The D.C. United defense struggled in a loss to their traditional and table-topping rivals New York Red Bulls, but they bounced back with a dominant performance this week in a 3-0 win over the Montreal Impact. Montreal only managed one shot on target and 39 percent possession in a very poor performance.
Montreal almost hung on to a scoreless draw heading into halftime after an uneventful first 45 minutes, but they were taken apart by a spectacular run by Chris Pontius. The D.C. winger put his team up heading into the break with a spectacular weaving dribbling run through multiple Impact defenders, followed by a simple finish past Evan Bush.
Robbie Russell doubled D.C.'s lead in the 50th minute with a diving header on a free kick by Branko Boskovic. They were able to go into cruise control for the remainder of the match after that, but added another goal for good measure late in the game. Hamdi Salihi put an exclamation point on the win in stoppage time, cleaning up a rebound following a Bush save on a shot by Nick DeLeon.