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WASHINGTON D.C. — D.C. United kept Real Salt Lake out of the back of the net as the Utah club fell yet again to the curse of RFK Stadium — a stadium it has yet to see a victory — with a 1-0 loss Saturday night.
The match saw a scoreless first 45 minutes much like the Salt Lake club’s season opener at San Jose March 3, but D.C. United’s Lionard Pajoy put his club on top in the 60th minute after RSL goalkeeper had just cleared a D.C. United shot moments before.
The loss for the Claret and Cobalt extended D.C. United’s regular-season home unbeaten streak to 17. With the loss, RSL sits at 1-1-0 (3 points) early in 2013.
With three RSL veterans and regular starters — defenders Chris Wingert and Nat Borchers and midfielder Javier Morales — from last season still battling injury, RSL coach Jason Kreis used the same lineup the club saw for its first match of the season just under a week ago. The lineup featured a new back four playing together and saw the second start for one newcomer to the Claret and Cobalt — midfielder Khari Stephenson.
The match also saw the debut of two players to the RSL club. RSL defender Lovel Palmer entered the match in the 66th minute for Abdoulie Mansally. The second RSL debut came when midfielder John Stertzer entered the match in the 81st minute for Stephenson.
The match saw much confrontation from both sites with five yellow cards between the two clubs with RSL taking four of them – three for fouls and one for dissent. Defenders Tony Beltran and Mansally were each shown a yellow along with RSL captain Kyle Beckerman and forward Alvaro Saborio.
Beckerman extended his all-time appearances to 301 and now sits in 19th in all-time appearances.
The Claret and Cobalt reserve team won’t play a match on this trip, but will make the trip home from the nation’s capital to begin preparations for its regular-season home opener.
RSL will open its home slate at Rio Tinto Stadium next Saturday when it faces the Colorado Rapids in the first leg of the Subaru Rocky Mountain Cup.
D.C United played without its most potent offensive weapon in Dwayne De Rosario.
Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
