Taxi Fountas 'that guy' for DC United: Greek forward equals MLS record with hat-trick

DC United interim head coach Chad Ashton has praised the electric form of Taxi Fountas after the Greek forward scored a hat-trick in Monday's dramatic 5-3 win over Orlando City.

Fountas has enjoyed a remarkable start to his MLS career, scoring nine goals in 10 appearances (8 starts) so far, spanning just 710 minutes. He's tied alongside Adama Diomande, Kaku, and Eduardo Hurtado for most goals across his first 10 MLS games.

The 26-year-old's latest feat saw him grab two goals inside eight minutes and a third just after half-time to fire DC into a 3-0 lead against the Lions in Florida on Monday. Though the Black and Gold were pushed hard by Orlando and Fountas was withdrawn just before the hour-mark, the job was just about already done.

"He's been that guy for us," Ashton said in praise of Fountas after the match. "You know, anytime he gets in and around the goal, and we find him, he's putting the ball in the back into the net. So we've just got to be able to create more chances and get him finding more chances in and around the goal."

Monday's win couldn't be more vital for DC United, ending a three-game losing streak in MLS play and a seven-game winless run across all competitions. The four-time MLS Cup champions are 13th in the Eastern Conference and only Sporting Kansas City have fewer points in the overall standings.

But Ashton believes the victory against Orlando is just the start of his players getting what they deserve after putting in the work on the training field.

"It’s nice to see they’ve trained really hard the past couple of weeks," he said. "It’s nice to see them get rewarded, and hopefully that builds a little confidence moving forward.

"You saw a lot of things that we worked on, essentially this week, things that we felt like we could do well within the game, and we executed our game plan really well the first half...I feel like we just needed to get a result to get us moving in the right direction, and hopefully, you’ll see a little bit more of that moving forward."

Next up for DC United is a trip to the Philadelphia Union on Friday evening.