CHESTER — Among the mountain of oddities befuddling the Philadelphia Union this season is this odd propensity: At home, where it’s supposed to be easier to do so, the Union struggle to score. On the road, where goals are hard to come by, no problem.
Manager Jim Curtin isn’t able to divine quite why that is. He just hopes that it can continue this weekend when the Union pay a visit to Toronto FC (7:30 p.m., AppleTV) and hopefully bring along their newfound defensive solidity.
“I don’t know what it is, what’s causing the goals to go in on the road and maybe a tenseness in front of goal at home, but it’s something we have to fight through,” Curtin said Thursday. “When we do get leads on the road, it is hard to close games out because teams throw a lot of numbers forward, but we have to be a little bit more strong and stable, bend but don’t break.”
Some of it has to do with how the Union want to play.
Teams have come to Chester this year and dared the Union to break them down with the ball. A team that is not especially adept in possession and even less so as injuries and the departure of Julian Carranza has robbed them of lineup continuity, Curtin’s team is better suited to situations where the other team has the ball and they can counterattack.
Many of the Union’s maladies break down along the reverse home/away splits.
The Union (4-4-9, 21 points) are second-worst in the Eastern Conference in goals scored at home with 13 in 11 games. They’re tied for first in away goals scored with 23. The teams they’re tied with are first-place FC Cincinnati and second-place Inter Miami.
The Union have been shut out four times. Three have been at Subaru Park, including a lifeless 0-0 draw with Toronto on May 29. The 23 goals scored away from Chester have been counteracted by 21 conceded in 11 games, far too many to sustain results.
There’s hope on that front, though, with Andre Blake back in training this week and Andrew Rick having kept a clean sheet last week against a very good New York Red Bulls team.
That ended a disastrous run of 18 goals allowed in six games, with injuries to midfield forcing Curtin into a back-to-basics formation of three center backs that seemed to work. If the Union can keep the offense trending away from home and shore up the defense, then maybe a nine-game winless streak might finally be banished.
Something has to give between these teams.
The Union have one win since mid-April, a 1-9-6 slog. But a win Saturday would draw them level on points with TFC (7-13-3, 24 points), which occupies the ninth and final playoff spot in the East.
A decent run through the next three winnable games — Toronto, vs. New England and vs. Nashville, none higher than eighth in the table — could see the Union above the playoff line and in top-six contention as the schedule pauses for the Leagues Cup.
Toronto has been almost as bad. The Reds have lost their last six and are winless in nine.
They have one win since the first weekend of May (1-9-2) and are coming off a midweek loss to second-division Forge FC in the first leg of the Canadian Championship semifinals, one that led to a mutual parting of ways with longtime team President Bill Manning.
The Union are getting healthier, with Jesus Bueno and Mikael Uhre back. Nate Harriel and Jack McGlynn will miss the trip and the next three league games away with the U.S. Olympic team, but otherwise the team is deeper than it’s been in weeks.
In a battle of two teams desperate to turn around their seasons, it’s likely to come down less to tactics and pretty football than simple desire to get a result.
“This game against Toronto is a big one for both teams,” Curtin said. “We’re both struggling, both not where we want to be. I think both have more quality within their group than the point total shows. But we are what your record says you are, and we have to find a way to get a result. And it starts with continuing to score goals on the road but then being sound defensively to close the game out.”
Source: Berkshire mont
Be First to Comment