It’s been the way of the Philadelphia Union this season that the less sense a result makes on paper, the more likely it is to happen between the lines.
So against the last remaining MLS unbeaten at home, a New York Red Bulls team that has allowed the third-fewest first-half goals in MLS, and coming off a midweek squandering of points at home to Columbus, it made perfect sense in the Union’s upside-down world to score twice in the first 14 minutes and run out of Harrison with a 2-0 win.
It’s the Union’s fourth away win of the season, against just three at home.
That both flies in the face of the prevailing logic of the league and accounts for why the Union (7-11-9, 30 points) remain out of the playoffs in 10th in the Eastern Conference. They are one point behind Atlanta United, the only team in the pack of playoff chasers to win on a Saturday when a lot of things broke the Union’s way.
“Our home form kills us right now,” manager Jim Curtin said. “We lost to — I don’t want to say bad teams — but we lost a lot of points from positions where we should’ve been comfortable and deserved points, and it hurts. I don’t have the answer as to why we’ve lost so much. I know it’s unacceptable and I will not go through another season where it happens, so we’ll do everything in our power to change it.”
Only San Jose, buried all by itself below the bottom of the table, has fewer points at home this season than the Union’s 13, a 3-7-4 record at Subaru Park. Yet their 17 points on the road is ninth in MLS. The eight teams ahead of them are all well-ensconced in playoff positions.
The Union have three matches left at home: Sept. 22 against 11th-place D.C., Sept. 28 against ninth-place Atlanta and against Cincinnati on Decision Day. The first two are three-point must-haves, in the most absolute of terms to make the last one relevant.
For whatever mysterious reason, though, the Union can’t seem to bottle their road form and replicate it at home.
Saturday, that meant strikes from Mikael Uhre in the fourth minute and Tai Baribo in the 14th, both counterattacking goals against a stubborn Red Bulls side determined to push the game. It left space behind for Uhre, and he could’ve had a second goal just a minute before Baribo scored. The Union controlled the middle of the pitch early, a great shift from Danley Jean Jacques in his second start and the passing of Jack McGlynn against a team he traditional haunts.
“With the way Red Bulls play with Mikael, he’s a weapon because their center backs are brave and they’ll step on the other side of midfield,” Curtin said. “And that leaves him open in transition. I thought he came off the back line and set them up early to receive some balls at his feet and lays them back to Dani (Gazdag), which then sets up the next play where now the center backs are aggressive and maybe overplay him and he can get in behind.”
A little luck didn’t hurt, Red Bulls hitting the post four times, though that flattered their 1.6 xG. It also fits a seasonlong underperformance on xG by players not named Lewis Morgan. Elias Manoel had three of the woodwork clangs, though only a header in the 70th minute was a clear-cut chance.
Andre Blake made four saves. It’s the same total as Carlos Coronel, though the former Union man was left to rue soft concessions from outside the box, even if they came off sound setups.
The early goals were the Union at their best, backed by a “gutsy” performance to hold on after half.
They are, one might say, the kind of goals that have plagued the Union at home all year, saves that goalies not named Blake have been unable to make. The Union are unbeaten in their last 14 games in all competitions against the Red Bulls (9-0-5), including two MLS Cup playoffs games.
The Red Bulls win fits one other pattern: inability to convey momentum.
The Union won two straight games headed into the Leagues Cup break. They were 3-0-4, MLS’s last unbeaten, when the league broke for the April internationals. And they have wind in their sails just in time to sit for two weeks and play Inter Miami, likely with Lionel Messi returning, on Sept. 14, to start three games in eight days.
It’s a suboptimal schedule, but then that’s nothing new.
“I think they found energy,” Curtin said. “This rivalry tends to bring out the best in the group. I think we were all disappointed in losing to a very strong Columbus team at home, but we had a great response and got a very important three points.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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