DC United has let go but Rooney acknowledges that "the team has come a long way"

WASHINGTON – For the second half of the season, D.C. United's dynamic duo, Wayne Rooney and Luciano Acosta, remained silent at the worst possible time. And now, the magic race of Blacks and Reds is just one more game in the playoffs of the Audi 2018 MLS.

While DC scored two more goals before falling on penalties in Thursday night's Knockout Round match against Columbus Crew SC, an intervention from the other half of the duo could have seen the Black and Red beyond this step.

"It's disappointing," said Rooney later. "But for us as a team, I think we can be proud of what we have achieved over the last few months. I think today's match, the crowd, the atmosphere, the current situation were fantastic. This shows that the team has come a long way and we can be proud of our performance and obviously try to take advantage of this performance for next season. "

United went into the playoffs in a series of 10 games without defeat, encouraged by Rooney and Acosta. The pair has combined 22 goals and 24 badists, giving it a total of 60 goals, its highest total since the 1999 regular season.

But Columbus has clearly disconcerted the pair as much as any team. Jonathan Mensah was excellent with Rooney, and Artur and Wil Trapp were the main culprits to have frustrated Acosta.

"We focused on a plan to stay compact and avoid central pbades," said Crew SC coach Gregg Berhalter. "And the guys really did a good job running. There was no space. There were not many options for them. You remove two high caliber players from the game and this increases your chances of winning. "

DC coach Ben Olsen had a slightly different point of view.

"I do not know if that's really what they did," Olsen said. "We have been good sometimes. We were not great. I think we have complicated the game in the last third. I think we went home when we could continue to secure the balloon and make them work. "

The center of Acosta played a role in Dc's first goal, a header stuck down the line by Frederic Brillant after the misplaced game of Zack Steffen. And Rooney's long free-kick in overtime was taken over by Nick DeLeon, who equalized in the 116th minute in the 11th minute on the half-volley.

But these were pieces on the periphery rather than the center of DC's goals and on penalties, Steffen refused both Acosta and Rooney, diving to his right twice before DeLeon took down the last attempt breakage of equality above the bar.

"PKs are for birds," said Olsen. "Especially when you lose them."

It was a second outing at this stage in as many playoff games, after a D.C. team also in vogue towards the end of 2016 went to the RFK Stadium for the Montreal Impact. Maybe unlike 2016, this time we had the impression to stop what could have been a very deep race.

"I think it's the one that stings the most, which I'm part of," said defenseman Steve Birnbaum. "It's just, I've never been on penalties in MLS. And that one hurts. You do not want to finish your season like this. "

Goaltender Bill Hamid said, "I really wanted a trophy in the inaugural season here. We can take advantage of it. But raising a trophy at Audi Field in the inaugural season was all I thought about. "