D.C. United had a surprise inclusion in its starting lineup tonight, with Santino Quaranta getting his first minutes in two months after recovering from a concussion. They had another surprise inclusion just eight minutes later when goalkeeper Steve Cronin had to enter the match in place of Stephen King due to a red card being served to Bill Hamid for a violent tackle on Eric Avila outside of the penalty box. It was not the start that United would have hoped for against Toronto FC.
None of that stopped Dwayne De Rosario though. The recently acquired attacker scored his fourth goal of the season for United in the 19th minute. And this is only his sixth match in black-and-red. The goal came on a quick one-time shot from outside the box on a free kick assist from Quaranta.
Despite being down a man for the majority of the half, United still generated several more opportunities, with Josh Wolff and Chris Pontius each getting involved in the attack. United's backline also stepped up to help their rarely used keeper, with Cronin doing everything that's been asked of him to keep TFC off the scoreboard in the first 45 minutes.