Steve Clark’s Saturday fell into place as if it had been preconceived. On his 32nd birthday, in his first start of the season, with 16 friends and family in attendance — including his 89-year-old grandmother — against his former club, with his winless team down a man for 40 minutes, D.C. United’s second-choice goalkeeper made two sensational saves in the second half of a 1-0 victory over the Columbus Crew in Annapolis.
As teammate Paul Arriola said, “All the stars aligned for him.”
Clark had lost the preseason battle with David Ousted for the starting job, but when Ousted injured his foot in training last week, United turned elsewhere.