Tai Baribo scored his 15th goal and added his first assist of the season, helping D.C. United secure a 2-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls Wednesday in Washington.
Silvan Hefti also scored for D.C. United (7-9-12, 33 points), who won for just the second time in their last 11 matches, going 2-4-5 during that span.
Sean Johnson made six saves for D.C., including one on the final play of the game, stopping Julian Bazan’s header from the middle of the box.
D.C. United survived playing a man down after the ejection of defender Lucas Bartlett in the 68th minute.
D.C. needs to build on the victory over its final six matches to end its six-year postseason drought, the longest active streak in MLS.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting scored in the 71st minute for New York (10-13-6, 36 points), which is in danger of missing the playoffs for the second straight year after qualifying for an MLS-record 15 straight seasons.
Baribo’s goal came in the 5th minute on a penalty kick after a late-arriving Adri Mehmeti fouled him from behind in the box. Baribo fired a low shot into the bottom right, converting his fourth penalty kick of the season.
D.C. United doubled its lead in the fifth minute of first-half stoppage time, scoring on a corner kick from the left side by Keisuke Kurokawa.
Kurokawa sent his kick across the box to Baribo, who headed a pass to the center of the box to Hefti. The defender then headed his shot into the lower left half for his second goal of the season, giving D.C. a 2-0 lead.
Helping set up the opportunity was 16-year-old Oscar Avilez, who made his MLS debut, starting in the midfield.
Avilez earned D.C. the corner kick when he made a sliding attempt to cross from deep on the left side and his pass was knocked over the byline by a defender.
D.C. United suffered a huge blow when Bartlett picked up his second yellow card for delaying a restart.
The Red Bulls took advantage immediately as Emil Forsberg slipped a pass into the box to Choupo-Moting, who beat an onrushing Johnson to the ball and tapped it into the net for his fifth goal of the season.
D.C. played defensively as New York had possession for 67.7% of the match, generating 3.7 expected goals to 1.2 for the hosts.
–Field Level Media
