D.C. United and Nashville SC both will look to rebound from lopsided defeats when they meet on Saturday night in the nation’s capital.
D.C. United (4-11-8, 20 points) are winless in their last 11, an 0-8-3 slide that has taken the Black and Red from the top half of the Eastern Conference table to the bottom of the standings.
And last Saturday might have been the worst performance of the season from Troy Lesesne’s group. They already trailed by three before Lucas Bartlett’s ejection just before halftime, and finished 5-0 losers to host Orlando City.
“What’s more important to me beyond the result is we display ourselves in a much better way than what we did against Orlando,” Lesesne said. “And what I’ve seen from training this week is a group that’s reset in a good way and we’re ready to go again.”
Christian Benteke is tied for second in MLS with 14 goals, but he has only scored three of those during D.C.’s slide. No one else has more than two for D.C.
Nashville (6-8-8, 26 points) absorbed a 4-1 defeat at Portland last Saturday to see its losing streak extended to three matches after a disastrous first half similar to what D.C. went through. Nashville conceded four times and saw its ranks reduced with Brian Anunga’s 35th-minute dismissal.
But the club prevented further embarrassment after halftime and pulled a late goal back through Sam Surridge’s team-leading eighth goal.
Despite the defeat, Nashville hung on to eighth place in the East. If the season ended today, it would host the Eastern Conference wild-card match.
“Losing 1-0, losing 4-0, obviously it feels different, but ultimately it’s the same amount of points lost,” Nashville midfielder Alex Muyl said. “I think that results were pretty friendly to us around the league. So yeah, I think that we just have to put that behind us and move forward.”
Despite being named as the next full-time Nashville SC coach earlier this month, former U.S. men’s national team assistant B.J. Callaghan won’t take charge until later in July.
The U.S. was eliminated from the 2024 Copa America with its group stage defeat to Uruguay on July 1.
–Field Level Media