The first 45 minutes at home Friday night were a slog — Charlotte controlled the ball but couldn’t find any teeth in the final third, and D.C. United didn’t offer much either. Nothing to show for it at the half. But United came out of the locker room with life, and Louis Munteanu made them pay in the 55th minute, slotting home to give the visitors a shock lead.

That’s when Charlotte tightened the vice. David Schnegg leveled it in the 64th, and just two minutes later Will Cleary headed home a Pep Biel cross to put the Crown back in front for good. Biel then put the exclamation point on it in the 77th, finishing off a Liel Abada assist on the fast break to make it 3-1 — a goal and an assist good enough to earn him Man of the Match honors, and the home crowd never let up the rest of the way.

Still, this wasn’t a clean sheet kind of performance defensively. Charlotte committed 15 fouls, gave up nine corners to D.C.‘s four, and faced 17 total shots compared to their own 11. A lot of those United looks were off target or blocked rather than testing the keeper, which is the only reason the scoreline doesn’t look scarier — Charlotte got away with leaving the door open more than they’d like against a better finishing side. The attack bailed them out; the back line will want to clean things up before it costs them one of these nights.