MONDAY, AUGUST 5 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D3
BY MATTHEW GUTIERREZNot even three minutes had
elapsed Sunday night, and D.C.
United already was on its heels.
Philadelphia Union forward
Andrew Wooten pushed forward,
then fed charging midfielder Ale-
jandro Bedoya at the edge of the
18-yard box. He stepped into his
shot — squarely with his left foot
beside the ball — and delivered a
hard attempt on the ground. The
ball hit the left goal post and
rolled into the back of the net, out
of the reach of diving goalkeeper
Bill Hamid.
The crowd gasped, but Bedoya
wasn’t done: He darted to his
right, past the red corner flag, to a
TV microphone in the corner of
Audi Field. He knelt and grabbed
the mic.
“Congress, do something
now!” he yelled at the end of a
weekend in which two mass
shootings left at least 29 people
dead. “End gun violence! Let’s
go!”
Bedoya’s goal gave his team an
early advantage, and D.C. United
did not have much of a chance
from there as the first-place
Union collected three points in a
5-1 road rout.
“It just hit me.... I got to say
something,” Bedoya said of his
comments, which couldn’t be
heard by the crowd but were
audible on Fox Sports 1’s telecast.
“I’m not going to sit idly and wait
for things to happen 50 years
from now — I want change now.”
“One thing I’ll say is, more
guns are not the freaking answer,”
he added. “So let’s see. Politicians
are politicians. They’re backed by
lobbyists and corporations, so
things need to change in the way
this government is being run.”
Union Coach Jim Curtin sup-
ported Bedoya’s stance.
“I’m on his side,” he said. “It’s
outrageous. Things need to
change in this country, for sure,
and I’ll support anyone who
speaks their mind and is intelli-
gent and informed on it, every
time. That’s what Alejandro is.
He’s passionate, he cares, and
again, it’s a real issue in our
country now that needs change.”
As for the game, it was D.C.’s
second four-goal home loss of the
season. United entered the nightin fourth place but wasted an-
other opportunity to pick up
points at home, falling to 9-7-9
(36 points). Philadelphia leads
United by six points in the East-
ern Conference.
In its past 15 home matches,
United has only four wins. It has
won only two of its past
13 matches overall. It surren-
dered more goals Sunday than it
had in a regular season game
since Oct. 25, 2015.
“They had more guys show up
than we did,” United Coach BenOlsen said. “A nd that’s a concern.
“We have to learn how to not
play ourselves into the game,”
Olsen continued. “This has hap-
pened a few times: We seem to
gain momentum as the game
goes on, not able to show up in
the right way, with the right
quality, on a night the field was
poor. A physical game. In some
ways it suited them.... They t ook
advantage of two mistakes that
changed the game.”
A win could have been the jolt
United needed after a lousy per-formance in Chicago last week-
end ended in a scoreless tie.
Instead, D.C.’s upcoming sched-
ule looks more daunting. As the
playoff push begins, D.C.’s final
nine-game stretch won’t be easy:
United hosts the LA Galaxy next
Sunday, t hen travels to Vancouver
the following weekend.
By halftime Sunday, United
trailed 2-0, and the crowd was
restless: Fans booed the players
as they walked to the locker
room. The Union had racked up
seven shots on target; United hadzero. When Philadelphia had the
ball, players pounced and found
open spaces.
They became more available
just before halftime when D.C.
midfielder Júnior Moreno was
issued a red card. It was the
team’s f ourth of the season and its
first red card in the first half of a
game all season. That put United
down a man, straining a group
that hadn’t been creating quality
chances or fending off attacks
even at full strength.
Philadelphia’s second goal con-
jured images of the first, with a
player streaking to the left side of
the United defense, then dishing
to a teammate near the top of the
18-yard box. This time, midfielder
Haris Medunjanin found Marco
Fabian, whose right-footed chip
shot reached the back of the net
in first-half stoppage time.
Philadelphia scored again in
the 52nd minute, bumping its
lead to three with a goal by
Kacper Przybylko. Two minutes
later, United responded with its
only strike of the night, a Frederic
Brillant goal that came from a
skirmish directly in front of the
goal.
The momentum didn’t last.
United star Wayne Rooney thun-
dered a long volley ahead of the
Union defense, but midfielder
Paul Arriola missed his shot at-
tempt from near the goal. The
Union tacked on a couple of goals
later, and United fans started
filing for the exits with more than
10 minutes left on the clock.
“For me, simply this year the
ball hasn’t been falling in the
back of the net,” Arriola said.
“That’s an issue I have with my-
self. That obviously cost some
points tonight. Maybe I put one of
the two away when we’re [down]
3-1.... It could have made a
difference.”
[email protected]Des Bieler contributed to this report.Home-field disadvantage: United su≠ers a lopsided loss
UNION 5,
D.C. UNITED 1JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
Coach Ben Olsen, second from left, and United have just four wins in their past 15 home matches and have won just two of 13 overall.ASSOCIATED PRESSBrittney Griner had 26 points,
nine rebounds, a career-high eight
assists and four blocks to propel
the Phoenix Mercury to a 103-82
victory Sunday over the visiting
Washington Mystics.
Leilani Mitchell made five three-
pointers and finished with
23 points and Yvonne Turner, who
hit 4 of 5 threes, added a career-
high 22 points for Phoenix.
Elena Delle Donne and Emma
Meesseman scored 18 points
apiece for the Mystics (14-7), who
had their five-game winning
streak s napped.
Turner and Mitchell scored five
points apiece during a 14-2 run
that gave Phoenix a 60-41 lead l ate
in the second quarter. Griner
scored 23 points on 10-for-11
shooting in the f irst half.
