamara ensured a share of the points in the 92nd, finishing off a last-gasp scramble in front of goal that Fountas' cross helped ignite.
D.C. United are last in the Eastern Conference standings on 18 points from 18 matches. They are eight points below the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs line with six other teams to leapfrog to get into a postseason position.
The climb is steep, but Ashton liked what he saw from his team on the night – the ability to rebound from the worst loss in club history, process information from the incoming coach and fight back to earn a draw. They hope to build on that Saturday evening against Minnesota United FC from Allianz Field (8 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+).
“I thought overall our guys did a good job of being patient with the ball, building the game,” Ashton said. “It let us have more freedom in terms of not having to be able to defend for too long periods of time, things of that nature. But again, it was a lot of different ideas and they executed those ideas very well.”
