D.C. United's towering center back Donovan Pines rose above the crowd in the first half on Sunday against Minnesota United, looking to win a header on Wayne Rooney's cross. Loons keeper Vito Mannone was up in the air challenging for the ball but couldn't reach it before Pines won the header, looping the ball in the goal for his first professional goal.

In his third start for the Black-and-Red, Pines raced towards the other end of the field, celebrating with the coaches that have entrusted him to start in each of United's past three games on the road. And it was another set-piece goal from a team that had excelled in that department of the past couple of weeks, helping them stay undefeated on the road in their first four trips away.

But then referee Nima Saghafi went to his ear — and then the monitor — and chalked off the goal, indicating that there had been a foul on Mannone by Frederic Brillant. United wouldn't come close to scoring again, and they eventually fell in the second half 1-0 for their first loss away from this year. 

"I don’t think it’s a foul," Brillant told reporters in the locker room after the game. "But [Saghafi] checked the VAR, so maybe it was a foul."

"I was ecstatic and happy that I scored," added Pines, who would have been the second homegrown player to score for D.C. this year, after Chris Durkin. "They called it back…. it was unfortunate."

There wasn't too much protesting about the call after the game, as Ben Olsen and others admitted to having not seen a replay of the instance. But the call, whether right or wrong depending on perspective, changed the course of the game.

D.C. did well to stifle the hosts throughout the first half, limiting the Loons to just two shots, both of which were long range shots that were blocked. However, in the second half the field tilted in favor of Minnesota, especially after Miguel Ibarra entered the game for the injured Darwin Quintero.

From that point on, it seemed like there was only one team that was likely to score, as the Black-and-Red tried to see out their sixth clean sheet of the season.

"We weren’t threatening enough in the second half," said Ben Olsen in his postgame scrum. "Credit them — the home field [advantage] helped them out in the second half, their energy increased, and ours stayed the same."

It was the third game in eight days for United, who had won on Wednesday at the Columbus Crew. But it was a similar sort of schedule as the hosts, who had tied the two previous games at Allianz Field, against New York City FC and the LA Galaxy. 

D.C. ending up out-shooting Minnesota over the course of 90 minutes but only managed one shot on target the entire game. That came from Lucas Rodriguez, moments before Pines scored the goal that was called off. United, who have scored just 13 goals in 10 games this year, continued to look threatening from set pieces, but toothless in attack in open play.

"We do well on set pieces, but we aren’t creating enough chances," Rooney told reporters after the game regarding United's chance creation from open play. "We’ll address that and try to get that right."

United are almost halfway through a two-month stretch that featured 13 games. It hasn't been the best spell for United, who have suffered three losses in the first six games while struggling with injuries, especially noticeable at outside back. Another seven games remain before the Gold Cup break. 

They'll need to find their way in front of goal, but a couple of strong defensive performances — the loss on Sunday notwithstanding — might help United stay on track even if United can't find the 2018 scoring touch. 

"Tremendous effort from us," said Olsen. "It caught up to us a little bit, there’s been a lot of games coming at us the last few weeks. Gave what we could, and fell a little short today."