The Mercury (11-10) shot a sea-
son-high 58.2 percent from the
field and had 28 assists on 39
field goals. Phoenix tied its season
high with 12 three-pointers and
made all 13 of i ts free t hrows.
l SUN 9 4, LIBERTY 79: In
White Plains, N.Y., Courtney Wil-
liams scored a season-high
28 points and Connecticut beat
New York for its seventh straight
win.Alyssa Thomas added 16 points
and Jonquel Jones had 14 points,
10 rebounds and five steals for the
Sun ( 16-6).
Connecticut led 29 -16 after the
first quarter, the most points the
Sun has scored in the opening
quarter this season. New York cut
it to 39-32 o n Tina C harles’s jump-
er with 4:30 left in the half. The
Sun o utscored the Liberty 1 4-6 the
rest of the period t o take a 15-point
lead at t he break.
Williams had 17 points by half-
time, helping Connecticut im-
prove to 12-0 when leading at the
break this season. Charles had
20 points and 10 rebounds for the
Liberty (8-13), which has lost five
of its past six g ames.
l SPARKS 8 3, STORM 75:
Candace Parker scored a season-
high 21 points, Nneka Ogwumike
added 13 points, 10 rebounds and
three steals, and Los Angeles beat
visiting Seattle.
Maria Vadeeva, who missed
two-plus months because of inter-
national duty for Russia and a
knee injury, scored 14 points and
Chelsea Gray had 10 points and
eight a ssists for the Sparks.
Parker scored eight points and
Ogwumike a dded six d uring a 16-4
run that gave Los Angeles (13-8) a
12-point lead. Sami Whitcomb’s
three-pointer trimmed the
Storm’s deficit to 50-41 at half-
time. Whitcomb and Alysha Clark
each hit four three-pointers and
had 1 6 points for Seattle (12-11).WNBA ROUNDUPGriner powers Phoenix
to victory over Mystics
MERCURY 103,
MYSTICS 82BY CINDY BORENNavy’s f ootball coach and play-
ers apologized Saturday after
quickly changing a motto for the
2019 season — “Load the clip” —
that was deemed inappropriate
and insensitive in a community
still recovering from a fatal
shooting last year in the Capital
Gazette newsroom, only a few
miles from Navy-Marine Corps
Memorial Stadium.
“It was a one-minute meeting,”
Coach Ken Niumatalolo said dur-
ing Navy’s f ootball media day and
fan fest Saturday (via the Capital
Gazette). “I explained that some
people had deemed the motto to
be insensitive. Our captains
di dn’t need to hear another
word. [The captains] immedi-
ately said, ‘Coach, let’s just
change it.’
“We sincerely apologize if it
upset anyone, but it was not
meant to be taken the way it may
have been by some.... We under-
stand that it probably wasn’t
appropriate considering the cur-
rent climate and certain things
that are happening in our soci-
ety.”
The Annapolis community
continues to recover after Gerald
Fischman, John McNamara, Rob
Hiaasen, Wendi Winters and Re-
becca Smith were killed and two
others were wounded in the
newsroom in June 2018. That
tragedy was compounded in Sep-
tember when three people were
killed and three wounded in a
shooting at a Rite Aid in Ab-
erdeen, Md. And hours after
Navy players spoke Saturday,
mass shootings occurred in El
Paso and Dayton, Ohio.
A Capital Gazette reporter had
inquired about the motto,
prompting Niumatalolo’s meet-
ing with senior captains Ford
Higgins, Malcolm Perry, Paul
Carothers and Nizaire Cro-
martie. Carothers, the Gazette
noted, was a plebe when his
father, a veteran of the U.S.
Marshals Service, was killed
while leading officers who were
making an arrest in 2016.
“I completely empathize with
anyone who has lost a family
member or close friend to any
type of gun violence. I personally
know exactly how they feel,”
Carothers told reporters. “Be-
cause of my experience, I know
firsthand how badly it hurts to
lose someone you love in that
way.”
The passage of time helps but
only to a point, he said.
“When my dad was shot, I
struggled to understand that
whole situation and why it hap-
pened,” Carothers said. “It is so
incredibly sad, and we have
mourned his loss every day
since.”
Navy’s team captains have
chosen mottoes for several sea-sons, and they quickly replaced
this year’s original choice with
“Win the day.” Niumatalolo ad-
mitted he had been “ leery” of the
first motto but told the Gazette
he understood that he works at a
service academy.
“Clearly it’s a metaphor that
speaks to the fact we’re going to
battle every weekend, and when
you go to battle, you need to have
enough ammunition,” Niumat-
alolo said during American Ath-
letic Conference media day last
month. “It means you have to be
prepared for the fight, and that is
a process that happens every
day.”
In apologizing to the commu-
nity, Naval Academy Superinten-
dent Vice Adm. Sean S. Buck said
in a statement to the Capital
Gazette that the school strives tobe “a good neighbor.”
“The bottom line is, we missed
the mark here,” Buck said. “The
initial internal football team
motto selected, ‘Load the Clip,’
was inappropriate and insensi-
tive to the community we call
home.”
Navy’s p layers now are f ocused
on their season opener Aug. 31
against Holy Cross. “A t the end of
the day, a motto is just words,
and what really matters is what
we do on the field,” Higgins said.
“In the end, it’s just words on
the back of a T-shirt,” Carothers
said. “What we’ve done during
the offseason to get ready and
what we do on the field every day
— our actions — are what truly
portray how we approach this
season.”
[email protected]Regretful Navy quickly drops ‘Load the clip’ motto
TOMMY GILLIGAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Coach Ken Niumatalolo said his captains instantly agreed to change the motto. It’s now “Win the day.”S0115-2x5.25Search our database of tested
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