BC Pangie

CD Olimpia came into this quarterfinal at RFK Stadium three goals behind on aggregate. They may have come with the hope of pulling off a major comeback, but their hopes were not enough as D.C. United continued their dominance of the scoreboard.

The first ten minutes of the match looked like Olimpia could get back into this match as they had two good balls put across the box just out of the reach of a diving Troy Perkins. Unfortunately for Olimpia no one was making a far post run which would have easily seen the ball in the back of Perkins’ net. Olimpia continued to look good with a long ball in that led to a shot that was skied.

The tides began to change around the twentieth minute when some good work between Christian Gomez and ex-CD Olimpia striker Luciano Emilio created an opportunity that, like Olimpia’s earlier two, failed to find anyone crashing on the far post.

The first goal looked to give Olimpia hope as it put them only two goals down on aggregate. Still a task, but not nearly one as difficult as clawing back three. D.C. took possession of the ball and rallied forward for a bit of an attack. As play began to slow the possession quickly turned over to Olimpia and they hurriedly went on the counter attack. As they dribbled into the box Ben Olsen committed a foul that led to a penalty kick and a yellow card. While the penalty kick was in due course, the yellow card looked to be a bit harsh. The penalty was converted professionally by Hendry Thomas and Olimpia were up one nil.

In the thirty-eighth minute it was the ex-Olimpia striker Emilio who converted for D.C. to bring the score back to a draw. Jaime Moreno controlled the ball near the end line and pulled it back for Emilio who showed his awareness of the game by holding off on his shot and beating three defenders before slotting home on the near post from just outside the six yard box.

Neither team really looked to dominate and it looked much like the first game between these two teams. Half-time didn’t do much to work up the Olimpians and it was D.C. who came out of halftime with a goal in less than two minutes. This time it was a foul on Ben Olsen in the box and it was D.C.’s turn for a penalty kick that was easily converted by Gomez for his third of the tie.

Despite the score line Olimpia didn’t give up and pulled one back in the seventy-fourth minute. It looked much like Luciano’s first goal as Juan Cárcamo played it back to Jose Pacini who easily beat Jay Nolly, who had come on for Perkins minutes earlier.

D.C. wasn’t done though as Emilio put in his second of the night and third of the tie in the eighty-fourth minute. A long ball in found Emilio who settled with his left and shrugged off a sloppy tackle. He then struck it past the goalie and into the far side netting from just outside the left hand side of the six-yard box.

Overall it was an evenly played match much like the first game of the tie. D.C. advance to play Chivas in the semi-finals. The first leg of the semi-final match up will come on March fifteenth at RFK Stadium. If D.C. hope to advance past a skilled Chivas team they will need to tighten their defense as tonight they looked a bit sloppy allowing themselves to be caught out of position a fair amount of times.

D.C. United: 6.5/10 | CD Olimpia 6/10

Final Score: D.C. United 3 – 2 CD Olimpia
Aggregate Score: D.C. United 7 – 3 CD Olimpia