For one fleeting moment, at least, it was all right there for D.C. United.

There was the chance for the visiting Red Bulls to be down not just one but two center backs for the series’ second leg in Harrison, N.J., the chance to play the last 20 minutes and stoppage time 11 on 10, and, with that, the chance to pull out a win in a game in which it had, to be frank, no business pulling out a win.

But then referee Fotis Bazakos reached into his pocket—which was expected—and drew out a yellow card, which was not. Ronald Zubar was spared, the Red Bulls were spared, and United is now left looking at a lot of offseason spare time ahead after leaving Dax McCarty all alone on a set piece three minutes later.

Here are my takeaways from the Red Bulls’ gut-punch of a 1-0 road win in the first game of Sunday’s MLS Cup playoffs slate.

The level of physicality was high—and expected

Every match between these two teams comes with the implicit preceding label of “grudge,” and the latest edition on Sunday was always going to be more of the same. This year marks the second year in a row that these I-95 rivals have collided in the postseason, as well as the third time in four years. That ever-growing familiarity has only bred ever-growing contempt.

So let’s count the numbers in this one, shall we?

5: yellow cards handed out (only one of which, Bradley Wright-Phillips’s in the 88th for time-wasting, didn’t come on a reckless challenge of some sort)

2: players who had to be subbed off because of injuries

6: minutes of stoppage time that had to be added on in the second half

24: fouls committed by United

11: fouls committed by the Red Bulls

At the center of it all, of course, was DCU livewire Fabian Espindola. The Argentine striker committed a litany of fouls both before and after his 75th-minute yellow, and he only further embellished it with, well, a fair share of embellishment and simulation.

It wasn’t a great game to watch if you were looking for clean, flowing, pretty soccer. But with these two teams—playing on an NFL Sunday, no less—it was exactly what we should have seen coming all along.

Defenses on both sides leave question marks

With battle-hardened captain Bobby Boswell out for United, coach Ben Olsen paired Steve Birnbaum (24) and Kofi Opare (25) in central defense Sunday. The two had only played together in four matches all season; for each, their primary partner in the middle had been Boswell.

The unfamiliar duo largely held their own against a potent Red Bulls attack, though, and the only goal—by McCarty in the 72nd minute—wasn’t their fault, due instead to a flat-footed, ball-watching Perry Kitchen.

But D.C. very well could have let in a few more if not for the goalkeeping heroics of the increasingly impressive Bill Hamid, who finished with eight saves on the afternoon. One he saved with his face on a Mike Grella shot from about four yards out; on another he used one strong hand to palm over a flicked-on Grella header.

Boswell’s return for the second leg should help, but United might be trading his absence for that of right back Sean Franklin, who had to leave Sunday’s match in the 84th minute.

As for New York, it saw center back Damien Perrinelle go down with an apparent leg injury in the 50th minute, and if Twitter (and Ben Olsen) had had its way, Perrinelle’s replacement, Zubar, would have been shown a red card in the 69^th for a vicious and late scissor tackle on D.C. midfielder Markus Halsti.

In theory, the MLS Disciplinary Committee could still go back, review and suspend Zubar for the next match, but that seems unlikely. If it does happen, though, United might be able to find a way back in.

United’s offensive buildup was almost nonexistent

Still, even if that door isn’t fully closed, the offensive offense D.C. showed off on Sunday suggests its attackers probably don’t have the accuracy needed to kick it open.

United started off very much on the front foot, pressuring and flustering New York’s backline in the opening five minutes with pressure through Espindola, Franklin and Chris Rolfe. Shortly thereafter, however, that pressure disappeared. And I’m not sure it ever truly came back.

You’d think that, playing in the supportive (if not structurally so) home confines of RFK Stadium, D.C. should have felt comfortable getting forward and trying to get the jump on this series. But instead much of its strategy seemed to be to boot it upfield to Alvaro Saborio and hope—in vain—for the best, with the defense choosing a mantra of “safety first” and the central midfield of Kitchen and Halsti giving little going forward. Subbing off Chris Rolfe, one of the side's best attackers all year long, in the 65th minute didn't help.

Even after getting scored on, in fact, United remained in that same hard-bunkering shell—seemingly just hoping to avoid yielding a second Red Bulls away goal. Often, Saborio, too, was inexplicably far back defending, leaving Espindola as a poorly attended, poorly reviewed one-man show up top.

The first result was a passing accuracy of 54.5% (including 40% in the final third), the third-lowest figure by a team in an MLS playoff game since 2010, per Ben Baer. The second, also per Baer, was a grand total of zero shots on target, a first for a home team in MLS playoff history.

Maybe—just maybe—if Zubar had been sent out after all, D.C. would have gotten its act together playing man-up and wouldn’t be going to Harrison in the dangerous position in which it now finds itself.

Unfortunately for Olsen and Co., that one moment was only fleeting.