D.C. United have been playing so well recently, it's hard to remember a time when things were going against the club. United have not lost a game since the end of August, finishing the 2018 MLS regular season on a 10-game unbeaten streak. The playoff ouster was a tough pill to swallow, but the Black-and-Red picked up right back this season, extending their unbeaten streak to 13 regular season games. This weekend, they head down to Florida to take on Orlando City.
Orlando City? When was the last time United played them anyway? D.C. last visited Orlando to open the season last year, when Yamil Asad scoring on his team debut, but United dropped points by conceding a late equalizer to a 10-man City side. It was almost the same exact story in August at Audi Field, when Cristian Higuita got sent off but Dom Dwyer chipped home an equalizer in the second half.
Almost the same the story. Almost. But then this happened.
Everyone remembers the situation, right? United couldn't afford to drop points at home against Orlando, a team in dire form since reeling off a six-game winning streak. With the opening of Audi Field, United need a massive second-half run to go from the bottom of the league to a playoff spot, and a draw against Orlando would have been a bad start to a week in which United had three home games.
With that in mind, Ben Olsen sent keeper David Ousted up into the box for a corner kick deep in stoppage time. After the game, Wayne Rooney said that he wasn't sure about that decision, but that led to this iconic moment, the first in Audi Field's history.
Will Johnson seemed certain to win the game for Orlando, or at least at a minimum, run the clock the down. Instead, Rooney dove in with a desperate tackle, won the ball, kept it in play, and then sent a long ball into the box, where Acosta, who had never scored a hat trick, leaped high into the air to head home his third goal of the night.
It was a play that was seen around the world. And for good reason — it had multitudes of drama packed into a couple of seconds in time.
That win helped propel United to convincing wins that week over the Portland Timbers and New England Revolution. That three-game winning streak was followed up by losses to the New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia Union, but United have not lost since.
If there was a single on the field moment that could be pinpointed as the reversal of United's fortunes in 2018, this was it.