CHESTER – Seven days ago in Columbus, with a chance to play for a trophy on the line, the Crew showed how much better at full strength they are than the Philadelphia Union.
With their reserves to draw on Wednesday after lifting the Leagues Cup three days earlier, Wilfried Nancy’s team neutralized the Union for an hour, then put the foot down with the big guns off the bench.
Yaw Yeboah scored a well-worked goal in the 75th minute, denying the Union points at home in a must-win affair, 1-0, at Subaru Park.
The Union (6-11-9, 27 points) failed to capitalize on one of only four remaining home games, on a day when even a draw would’ve been a disappointment. They sit 10th in the East, a point out of the playoffs and trying to keep alive their stretch of six straight seasons in the playoffs.
But five of their remaining eight games are on the road, and seven are against playoff teams. They start a run of three straight on the road Saturday at New York Red Bulls, followed by a three-game week out of the September international break that includes trips to Inter Miami and New York City FC.
The Crew (13-4-7, 46 points) had started to tip the game in their favor around the hour mark, with six of the first seven shots on target before the goal. Then they introduced Diego Rossi and Yeboah as part of a triple sub in the 63rd minute, then added Cucho Hernandez and Darlington Nagbe 10 minutes later.
Just about all of them touched the ball on the goal-scoring move. Hernandez pushed the action, sending in fellow sub Max Arfsten to get to the endline. Arfsten crossed across the face of goal, and Yeboah planted the header from the edge of the 6-yard box just inside the left post.
Hernandez spared the Union with a chance to end it in the 86th when he and Rossi embarked on a counterattack, rolling his effort from the right channel wide.
The Union, who rolled out such powerhouses as Jack McGlynn and Mikael Uhre off a thin bench, mustered just two shots on target. Tai Baribo had a header from an oblique angle saved in the 54th minute, and McGlynn’s rip from 30 yards deflected and nearly wrong-footed goalie Patrick Schulte, who scooped it over the bar in the 77th.
The first half wasn’t much to write home about, played with the vigor of two teams jamming a rescheduled game into midweek after both were occupied by Leagues Cup last Saturday. The Crew made 10 changes from the squad that won Leagues Cup Sunday over Los Angeles FC, only Sean Zawadzski retaining his place.
The Union, though more desperate for the result, didn’t exactly push the pace.
Columbus had both of the first half’s shots on target, the Union matching it was two strikes of the woodwork. Baribo’s came first. Honored pre-game as the Golden Boot winner of the Leagues Cup, he nearly had a 14th goal in as many starts when he made a near-post run and flicked a ball from Quinn Sullivan that beat Schulte but caromed off the post.
Sullivan hit the crossbar in the 38th, his rising shot from 8 yards out getting past Schulte but not the woodwork.
Andre Blake got his hand to a tricky low shot by Aziel Jackson in the 23rd minute, nudging it wide of the post. Jacen Russell-Rowe’s shot from the top of the box in the 42nd was easily gloved and held.
Baribo had the first shot on target in the 54th, Olivier Mbaizo’s second ball off a cleared free kick floating to him at the back post. But Schulte came out to close down the angle and body away the header.
NOTES >> Former Union Homegrown Derrick Jones, calling Columbus his sixth employer, picked up a yellow card in the third minute. … Danley Jean Jacques made his first start for the Union. He went 72 minutes in a flat 4-4-2, generally keeping things calm in the middle of the pitch. … The Union’s thin defensive corps got thinner in the 20th minute when Nathan Harriel walked off holding his back after an awkward fall. He was replaced by Mbaizo. The starting right back is also the de facto third center back.
Source: Berkshire mont
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