1: Quick Turnaround

With a second matchup against DCU in such a short period of time, the Orange and Blue found themselves in a rare situation, at least for the regular season. The first meeting was a wide open one, in which FCC created transition opportunities, but failed to capitalize. Still, FCC's defensive effort limited DCU to few quality scoring chances, a relatively rare occurrence so far in 2026.

FCC didn't get out in transition as much as on Wednesday, some of that might be due to a slightly more conservative approach from the Black and Red in its rest defensive shape, but the Orange and Blue made one count in the second half, putting the game away.. When you pair that with yet another banger of a goal from Evander and a DCU team with few attacking ideas, FCC won a not quite but pretty close to must win game with the playoffs getting closer.

It doesn't get easier, unfortunately as the Orange and Blue take on a somewhat scuffling Inter Miami team on Wednesday night in Florida. Still, getting the maximum number of points from a not great but definitely annoying to play against DCU team counts as a very good week for FCC.

2: Box Defending

The current iteration of DC United is going to make you win the ball in the air in dangerous parts of the field not just a couple of times, but consistently. And FCC's defenders, especially the center backs, rose to the occasion.

After the game, manager Pat Noonan said there were, "a lot of similarities to the last game and the difficulties that we faced with set pieces, crosses, some direct play when we were, I think, stepping up our pressure in a good way, but the guys defended those moments really well."

Noonan said, "what Nick and Teenage did as far as the aerial duels and clearances, they faced a lot, and so I thought majority of the time we were getting first contact, which was good. And then I thought the spacing along the line and then in front of them was good to be able to limit really dangerous second phase opportunities."

On the night, FCC's defenders made 20 clearances, with 17 of them coming in the team's defensive third. Unsurprisingly, the starting trio of central defenders, Nick Hagglund, Kyle Smith, and Teenage Hadebe combined for 15 aerial clearances, per Fotmob data.

But DCU didn't really seem to have a Plan B to create danger other than hopeful crosses aimed somewhere in the box, and the Orange and Blue met that challenge all night en route to a clean sheet.

3: A Match Winner

When Evander is dialed in, he can be the definition of a match winner. His opening goal is something we've seen time and again from the Brazilian playmaker when he's been in Orange and Blue. The ball doesn't always go in, but when it does - and it does more often than almost anyone else from that distance in the league - it can be pretty spectacular.

After the game Noonan just noted, "that's Evander being Evander."

The Orange and Blue's second goal showed the other aspect of how Evander can win a game: his playmaking.

Evander, describing the play and what he saw, said, "I was just carrying the ball. It's it was kind of easy to see that he was in a good spot. What made Tom [Barlow] wide open was actually the run from Bryan [Ramírez]. He came from far on the field and made a really good run to open up the space for Tom. That's made the their center back in doubt who to who to defend, and he created space for Tom. I just made the pass. It was a very simple pass, but I think the we need to give credit to Bryan as well because it was a good run and create all the space for Tom to score the goal."

Even as Evander described his assist as "a very simple pass," his recognition of Ramírez's run - to hold off on play the pass for just long enough until the wing back's run had opened up just enough space to find a wide open Barlow - deserves credit. In the first matchup earlier in the week, FCC struggled to find that last pass in transition to really put the game away. With Evander's playmaking, they did that on Saturday night at Audi Field.