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(Photo credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images)
Jackson Hopkins scored his third goal in four games and 10-man D.C. United held on for a 1-1 draw against visiting Orlando City on Saturday night in Washington.
Luis Barraza made a career-best 10 saves for D.C. (5-15-10, 25 points), whose numbers were reduced upon Lukas MacNaughton’s 57th-minute dismissal.
Those performances helped the Black-and-Red remain unbeaten in four matches (1-0-3) under new manager Rene Weiler despite having already been eliminated from postseason contention.
Defender Alex Freeman pulled Orlando level in the 53rd minute with his fifth goal of the season. But the Lions were otherwise a combination of wasteful and the victim of Barraza’s excellent night, failing to take three points despite leading 26-6 in shots and 11-3 in efforts on target.
Orlando (13-7-9, 48 points) dropped one spot into sixth in the Eastern Conference via Columbus’ victory at Atlanta.
Hopkins put D.C. ahead against the run of play in the run of play in the 33rd minute on one of D.C.’s rare forays forward.
Conner Antley did the most impressive work in the buildup, taking Joao Peglow’s pass, making a hard cut to evade a defender on the right side of the box, and then picking out Hopkins in front of goal.
Hopkins then used his back to spin his defender before firing a low finish past Pedro Gallese.
Freeman leveled 20 minutes later during a sequence that also eventually resulted in MacNaughton’s ejection.
Pasalic forced Barraza into an initial save after he was played down the right. Freeman was first to the rebound to poke it over the line. And after referee Chris Penso was summoned to the replay monitor, he ruled that MacNaughton had made a dangerous enough challenge on Freeman in his attempt to deny the rebound effort to warrant a red card.
Barraza could have done better to push that rebound to a less dangerous area. But he made up for it in the late stages with two late denials of Marco Pasalic and another of Eduard Atuesta.
–Field Level Media
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