photo: 215 pix
The Philadelphia Union scored five times in the second half to defeat the New England Revolution 6-1 at Talen Energy Stadium on Saturday night. After the teams played to a gritty 1-1 scoreline at halftime with goals coming from Jack Elliott and Juan Fernando Caicedo, the Union turned up the attack in the second half and ran riot with goals from Ilsinho, Sergio Santos (2), Kacper Przybylko, and David Accam.
Jim Curtin made just one change to the team that defeated FC Cincinnati midweek, with Kai Wagner returning from suspension to reclaim his spot at left back, moving Ray Gaddis to right back and Olivier Mbaizo to the bench.
A frenetic span starting in the 10th minute saw a terrific double save from Carlos Coronel at one end and then an even better goal from Jack Elliott at the other. Coronel was strong to deny DeJuan Jones from 10 yards out, pushing his shot off the post, and then up quickly to make himself big and save the rebound chance from Juan Fernando Caicedo with his foot, almost dropping to a split to do it.
From the rebound of the save, the Union took the ball the other way in a fast sequence that ended when Ray Gaddis won a corner kick on the right side. While New England initially dealt with the corner, the ball fell to Haris Medunjanin who fired a ball back into the box for Elliott, who had stayed forward. The defender took a deft touch to knock the pass down and then turned quickly and fired a half volley into the near post from 14 yards. A terrific finish for the center back.
New England would draw level in the 36th minute. Brenden Aaronson went down with a hip injury and had to be replaced. Before Ilsinho could get on the pitch, the Revolution would draw level through Caicedo. Edgar Castillo fielded a cross field ball and drove forward down the New England right. With the Union backline backing off, Castillo was able to wait for the run of Caicedo, who lost Auston Trusty before sliding onto Castillo’s pass to hook a shoot past Coronel from 7 yards.
Philadelphia would regain the lead just after halftime through Ilsinho. The Brazilian picked up the ball on the right touchline, drove past Castillo, played a ball into Monteiro near the corner of the box and then took a pass back in full stride. With the angle against him, the midfielder cooly flipped his shot over Cropper’s shoulder at the near post from close range. The goal came in the 47th minute.
Philadelphia would get a third in the 69th minute. Good work down the left found Kai Wagner with room to send in a cross from touchline. The left back fizzed in a terrific ball that Santos just got a toe on to deflect the ball off of a retreating New England defender and past Cropper.
Santos would add a second in the 74th minute. More good work from Ilsinho on the right side led to a great ball in behind for Kacper Pryzbylko to run onto. The striker’s shot was well saved by Cropper but Santos was on hand to tap in the rebound from four yards out.
Pryzbylko would add his third goal in as many games in the 82nd minute. Again, Ilsinho was involved, this time combining with Bedoya and finding the Union captain with a great return ball in behind the New England defense. Bedoya drove the end line before pulling the ball back to Pryzbylko, who stroked home high into the net from 8 yards out.
David Accam only entered the game in the 85th minute but wasted no time adding his name to the scoresheet with a goal in the 88th minute. Santos did well to push the ball down the left side and rifled a shot that Cropper had to beat away. But Santos was quickest to the rebound that fired a cross that Cropper could only push into the path of Accam, who tapped in from close range.
The six goals equals the Union’s best offensive output. They’ll next be in action next Saturday for a clash at the top of the Eastern Conference at Toronto FC.
Three Points:
- Second half rush – After New England did well to keep the match on level terms in the first half, a ruthless Union attack put the game out of sight in the second half. Both Jim Curtin and the players said that not much needed to be said at halftime and that the players knew they had to improve. They improved by five goals
- Hey, Sergio! – Sergio Santos saw his first game time since March and left his mark with two goals. The striker also forced Cropper into a few good saves. Jim Curtin joked he should have scored five. He also should have left that cross that Ray Gaddis ran 30 yards for. The right back looked destined to score but Santos just moved in front of him to deny the opportunity.
- Carlos Coronel – The Union’s third string shot stopper pulled off a terrific double save and almost dropped to a split to deny Caicedo with his foot. It was as good a save as we’ve seen a Union goalkeeper make this season.
