Celtic’s U.S. tour got underway on Saturday with the reigning Scottish Premiership champions taking on DC United at Audi Field in Washington, DC.
Brendan Rodgers’ squad scored twice in each half to earn a 4-0 victory in the Nation’s Capital. Matt O’Riley scored twice in a seven-minute span before half-time while second-half substitutes Mikey Johnston and James Forrest added goals of their own after the hour mark.
17-year-old Colby Donovan and 20-year-old Matthew Anderson were among the Celtic starters while summer signing Viljami Sinisalo played 45 minutes off the bench. Dane Murray and Bosun Lawal also earned crucial minutes, as did forward Mikey Johnston.
“There’s a lot that I enjoyed about tonight’s performance,” Rodgers said to reporters post match.
"I thought we were dynamic and technically very good. We knew the pitch was going to be a challenge, but the players saw it first hand before the match and I was pleased with how they dealt with it."
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“We’re continuing to build our fitness and I think that when we have that defensive attitude that we want to have, it’s going to lead to our offensive rhythm,” he added. “We did very well tonight in pressing and putting the work in so we could attack the game when we had possession.
“We scored four goals and I thought our young players made the most of their chances as well. It was another good exercise for us and now we want to take that into our final two matches of the pre-season.”
Early pressure from the Hoops almost led to a stellar finish from Tomoki Iwata just inside of the 18-yard box. Iwata controlled possession before flicking a right-footed overhead volley towards the far post, but the shot landed just wide
A fortunate bounce almost led to Kyogo Furuhashi breaking the deadlock in the 17th minute but the veteran attacker skied his effort over the crossbar.
Luis Palma tested Luis Zamudio in the 20th minute for the first registered shot on target. The Honduran winger created room on the left side before drilling a shot across goal. However, Zamudio dove to his left and punched away Palma’s effort.
Zamudio denied Celtic again in the 24th minute, this time diving to his right to punch away Kyogo’s point-blank header.
Celtic’s pressure finally broke through in the 25th minute as captain Matt O’Riley slotted home from close range. Iwata’s cross into the box wasn’t cleared by the DC United backline, allowing O’Riley to take advantage for his second goal of the summer.
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O’Riley doubled Celtic’s lead in the 32nd minute for his second goal of the half. Nicolas Kuhn’s over-the-top ball led to Kyogo’s original shot being saved by Zamudio, but O’Riley followed up the play and slotted into an empty net.
It marked a positive performance from the 23-year-old O’Riley, who has remained linked with a potential move away from Paradise.
“His attitude has been first class,” Rodgers said about Saturday evening’s captain. “There’s absolutely been no change in Matt’s demeanor. I think he knows the privileges of playing for Celtic and he knows what Celtic has given him. It’s not a burden for him to be at Celtic, he has developed into a fantastic player.
“When you do what, there’s always going to be speculation and interest,” he added. “You will always work on improving and developing him. He has a first class attitude, he knows what the situation is and captained the team tonight. He’s a fantastic professional.”
Celtic was denied a 3-0 first half lead in the 40th minute after Nicolas Kuhn’s follow-up attempt was cleared by Zamudio. O’Riley through ball pass allowed Kyogo to race in towards goal, but Lucas Bartlett’s stretching clearance played the ball to Kuhn for the shot.
Scott Bain kept the clean sheet intact in the 41st minute, diving low to deny Dominique Badji inside of the box.
Viljami Sinisalo, Hyun-Jun Yang, Mikey Johnston, Dane Murray and Yuki Kobayashi all entered for Celtic at halftime. Callum McGregor, Bosun Lawal, Greg Taylor, James Forrest and Odin Holm proceeded to enter the fray in the 62nd minute, as Rodgers continued to provide equal opportunities for his full squad.
Mikey Johnston made it 3-0 to Celtic in the 65th minute, tapping home a cross from James Forrest. Forrest created space on the right wing before drilling a low cross into the DC United box that fellow substitute Johnston could easily slot home.
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Rodgers’ second-half substitutes continued to make an impact in the final third as Forrest extended Celtic’s lead to 4-0 in the 70th minute. Yang started a two-on-one upfield before sliding a pass to Forrest for a simple tap-in.
Sinisalo’s lone save of the second half came off a tame long-range attempt from Mateusz Klich in the 78th minute.
Johnston came close to registering a brace on the night, but his penalty-kick attempt was saved by Nathan Crockford. Yang drew the spot kick after Hayden Sargis tripped him in the box, but Johnston couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity as the DC United goalkeeper delivered a lone bright spot for the MLS hosts.
The Hoops continue their preseason tour by facing reigning English Premier League champions Manchester City on Tuesday, July 23 in Chapel Hill, N.C. before closing out their international schedule on Saturday, July 27 against Chelsea in South Bend, Ind.
“For us, we have two fantastic preparation games against two world class clubs,” Rodgers said. “I’m looking forward to them and they are two teams that I know very well. We might be a step ahead of them in terms of our schedule, but that shouldn’t really matter.”
