While a slow start to the season was to be expected given Philadelphia Union’s tough opening series of fixtures, it never needed to look this miserable. A missed penalty, a straight red, and an own goal; Sunday’s matchup looked like the Union was playing against itself, and losing. With a daunting matchup against Atlanta United next week, the Union will have a lot of work ahead of them after this loss against Sporting KC.

Welcome to the Kai Wagner show

The one silver lining for the Union was Kai Wagner’s stellar showing at left outside back. If the Union are asking for transition football, then it looks like Wagner is the only one that’s gotten the memo. He reported the most tackles and the most interceptions for the team, while offensively contributing the most touches for a second week in a row. It’s no surprise then that 41% of the Union’s drives originated from Wagner’s left side, compared to 30% down the right and only 29% down the center. When you consider the fact that Wagner had the highest passing accuracy on the team at 91.9%, it’s looking like the 22-year-old could make a major contribution to the Union this season.

The rest of the defense was also better this week than last, barring Jack Elliott’s own goal and Trusty’s foul that gave away the opening penalty goal. Gaddis still has plenty of room to grow, but his performance surpassed last week’s showing. Likewise, Elliott was able to harass Sporting KC’s attack and clean up dangerous crosses. He numbered 9 clearances and 3 blocks – the most of any defender – and the majority of them were from inside the box.

At the same time however, the Union’s backline is running out of time to get to the next level of play. The Union’s recurrent storyline of a strong defensive performance negated by one or two vital errors has been accepted as growing pains for long enough. It’s time for the young and promising defensive lineup of the Union to put in strong defensive performances, full stop. Whether they can cross that chasm over the course of this season will be a key factor in determining how far the Union are able to go.

The midfield that is supposed to be everywhere

The Union midfield, featuring the introduction of Warren Creavalle in place of Ilsinho, looked a certain measure better than it did last week against Toronto FC. While Harris Medunjanin has been one of the biggest suppliers for the Union’s strikers, his greatest improvement this week was actually attempting to play a center defensive midfielder. He tracked back and looked less lethargic, which is promising since the coaching staff have shown no inclination to change course in trusting Medunjanin with the keys to the defensive midfield. Additionally, Creavalle brought more stability to the midfield than Ilsinho and seemed to fit the new system in a way that showed on the pitch. Head coach Jim Curtin seemed to acknowledge as much when he replaced Burke with Ilsinho, rather than subbing Ilsinho into the same position in midfield from last week.

Despite the improvements above, the Union midfield still seemed mercurial at times. While the centerpiece of the Union’s new system is supposed to be a dynamic midfield that seamlessly transitions from defense to attack and vice versa, it seemed like much of the Union’s play circumvented the midfield entirely. With the freedom given to the outside backs to carry the ball down the wings, a lot of the Union’s attacks went straight from the back four to the front two. At times throughout the match, it seemed like the midfield’s contribution hinged solely on throwing the ball ahead of Burke or Picault to collect and attack with, almost resembling a hockey-like “dump and chase” philosophy. While the Union midfield did play decently when they had the ball, particularly in the first half, there were stretches of time where the Union midfield was non-existent, even before the Union went down to 10 men.

In any other context, it could be chalked up as a consequence of the flow of play and adapting to the situation at hand, but since the Union are placing so much investment and emphasis on building up the midfield, it leaves a lot of questions. In fact, it seems like the Union midfield played a much more prominent role for the team within last year’s possession-heavy approach than it has been playing this year. The season is still young, and maybe this is something that the coaching staff and squad can figure out, but the Union will have to be very careful to avoid trying to have the midfield be everywhere, and ultimately end up with the midfield being nowhere.

Marco Fabian can’t fly

The fatal flaw for the Union somehow ended up being Marco Fabian’s inability to defy gravity, fly, or teleport away from a reckless challenge. Although it’s impossible to analyze how Fabian could have played better in that situation – at least with humanity’s current understanding of physics and kinetic energy – it does offer an opportunity to consider the role that officiating has and will continue to play for the Union.

In the Union’s first week match against Toronto FC, the referee gave away a very soft penalty call that could have kicked down the Union’s chances before the match-up even got fully underway, if it weren’t for Andre Blake coming up strong in goal. In the Union’s match against Sporting KC, another soft penalty call from the referee created the gap that an inexplicable red card definitively sealed. Poor refereeing has had a front stage role in both of the Union’s matchups this season.

On the flip side, there were multiple counterattacks that saw the Union burst down the wings in a dangerous style. These were promptly shut down by Sporting KC through the tactical use of fouls. The perfect example was in the 68th minute, when Fafa Picault beat Sporting KC’s Graham Zusi on the left side to go two-on-two alongside Burke. Zusi immediately got up, and kicked down Picault from behind. The Union’s counterattack – which is the crux of their entire strategy – was shut down with little effort through the use of a tactical foul, and Zusi received nothing more than a “stern talking to,” despite already being on a yellow card from the first half.

This is important to acknowledge for two main reasons. The first is to highlight the need for better refereeing in the MLS, which is a point that nearly all soccer fans in the United States have acknowledged for a while now. It’s unfortunate that a league growing as fast as the MLS has such poor quality in its officiating, and something needs to be done about it.

The second reason is more topical to the Union: one of the drawbacks of the Union’s play style is that it leaves the team susceptible to the whim of referees, and that is a dangerous thing for a team that claims that “No One Likes Us.”

On the offensive side, the Union are attempting to move to a system that relies on fast transitions that expose the opposition defensively. This means explosive runs and beating players one-on-one to create open space to exploit. Both of these components to the Union game plan have the weakness of being extremely easy to shut down with a simple foul. This wouldn’t be a problem if the officiating were consistent, but unfortunately, the refereeing personalities play as much a role in determining decisions in the MLS as the rules of the game do. Therefore, the Union have to figure out how to implement their game plan without being ineffectualized by tactical fouls.

This is a major issue defensively as well, since the new system leaves the Union’s defenders more exposed and requires them to play more scrappily and more aggressively. Naturally, when Union defenders are lunging, blocking, and tackling in high stakes situations, referees are much more likely to call penalties and misread situations. The Union have already conceded two penalties and gotten a red card, and it’s not even week 3 of the season. Combining a young backline that is still gaining experience with a system that asks them to execute flawlessly in high-stakes situations is a treacherous road, and it’s one that the Union will have to tread carefully. It seems like the Union’s play style is playing its weaknesses rather than its strengths.

Additionally, the Union’s reliance on playing the ball in the air, and using headers and aerial duels to push the flow of play forward, is a liability since the league’s referees are quick to call fouls when player’s heads are involved. While players like Burke have always been given more than their share of fouls for going into aerial duels, placing as much emphasis on aerial play as the Union has been is needlessly playing into other team’s hands. Marco Fabian’s first yellow card exemplified that.

And on the Union go from here

While the team looked better in Week 2 than it did in Week 1, the scoresheet looked pretty much the same. If Marco Fabian had put his penalty away and learned to defy gravity, it might have been an entirely different match, which is a good sign against a team as dominant as Sporting KC have been. Next week’s matchup against Atlanta might not be any prettier, however. It will likely fall on the Union’s matchups against Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati in the second half of March to determine whether or not the new system is truly working. In the meantime, they have a lot to improve on. Like any of the recent seasons with the Union, there is a lot to be skeptical about and some things to be hopeful about.