Benteke brace leads D.C. United past Seattle Sounders

Christian Benteke scored two goals in the first half and D.C. United took advantage of the short-handed Seattle Sounders for a 2-1 victory Saturday night at Washington.

D.C. United (3-3-4, 13 points) scored twice in a 12-minute span. Goalkeeper Alex Bono was credited with four saves.

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Goalkeeper Stefan Frei of Seattle was gone less than 30 minutes into the game because of a red card. Andrew Thomas replaced him in net.

Leo Chu had the goal for the Sounders (1-5-3, 6 points).

Benteke has eight goals in eight matches. This marked his first multi-goal match since scoring three times in the opener. He has moved into a share of the MLS goals lead for this season, pending scoring in other matches Saturday night.

Benteke's first goal tied the match at 1-1 on a penalty kick in the 32nd minute. Then in the 45th minute, Benteke put D.C. United in front.

The penalty kick came after Frei was shown a red card for taking down D.C. United's Jarred Stroud in the penalty area.

For the go-ahead goal, Beneke made an incredible leap above a Seattle defender for a header off Aaron Herrera's delivery from just outside the box.

Chu scored in the 14th minute on a header off Jordan Morris' cross. It was Chu's first goal of the season, coming in his fifth game.

The goal for Seattle came after the Sounders kept the ball in the box on a sequence with several ricochets. D.C. failed to clear the ball and it turned costly.

The Sounders, playing the first of two road matches across four nights, had various lineup changes. Defender Jonathan Bell and forward Daniel Musovski made their first Seattle starts. Alex Roldan and Jackson Ragen were out after red cards a week earlier against Vancouver.