Line Ups:
Philadelphia Union
Carlos Miguel Coronel, Auston Trusty, Raymon Gaddis, Jack Elliott, Kai Wagner, Brenden Aaronson (Ilsinho 36′) , Alejandro Bedoya, Jamiro Monteiro (David Accam 85′), Haris Medunjanin, Fafa Picault (Sergio Santos 64′), Kacper Pryzbylko
Unused Subs: Charlie Lyon, Olivier Mbaizo, Aurelien Collin, Warren Creavalle
New England Revolution
Cody Cropper, Andrew Farrell, Luis Caidedo, Edgar Castillo (Teal Bunbury 75′), Michael Mancienne, Scott Caldwell, Carles Gil, DeJuan Jones (Cristian Penilla 65′), Tajon Buchanan, Juan Fernando Caicedo, Juan Agudelo
Unused Subs: Justin Rennicks, Wilfried Zahibo, Matt Turner, Diego Fagundez, Brian Wright
Scoring Summary
PHI: Jack Elliott – 11′ (Haris Medunjanin)
NE – Juan Fernando Caicedo – 35′ (Edgar Castillo)
PHI – Ilsinho 47′ (Jamiro Monteiro)
PHI – Sergio Santos – 69′ (Kai Wagner, Haris Medunjanin)
PHI – Sergio Santos – 74′
PHI – Kacper Przybylko – 82′ (Alejandro Bedoya, Ilsinho)
PHI – David Accam – 88′
Disciplinary Summary
NE: Juan Fernando Caicedo – 13′ (not retreating)
PHI: Jack Elliott – 24′ (unsporting behavior)
PHI: Fafa Picault – 63′(unsporting behavior)
PHI: Ilsinho – 77 (unsporting behavior)
Any video of Curtin streaking down the sideline after the fourth Union goal?
What in the hell did I just see?
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Ives compared them to Ajax, and it doesn’tfeel as ridiculous as it should. (I mean, it feels ridiculous, but less than usual…)
The new Ajax with a few vets added to the fruits of a great youth system is what I think the goal is here. And I think we could all get behind that.
Much to talk about.
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Tonight: Congrats to the team on tightening up at the half and breaking out in the second act
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And congrats to Santos for his first goal(s) for the club.
If I’m dreaming, don’t wake me up.
That was the most fun I’ve had at a game in a long time.
I couldn’t believe it when I realized it was Elliott who scored the first goal. The rest of the team needs to turn around like that and shoot in the box. If memory serves, Elliott pretty much owns New England with a couple of goals against them last year as well. For me he was the man of the match.
Couple years ago I had looked up the best Union goal differential and found a team high of +9 only once or twice. To my knowledge they had never, before tonight, been double digits to the good at any time- so a new club record tonight. Congrats to the boys. Quite a performance.
So many good things to point out. Defense turning it around after looking shaky, Elliott’s great touch, ilsinhos play, Monteiro being everywhere, Bedoya being the glue, the forward frenzy. It’s nice to have tough lineup decisions. Big year going forward for Curtin. Pretty damn solid week.
a good team taking 3 points, taking their respect, making a hapless team quit.
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nice to be on the proper side of these storylines.
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carry on.
Concise.
For a team that played Wednesday, and the way the first half went, that second was impressive. I thought they’d be gassed and struggle for a point. I said it Wednesday: the goals coming from all over is key. Plug a player in and it doesn’t matter, the team will score. I’ve seen enough to believe we’ve ample depth for the first time ever. Rotate the squad through the season — not through red cards, injury or whatever Burke’s deal — and we’ll be in good form come Oct.
They are up to 11 different players scoring on the season (the 5 tonight, Fafa, Bedoya, Monteiro, Fabian, Burke, and Aaronson) so I agree that the goals are coming from all over.
It’s not often I get to watch the Union beat the brakes off team. That was just down right impressive. Really mad I couldn’t make it in person tonight… but to the people who bought my seats on Stub Hub… This isn’t the norm, or is it?
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Are we good? Like, legit good? I think we are…
We’ll find out if they are legit good the next couple of weeks when the competition becomes a little tougher.
+1
Pinch me, I’m dreaming. What a time to be a Union fan. Am I wrong for wishing they didn’t have a week off?
