CHESTER — The Philadelphia Union and CF Montreal began Friday sitting 10th and 11th, respectively, in the Eastern Conference standings with nine matches to play in the MLS season. With nine teams making the postseason, it could’ve been a do-or-die six-pointer, the kind of game that defines crunch time in a league where parity reigns.
Instead, the teams played out the joyless, AppleTV-lineup-padding charade that is the Leagues Cup Round of 32 before a three-quarters empty stadium under leaden skies.
Tai Baribo scored an opportunistic goal on the stroke of halftime, then sealed his brace in second-half stoppage time to see the Union past Montreal, 2-0.
The Union advance to take on the winner of Friday night’s game between FC Cincinnati and Mexican club Santos Laguna in the Round of 16. The Union would visit Cincinnati or host Santos.
The game’s opening goal fit the occasion perfectly. After being on different pages for just about every passage of the first 45 minutes, forwards Sam Adeniran and Baribo got one right. Adeniran shook his defender and got to the byline to the right of goalie Jonathan Sirois’ right. Sirois stopped his sharp-angle shot for his fourth save of the half, but the carom bounded off the legs of Baribo on the doorstep and in.
Baribo clinched it in stoppage time, he and Jack McGlynn breaking loose on a 2-on-1 counter. The midfielder baited the defender and laid off with the outside of his foot to Baribo, who one-timed home his ninth goal of the season and third in this competition.
The teams have played two befuddling games this season, the Union squandering leads in both a 2-2 draw in Chester June 1 and a shambolic 4-2 loss in Montreal on June 29. Friday’s affair, in the marketing course final project come to life that is Leagues Cup, had none of that spice.
The teams played a first half befitting the sideshow nature of the competition, the general vibe a good training run under the lights.
As is required by CONCACAF-affiliated competitions, it included a puzzling penalty decision, with Montreal defender Joel Waterman falling in the box with his arm in the way of a goal-bound shot but referee Daniel Quintero seeing nothing amiss. Sirois made the save on the sequence, then a follow-up stop on a glancing header by Jack Elliott seconds later.
Adeniran got a step on the defense in the 25th minute, but his effort was right at the feet of Sirois to kick away.
Andre Blake, absent for both of the debacles against Montreal this season, showed the difference he makes in the ninth.
Jakob Glesnes was caught upfield in an awful step that lead to a Montreal jailbreak, but Blake came off his line to smother a chance by Bryce Duke that should’ve made it 1-0. Sub Sunisi Ibrahim, a Union killer in the past, had a weak header in second-half stoppage time saved easily by Blake, his second save of the game.
Since Blake’s return from injury, the Union have allowed two goals in five matches. They had conceded 20 in their previous eight games.
Adeniran could’ve doubled the edge in the 52nd minute when Daniel Gazdag played him in, but the recently acquired striker’s quick release on a turning shot was met by an even better save from Sirois, extending his left arm to paddle it away.
The Union got a scary moment in the 60th, when Gazdag hit the deck. He was subbed off holding his lower back and went immediately to the locker room.
The Union should’ve seen their lead fritter away in the 81st, when Olivier Mbaizo and McGlynn both declined to get on a loose ball in midfielder. The left Dominic Iankov all alone to try and tap home a cross from Matias Coccaro, but Iankov yanked his effort well high.
The Union had a hearts-in-throats moment in the 86th when Mbaizo took a big swing at a loose ball and maybe caught a piece of Ibrahim. Quintero went straight to his pocket for a red card, then video review bought him to his senses to downgrade it to a yellow.
Both teams have been active this week in the transfer market, though none of the new signings were available.
The Union on Thursday sealed a deal for Haitian midfielder Danley Jean Jacques from French Ligue 2 side FC Metz. Montreal acquired former New York Red Bulls midfielder Caden Clark from Minnesota United Thursday and Toronto Homegrown Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty for a boatload of allocation money that could total $1.3 million.
Source: Berkshire mont
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