Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union went north of the border and grabbed three points from a strong Toronto FC team, perhaps giving the Union their most important victory of the season so far. Carlos Coronel stepped up to only allow one goal (a deft free kick from a dangerous location). Kacper Przybylko continued his strong play, creating a few chances for himself and more importantly setting up Jamiro Monteiro for the game winner. Marco Fabian returned to the Union lineup with an uneven performance, and it’s amazing to think about what this Philly team might look like when he is fully clicking with his teammates.
Player Ratings
Carlos Coronel – 7
Wasn’t pretty at times, as you can tell the goalkeeper has some kinks to work out with his communication, perfectly encapsulated by his collision with Trusty. But came up with a huge save to make up for the mistake, finishing with three on the night.
Kai Wagner – 7
That run that led to Fafa Picault’s goal was a thing of beauty (the cross was pretty frickin’ sweet too). Continues to show how huge of an engine he has running the left side.
Auston Trusty – 6
Something still feels a bit off with Trusty. But overall, did a decent job keeping the Toronto attack from carving out too many clear chances. Was particularly strong marking Alitdore for the final 20 minutes.
Jack Elliott – 8
Elliott is having a great season and it continued in Toronto. The center back finished with six recoveries and seven clearances. Most importantly he charged down a great scoring opportunity with a huge block late in the second half.
Ray Gaddis – 6
Toronto seemed to have acres of space to run down the Union right, particularly in the first half. Gaddis did finish with six recoveries though.
Haris Medunjanin – 7
Strong defensive effort from Medunjanin. He finished with 13 recoveries, almost all in the defensive half of the field. Did a decent job in possession, keeping the ball moving and finishing with one key pass.
Alejandro Bedoya – 7
Solid performance for the captain. Again, Bedoya was relentless running on the right. Also chipped in with five recoveries and three clearances. Committed the foul that led to the Toronto goal but hard to blame him for not wanting a shot fired in from that location to begin with.
Jamiro Monteiro – 8
Another fantastic match for the midfielder. The goal was brilliant – noticing that Toronto’s right back had just limped off the field, he ran straight for that space, played a super smart give and go with Przybylko and then finished the move with a driving run into the box and an incredibly cool finish. Also finished with six clearances.
Marco Fabian – 4
Fabian seemed a bit off the pace on his return from injury. You can tell Fabian has quality – the deft touches and the clever fakes. But it’s been the fundamentals that have been disappointing so far from the Mexican. He committed two fouls on the night – both in dangerous areas for a Toronto team that is good on free kicks. And he failed to clear the ball that led to the foul that Toronto did cash in on. We’ve all enjoyed the Union’s ability to play out of the back, even under pressure, but sometimes it’s just fine to kick the ball as hard as you can to clear.
Fafa Picault – 6
Credit Picault with a well timed run at pace for the goal that ended up being credited as an O.G. Picault and Przybylko put in a strong performance pressing the Toronto defense from the Union front line, with Picault working the highest up the field.
Kacper Przybylko – 8
Another strong performance for the striker saw him set up the game winning goal with terrific movement off the ball then a smart, well weighted pass to Monteiro. Had a few decent chances of his own and forced a strong save from Westberg in the Toronto goal in the first half.
Subs
Sergio Santos – 4
After a two goal substitute performance last week, a quieter night for Santos who struggled to get involved after replacing Picault in the 69th minute. The striker only competed one pass.
Brenden Aaronson – 6
Decent shift for Aaronson (replacing Fabian on 58 minutes). Came on and provided tireless running in the middle of the park and finished with three recoveries.
Warren Creavalle – n/a
Late cameo for Creavalle as he replaced Przybylko in stoppage time.
Man of the Match
Jamiro Monteiro – Another strong performance from the midfielder, who also scored the game winner.
Geiger Counter
Ramy Touchan – 7
Not a lot to say about the referee, who wasn’t that noticeable throughout the match. Probably allowed the Union to milk more time than other refs, but few on the this website will be too sad about that.
Fabian’s rating is generous! He looked physically out of it and mentally elsewhere. A complete non-factor in the attack and a liability on D. But, as I’ve said before, I’m still not signing off on him. Once he plays 5 consecutive matches I’ll have my judgement prepared. The same can be said for Santos. He had a pretty invisible shift. These two were marquee signings and neither has convinced me yet. Hoping that changes.
.
Man of the match was definitely Monteiro. A true Mighty Mouse if I’ve ever seen one. Credit to Toronto’s keeper, robbing Kacper of two very well placed shots. If those fall, Kacper’s brace earns himself MotM in my book. He’s really got a striker’s nose for goal.
