Photo: Michael Long
Philadelphia Union
John Hackworth said after Saturday’s loss to New York, “I think that we did what we needed to do, but in the end it’s hard to swallow that result, especially the way it happened. We made a defensive mistake on the goal. But for me and the rest of the staff, there’s a clear foul way before that. How it’s not called is frustrating…I’m walking away from this place, and especially being in this room the last two times when we didn’t deserve it, we have to do a better job. We have to play better. We did what we needed to do in the first half to really put ourselves in a better position, and we didn’t execute the way we’re capable of at all. That’s a little frustrating.”
Jeff Parke said of the game-winning goal, “It’s just one of the balls that gets lofted up and then we try to cut off the cross. It didn’t happen. And maybe we get other guys in the box and it doesn’t happen. It happened so fast. It’s not like, hey, we had all the time in the world to realize the ball was coming in.”
Zac MacMath said of the Henry goal, “He found himself free behind our two center backs, trapped it with his thigh and just turned and hit it. It’s tough because all the guys that played today were tough and put a lot of fight into it. To give up a goal like that and to go down like that late is very tough on the whole mentality of the team.”
Amobi Okugo added, “It’s crazy, the supersub. When you have Thierry Henry, a DP, coming off the bench. But you know, we knew the task at hand, we knew it was a possibility he was going to get the start or come off the bench, same with (Tim) Cahill, same with Juninho, so we knew we had to be prepared for [him] when he came on with fresh legs against our tired legs.”
On the plus side, Conor Casey came in in the 61st minute and scored his first goal of the season two minutes later. Casey said, “It was good to get the first one, but I was disappointed in the result, first and foremost.”
Did Casey deserve a yellow for his challenge on Luis Robles? “I was tracking the ball and by the time I saw his blue jersey it was too late,” Casey said. “So, fair enough, it was probably a yellow card.”
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In the slideshow-list world that passes for writing at the Bleacher Report, Sebastien Le Toux is described as “invisible for much of the game for the Union,” completing “an abysmal eight of his 16 attempted passes on the day.” Sheanon Williams, Michael Farfan, and Jack McInerney are praised as “players to keep an eye on.”
Now in their fourth season, the Union still have not earned a point, let alone three points, at Red Bull Arena and, overall, have not defeated New York since April 9, 2011. What gives?
Williams said, “There are no superstitions or anything about playing here. We can beat them if we play well. And we didn’t play well. So we deserved to lose…I’m not going to say this is a hard place to play. They’re a good team. They played better than us. And they won the game.”
MacMath said, “I don’t think there’s any reason we can’t win here or win against [the Red Bulls] in general. This was one of the best games since I’ve been to Philly that we’ve played against them. I think we can build on this one, and hopefully the next time we play them we’ll grab all three points.”
Brian Carroll said, “I’m not going to say that we deserved anything, but at the time I thought we at least had a chance to get a point. They had a couple of good buildups, a couple of good long balls and opportunities. Zac (MacMath) came up huge on a couple, but the one we let up, it was just a good goal.
Hackworth said, “We lacked that final pass, that final dribble, that final shot. In the end, I don’t think anyone on my team executed well today.”
There’s this:
Join us as we welcome José Kleberson to the Union this Wednesday, April 3, 5-7pm at na’Brasa (North Easton Road, Horsham, PA).
— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) April 1, 2013
Apparently, Kleberson watched the game from a luxury box at Red Bull Arena along with his family and Nick Sakiewicz. More from Soccer America and ProSoccerTalk on Kleberson’s arrival with the Union.
Local
Penn Live.com has a profile of Harrisburg City Islanders winger Tom Mellor from Michael Bullock of The Patriot-News.
Philadelphia-born goalkeeper Jeremy Vuolo, who was last with New York and recently announced his retirement from the game in order to be a minister, has signed with the NASL’s San Antonio Scorpions.