Let’s give Curtin some criticism for the subs. After all, they only scored 4 goals between them. Imagine how many they could have scored if he had brought them on earlier :-).
Ilsinho is never going to start a game the rest of the season and might have his best season playing here. The right side of the goal on the river end side should be renamed Ilsinhoville’s magic land.
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Kacper Przybylko is starting to remind me of Seba in the way he is finding goals by always having the uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time.
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Welcome back the return of “The Machine”.
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Even the ref couldn’t hold this team back yesterday.
Monteiro, Monteiro, and Monteiro……..dude is a baller.
A confident, healthy, and free from gov’t BS(stay strong Corey Burke) and MLS BS Union team can play with and beat anyone. Well done! They still need an Ed Snider(passion and fire) type owner who will get out and fight and give these guys the representation they need and deserve.
What a great beginning to the season. The hard work and cohesion of this unit is bearing fruit, and the team is putting together a nice stockpile of points. I’m confident that NYRB and ATL are going to find their footing at some point this season, so as long as this team keeps taking points from the teams they should be beating and stay competitive with the top tier, there is no reason to think this won’t be a banner year for the Blue and Gold.
Moreover, the depth and momentum that so many players are enjoying right now reiterates what was said earlier—keep rotating players!
Forgive my ignorance, but where are Andre Blake and what’s going on with Burke?
Blake is out with a pulled muscle and Burke’s green card and work visa somehow didn’t go through/get renewed so he’s out of country.
To catch you up on other news, the Union are good right now even with several typical starters not in the lineup.
I only saw the condensed highlights, but from what I could see, my thoughts are…
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1. Our D looked quite shaky in the first half. A good team would’ve had us down 3-1. The midfield spacing still becomes a huge problem intermittently.
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2. Incredibly, I would believe in this team to come back from a 1-2 goal deficit now. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way about a Union squad.
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3. Our overall depth has been amazing this season, but the truly mind-boggling thing is that we’ve done most of this without the El Tri international we paid big $$$ for. Which means… this team could actually get better.
I don’t want to get too carried away with a win against an extraordinarily poor New England, but I’m really intrigued to see a combo of Przybylko and Santos up top to start. It looks like we finally have some strikers with natural noses for goals.
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Overall, team continues to move the ball around better than it ever has. Fun to watch. It will be tested in the next three matches — Toronto, Seattle and Portland.
Walking to the car I was so happy I renewed my season ticket and felt sorry for those who did not. Finally we have a team that is deep and exciting and can score. And we have a coach who adapts and make changes as required. Excited to see how it all will pan out and whether we can beat the better teams.
Don’t worry. All those people can still get tickets with all sorts of discounts anywhere in the stadium.
That’s not the point. The point is that they have missed some great games.
Fun little fact…for those playing fantasy soccer on MLSSoccer.com, there are 8 Union players on this week’s Fantasy Dream Team.
Elliot, Gaddis, Trusty
Medujanin, Bedoya, Ilsinho, Monteiro
Przybylko
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That’s just funny to me.
I saw that and thought “aren’t you only allowed three from one team?”
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MLS breaking their own rules. Obviously.
The Dream Team is just the highest scorers for the week. No one could actually have that team, due to the rules, but those were the 11 highest scorers before today’s late games.
That’s largely just because we were one of only two teams to have two games this week….
Granted, they had to do well in those two games…
I’m curious. Has anyone kept track of the injuries and how many of them happened while playing on the new pitch at home?
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I can’t remember a year where the roster was this injury-prone.
Really a great night at the stadium! The first half was tough. But the boys came out swinging for the second half! Curtin made all the right moves. Really happy with first place! And good to have pushed around a team that is below us!
Way to come out on fire in the second half (after the Revs were the better side in the first). Minor adjustments closed the hole in the midfield that was exploited in the first half. Credit to Curtin.
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You could see on his face how legit excited Santos was to get into the match. I bet he would have run through a brick wall to score a goal.
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Kacper again putting in a ton of work off the ball all game long. Truly displaying an advanced knowledge of how to play the game. Again dropping into midfield to help close out the game. Dude seemed tireless after two games of such hard work in one week.
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I hate to say this about a USMNT legend, but Friedel might be the worst manager in MLS. That Revs team has some real talent yet somehow manage to play well below their level.