Credit to Jim Curtin who realized that Fabian was the square peg and subbed him off as early as he’s subbed anyone ever. Bold.
+1 I was shocked. Jimbo making the right sub, who would’ve thunk?
I don’t want to be that guy, and I realize Curtin has been light years better this season than ever before… but I wonder if Fabian coming off at 60 had more to do with him coming off an injury than it did because Curtin realized he wasn’t impacting the game at all. Don’t get me wrong, I agree Fabian was doing nothing and deserved to be subbed, but I would like to see Curtin do this next week and the week after, etc. if Fabian is playing poorly.
If Fabian is playing poorly week after week, I’d like to see Curtin give Aaronson a chance to earn the spot full time. That being said, at least for now I’m willing to chalk it up to injury recovery for both Fabian and Aaronson.
i would drop everyone about a point. they got it done but everyone looked off about a step.
Too high on Gaddis as he was (and has been consistently) the player teams have attacked for the past 2-3 seasons. We really need an upgrade there if this teams is really going to take the next step.
.
Przybylko has been great and had a good game, but he’s gotta finish at least 1 of those chances.
Please tell me why you think Harris is playing better – he still lays off and his accuracy on passes is horrible. I love the guy, and locker room leadership can go far. But, we need some big time running this Saturday – I dont see it happening.
I don’t understand this take, but hear it repeated often. The stats don’t bear it out. Haris’s accuracy is actually pretty darn good — 84% according to WhoScored data, good enough for 5th on the team among players with more than 500 minutes this season. Also, he (1) plays way more passes than anyone on the team; (2) plays more long balls than any outfield player (and I would suspect his average pass distance is as high or higher than most everyone else); and (3) plays more key passes than any player on the team. To me, no one on the Union can move the ball back to front like Haris, and that is why he is on the field so much. For my money, the lack of a clear backup for his skill set is the biggest hole remaining for the Union to fill.
.
Is he the greatest defender? Obviously not. That’s why the cover that Monteiro and Bedoya provide is so crucial. At the same time, I think his positioning has been pretty good of late, and he’s second only to Kai Wagner among starters in interceptions, and is averaging a couple tackles a game. He has been good.
Haris had 3 clearances, 21 successful passes in the opposition’s half, 13 in the final third, 2 tackles won, 1 interception, and 7 successful long passes.
Thank you! I bet the Haris haters would prefer Jones at the 6..opps
I would give Wagner another point and make him man of the match. The fact that he setup the first goal and did such a great job on D the entire match swings it for me over Monteiro who made a great play but also seemed more invisible over large portions than Wagner did.
Gaddis, Medunjanin, and Monteiro should all be a point lower. Toronto ran rampant down their left (our right) all game, and we’d’ve been in big trouble if it weren’t for Jack Elliott, who is my MotM for sure. The guy put out fires all over the place, again and again. I don’t know what the deal was with Gaddis, who seemed often to not be where we needed him to be.
–
Monteiro was actually having a subpar game (for him) until that incredible counterattack. Now I grant that a subpar game from Miro is still probably a 6, and then an extra point for that attack, so maybe a 7 is fair.
–
Medunjanin certainly played well overall, but just as during the first half of the NE game, Toronto did a lot of running right up the middle, putting the CBs under pressure, and Haris is supposed to be there, and often he wasn’t. At some point we are gonna get burned by that.
–
Oh, I thought Aaronson looked great in his substitute shift. Active, aggressive, mobile, shifty. It’s almost like playing with Monteiro is inspiring the kid to up his game even further.
–
Lastly, I think people are not giving Fabiàn quite enough credit for trying passes that didn’t link up. That’s not all on him; it’s a product of a CAM and strikers who have not had enough chance to play together. Dockal went through the exact same thing last year. Now it looks like we have a stable of 3 strikers who are gonna take us through the rest of the season, and if Marco doesn’t get injured again, he should have lots of time to play with them.
A lot of good arguments here. Cheers!
I dont want to disparage Marco, however he cannot be played soley on his reputation, so far he has been a liability, two missed pks
one two game suspension and a lot of empty talk and swagger. For my money i would play Brendon. I trust the coach’s judgement on where and when to play Marco.
To be fair, the 2 game suspension was complete garbage. Plus you need your star player to have swagger, even when things aren’t going great for him, because it makes the rest of the team believe.
Let’s call it the Bryce reason, right?
–
Someone said patience till the Gold Cup break. I’ll try for that.