MLS
Montreal remains in first place in the Eastern Conference despite their 2-0 loss to Kansas City, who are now in third. Houston are in second place and have extended their unbeaten streak at home to 34 games with a 2-0 win over San Jose. Columbus, with the weekend off, drop to fourth place while the Union drop to No. 5 in the Eastern Conference and New York moves up to No. 6. Toronto move to No. 7 with a 2-2 draw against LA. Eighth place DC had the weekend off while New England is in ninth place after a 1-0 loss at home to Dallas. Chicago, who also had the weekend off, are in tenth place.
In case you missed it, the Red Bulls waived Josue Martinez on Friday. You will recall that New York acquired Martinez as part of the deal that saw Sebastien Le Toux return to Philadelphia.
Landon Donovan played 29 minutes as a sub for LA on Saturday and said after the game, “I felt like I felt when I was a little kid today. That’s the feeling I want back. I was excited to be out there. I was engaged, I was aware and sort of in the moment, and enjoyed it.”
NWSL
Former Philadelphia Independence captain Nikki Krzysik, selected as a first round pick by Seattle Reign, has decided to instead to play for San Diego Sea Lions in the WPSL.
US
Friday, April 5, marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the US Soccer Federation in New York. The federation will be hosting several events throughout the week in New York to celebrate the occasion.
Nike is celebrating the anniversary with an extensive line of centennial swag.
Elsewhere
It’s April Fools Day, so I trust nothing. This would be cool, though, and I’m not even a gamer.
This is why I didn’t want Okugo to play CB. I didn’t want to expose him to situations like that. Everyone loves him and his honeymoon has lasted longer than normal, but at the end of the day he is not a CB and his talent is wasted.
When push comes to shove, is he someone who can prevent a goal like that to save a game? Can he be trusted to lock that chance down to stop the goal? Not at this point. And about to be traded is someone we know has shown the ability to do just that in the past. A 6’4 former defender of the year candidate.
That is why this Soumare situation is so infuriating. We had a chance to make our team MUCH stronger overall.
I htink that’s harsh. Yes, Okugo should have tracked Henry’s run better, but it’s not like he’s unable to do so, or to learn from this. There’s also no guarantees Soumaré tracks the run, or Parke does.
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Also, we should note that the quality of the lofted pass to Henry was of the highest quality, and that the finish was superb. He’s a world-class player, you know? Probably the best player in MLS. Sometimes, he’s going to beat you.
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That said, I agree that Soumaré is too good to let go. But you know what? I think Okugo might be a CB, for real, in which case it behooves us to keep him there, so he learns and performs for the Union, not somebody else.
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In the end, the Union lost this game because they failed to do much worthwhile offensively. Too often the Union sent aimless long balls up the pitch with no plan. That will not cut it.
I totally agree with the last paragraph here. It was the Union offense rather than the defense that let them down Saturday. How many times in the first half did New York totally gift the ball to the Union midfield and all the U could do was dribble the ball into three defenders and turn it right back over. I also remember one time the ball was about a yard away from the NY end line and the Union managed through a series of passes to get the ball to MacMath’s feet without NY coming close to touching the ball.
How many people has henry exposed around the world with that type of play. His legs may age, his endurance wane but the skill to take a ball down and hit the back of the net does not. My guess is pele could still score if given a foot of space and a nice lofted ball. Zidaneput a cross ito the upper ninety off a head ball etc.
To be taken to the clenaers by henry is something Okugo now has in common with many much more heralded center backs.
i’ve never played football manager but i’d totally play that were it real.
It’s unnerving that our manager thinks that the Union did what they needed to do, against NY. We were unable to generate chances and were dominated, in terms of possession. Passing was poor and did little to advance play. The Union seemed to do little more than disrupt the flow of play, on both sides of play. Is that the strategy? Muddle play and hope to get a garbage goal? What does Hackworth aim to accomplish, at the start of each match? With the starting XI chosen, it’s seems that the goal is never 3 points.