Featured / Union / Union match reports

Philadelphia Union 3-2 DC United

Michael Farfan scored a brilliant second half winner and Sebastien Le Toux had two goals before half time as the Union moved into second place in the Eastern Conference with an entertaining 3–2 win over DC United. The Union were two goals to the good in just 15 minutes from two masterful Le Toux goals. But United fought back through goals from Dwanye De Rosario and Andy Najar and the game was tied at half time. Michael Farfan assured the points for Philadelphia with a beauty of goal early in the second half.

The win puts the Union on 43 points, just one point behind conference leading Kansas City with a game in hand.

Four Goal First Half

Peter Nowak stuck with almost the same line up he used on the weekend against Kansas City with only a healthy Sheanon Williams returning at right back to replace Kyle Nakazawa and Michael Farfan moving up into the midfield in his place. Freddy Adu was confined to the bench for the start against his former team, while Danny Mwanga again missed out with a hip injury.

The game started brightly for Philadelphia, taking the lead in just the 4th minute. A ball played over the top for Veljko Paunovic was cut off by Ethan White who could only nod his defensive header into the path of Le Toux, who slid his shot to the right of the onrushing Bill Hamid.

Le Toux had his second on 15 minutes when Michael Farfan lofted a perfect 30 yard ball into the striker’s path, where the Frenchman took it down with his chest and again got the better of Hamid from 12 yards.

United was quick to respond. An in form Dwayne De Rosario nodded in an Austin Du Luz corner on 22 minutes. Andy Najar then brought DC equal on 30 minutes with a great individual effort, taking the ball 90 yards from his own box and drilling a shot into Zac MacMath’s short side. The Union were a disaster defending the counterattack. MacMath will be disappointed to be beaten at his near post but he got no help from either Marfan or Williams on the play.

Marfan is the Difference

Carlos Valdes missed a wide open header on 53 minutes from a corner kick before Michael Farfan scored his decisive goal on 56 minutes. The midfielder played a one-two with Roger Torres 30 yards from goal before calmly finding a shooting lane from just outside the area to drive a brilliant left footed shot into corner of Hamid’s goal. The rookie showed tremendous poise to wait for the opportunity to open up and his shot was unstoppable into the top left corner.

DC United almost equalized when on 64 minutes Josh Wolff picked out Najar streaking in on the back post unmarked, but the winger could only nod his header wide from 8 yards.

Freddy Adu was introduced against his former team, replacing Roger Torres. Adu still looked a step slow, possibly slowed down by a nagging ankle injury. His performance seemed a bit out of sync, and he failed to hook up with striking partner Le Toux on multiple occasions. Presented with multiple opportunities to shoot himself, he had a number of shots blocked by closing defenders as he took too long to strike the ball.

Following De Rosario’s subbing off on 62 minutes after seemingly taking a knock, the United attack looked few on ideas and a tighter Union defense was able to see the game out.

The result is huge for the Union as they keep pace with Kansas City, Columbus and Houston for the top three spots in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia will have a quick turnaround and travel to Los Angeles on Saturday to play against Chivas on Sunday.

17 Comments

  1. Great win!

    Another great game by Califf/Valdes in CD. Califf continues to be a monster in the air.

    Marfan cannot come out of the line-up for the rest of the season. I don’t care if it means sub duty for Adu

    The lone “lowlight” of the match — any time Mapp touched the ball. He was awfully, horrendously craptastic last night. Moreover, you could visibly see the other players’ frustration with his play.

    • Mike Servedio says:

      I was surprised to see Mapp replace Okugo at half time. I thought Amobi had one of his best games last night in the first half. The two balls he played to Williams were perfect. Sheanon’s been making that run all season with no service, they finally get someone to get him the ball and he only gets 45 mins.

    • Guuuhhh Mapp was AWFUL!!! How about that clunker he had when he let the ball go right under his foot and out of bounds? BRILLIANT!!!

      FREE KEON!!!

  2. Biggest win in franchise history.

  3. a well-fought win last night, showing a lot of grit for such a young line up.

    macmath needed to be better on both goals, but was let down again by his defense, leaving people too much space. it’s a shame.

    it seemed like mapp and adu were waiting for someone to tell them they could play, lots of slow touches and negative possession.

    1 point off with a game in hand is a great place to be, though.

  4. Great win, wish I could’ve watched more of the game, had to deal with a stupid thing called work. One USMNT note I took from the match was how set the Nats look in goal for the future. Zac and Hamid have looked solid in goal, a great sign as both are only 20 years old. They should have an interesting personal duel for the USMNT’s #1 jeresy in the not too distant future.

    • Eli Pearlman-Storch says:

      Right? It wasnt that long ago that everyone was panicking about where the next class of quality US goalkeepers was going to come from. Sean Johnson for Chicago is also a phenomenal athlete and a very promising young keeper.

  5. I was actually somewhat impressed because this was the first game I saw Adu look like he was running the offense. He wasn’t doing a particularly good job of it, always a step late on catching Le Toux’s runs, but still a positive sign. Interesting point: he did well, but this is the first game of the last 4 or so that I wasn’t angry at Torres being taken off.

    Mapp for Okugo kind of makes sense (the switch to a more attacking formation does, at least, as well as adding more width), but I didn’t really want either Okugo off or Mapp on.

    Paunovic looked okay in the first half, but very flat in the second. There were a couple of balls in the air that he should have gotten, but just did not have it. I’d love to see McInerney (who has shockingly few minutes this season) in there for him.

    And last, but definitely not least, why the hell did Marfan/Garfan switch right after Le Toux’s second goal? It made no sense, given that they’re each better than the other at the position they started, and Najar showed why.

  6. PhillyHotSpur says:

    Interesting game to say the least………

    Letoux is a stud…..his runs are amazing……..he is constantly pushing the BL w/ legitimate runs driving the opponents bockers………all you haters – where are you now ?
    Farfan……..absolute cracker.

    for the rest
    Zack Macmath – might be good one day but was pretty terrible out there…….out of position too many times. coming out of the net and not getting contact on the ball leaving him in terrible position………lets get mondragon in there asap

    mapp……..terrible. his confidence is shaken

    Torres was solid………leading on to Nowak

    a terrible sub for Adu…….bring the serb off.

    Mapp for Okugo..huh ??????

    Still waiting on a starting 11 that is a consistent 11…………

    Either way, lovely night at the Park and 3 points

    And props to DC United fans…….loud nad into the game. created a lovely atmosphere outside of the fact that i was cutoff from the only Boddington beer stand in the park. GN

    • Got to say I aosolutely agree with you on Le Toux. Fat Chooch is a distant memory thank heavens.

      A man cut off from his Bods is sad indeed!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*