– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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WASHINGTON — As a number of teams have experienced when heading to the nation’s capital, Austin FC found that the perfect tonic for what has ailed them is a match-up with D.C. United, and what ensued on Saturday night was a Texas-sized beatdown.
Four different goal scorers were set up by four different players on assists as Austin F.C. dominated from start to finish in a 4-2 victory over D.C. United inside Audi Field on Saturday night. The Verde & Black took a 2-0 lead on first-half goals from Myrto Uzuni and Owen Wolff — both of whom scored for the second straight game — then put the game away after halftime on scores by Osman Bukari and Robert Taylor.
Austin FC had scored just 17 goals in its 22 league games coming into tonight, but took 22 minutes in the first half to open the scoring after Brendan Hines-Ike’s 25-yard through ball found Uzini at the top of the box before the latter tucked the ball into the lower left corner of the goal past D.C. United goalkeeper Luis Barraza.
Owen Wolff scored right before halftime to double Austin’s lead before it took a 3-0 lead in the 60th minute on one of the goals of the season. Goalkeeper Brad Stuver played a long pass out of the back to Dani Pereira, who then played a give-and-go with Wolff that covered around 30 yards before the ball was selflessly set up for Osman Bukari coming from the back side. Bukari’s one-touch finish capped off the team goal and effectively put an end to the contest.
D.C. United is now in the midst of an 0-8-1 stretch where it’s been outscored 25-8 during that stretch, a span that has seen the team fire manager Troy Lesesne after the club’s U.S. Open Cup loss just over two weeks ago.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday evening’s game, with photos taken by DC-area photographer Terry Mayo Jr. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are XX pictures in total.
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