A day after Philadelphia Union’s bruising 2-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders in their first match, everyone is weighing in. And why not? It was a strange match that saw an unusual starting lineup for Philly that even tricked up the Union’s own PR staff. The Union’s team leader got his first card less than a minute into the match, and the Union unsurprisingly went one-man down shortly before halftime in a match replete with Union bookings.
PSP’s Tim Uhrich evaluated the Union’s young players — and, if you missed it, had a running play-by-play on Twitter last night — and the PSP will have more later on the match. (Also, check out the video highlights on the sidebar down to your right.)
For now, let’s take a run through other looks at the match from around the web.
Goal.com has the most thorough review of the game, courtesy of their Seattle correspondent.
Soccer America also has a good breakdown.
The Philadelphia Daily News was there too, and credit them for actually someone who’s played the sport covering the team.
ESPN and the AP have standard wraps.
Nowak complains after the game about Seattle’s flopping. Sure, they flopped a bit, but anyone who saw Dave Myrie’s sloppy shoulder block toward the end of the game knows that the Union handed out their fair share of hockey checks.
C. Horridus asks whether Union manager Peter Nowak went awry with his unusual starting lineup for Thursday night’s game.
90 Minutes Soccer says “Philadelphia Union look awful” in their debut. Ouch.
The Delaware County Times looks at the Union’s unenviable position of going up against the NCAA tournament on TV last night. Of course, considering how ridiculously good this year’s NCAAs have been, there’s just nothing you can do about that.
(Photo: Philadelphia Union.)
Well, mixed feelings. On the more positive side, Torres and Le Toux seemed quite good, and Seitz had a good game (my only possible gripe was that his punch before the second goal could have been higher/wider, but that’s nitpicking), and when the team had time to think and be organized, they looked composed and confident with the ball, but there were more negatives than positives. First, Moreno was anonymous. Stahl, while both fouls hardly looked liked yellows to me, was stupid to make them where he did–neither needed to happen. Myrie looked slow all night (both physically and mentally), and allowed Zakuani to get behind him on a simple overlap for the first goal (and if he hadn’t gotten injured/subbed, he might have gotten a second yellow himself), and Jacobsen was way slow to get off the goal line for the second, allowing Montero a free header to score.
Basically, Seattle’s a good team, and Philly’s young and looked like it. Keeping the score at 2-nil after going a man down is a good thing, and it’s only game one, but there’s lots of work to be done! We’ll be better than we were tonight, I should think.
That 90 Minutes Soccer article has too many exclamation marks to take seriously.
Seattle is a very well-coached team. As soon as they went up a man they knew exactly what to do. They get all the credit in the world for that.
I think Jeremy L summed it up really nicely, “Basically, Seattle’s a good team, and Philly’s young and looked like it.”
It was a little disappointing that the refs were giving out yellows like they were candy… and Freddie. Good on Nowak for calling him out! I was watching the match with a some gooners and even they were ashamed.
I wish Mwanga would’ve made a bigger splash as well..