Photo: Paul Rudderow
In an exciting night of soccer, the Philadelphia Union easily defeated D.C. United, 4-1 on Saturday.
Starting the goal scoring early, the Union were the dominant side all night over an injury-ridden United squad. With two goals from Kacper Przybylko, one from Sergio Santos and one from Brenden Aaronson, Philadelphia had several of their key players playing true to form. This made it even easier to press and counter any D.C. opportunities.
Player Ratings
Andre Blake – 6
A relatively good night with a few big saves to keep United off the board early. Their lone goal from Julian Gressel is definitely one Blake wants another chance on, considering he got a hand on a very slippery ball following the downpour.
Olivier Mbaizo – 6
It was good to see the young outside back get the start and play all 90 minutes, especially because he looked pretty good. He might have had some rough touches, but he was surprisingly physical for a 19-year-old and was pressing up all night to try to generate some offense, making some great crosses.
Jakub Glesnes – 6
Overall a solid night as one of the rotating CBs, but Glesnes looked a bit slow. He had to be bailed out by Jack Elliott on a chance by Erik Sorga in 58th minute, but overall had some very strong and necessary clearances, using both his height and strength.
Jack Elliott – 7
Another strong night from Elliott who pressed more and looked more aggressive early on. He also had some great clearances and used his speed to track back and keep D.C. off the board until the hour mark.
Kai Wagner – 8
While Wagner had a short night, he had a fantastic first few minutes. His slide tackle in 20th to keep it 2-0, was beautiful, but then he was shortly subbed off to protect his previous injury ahead of the Columbus match.
Jose Martinez – 6
El Brujo was aggressive as usual, earning a yellow card halfway through the first half, then almost had a second yellow just before halftime. It was the reason he was subbed off at halftime, but Martinez still had some great passes to create counterattacks.
Alejandro Bedoya – 5
Hitting the hour mark, Bedoya looked tired, dropping back more than normal, almost switching positions with Mbaizo. He had a great chance on goal, hitting the outside netting, but Bedoya has looked frustrated and desperate for a goal.
Jamiro Monteiro – 6
Another good night for Monteiro, who was in the background setting up plays by making great passes all night. He also took the brunt of missed calls and was definitely frustrated because of it as the match went on.
Brenden Aaronson – 6
Somewhat of a mixed night from Aaronson who was more in background early in the match, then started standing out around 35th. With one goal for the night after he’d been growing desperate the last few matches, Medford Messi had a solid night.
Kacper Przybylko – 8
With a brace from the Striker Muffin, he had a great night. Przybylko definitely shook off any doubts surrounding him and his goal scoring abilities getting the Union on the board early.
Sergio Santos – 7
It was a pretty great night for Santos who had one goal, and one go off the post in what should have been his second goal. Only reason to deduct points from him as this was definitely one of the goals that was left on the table.
Subs
Matt Real – 6
A pretty solid night for Real who came on early for Wagner. He had a very nice give and go in the 35th that ended with a cross to Mbaizo, proving that Real can press and make some beautiful passes. While there’s still some things for Real to work on, he still had a pretty good night.
Warren Creavalle – 6
Coming on at half time to save Martinez from himself, Creavalle had several nice passes, moving the ball easily all night. He was a bit more of a background player than normal, but he did initiate a lot of counters.
Ilsinho – 5
To be honest, I’m not sure why Ilsinho came on for Santos in a 4-1 match, but he did help out defensively with a header clearance off a United corner in 71st.
Andrew Wooten – 5
Wooten didn’t get a ton of time on the ball coming in for Przybylko right as D.C. had scored and was controlling the ball more. His best chance was a rocket of a shot that was directed right at Chris Sietz from flick on pass. Overall, a pretty goo night as Wooten looked a bit more confident.
Jack de Vries – N/A
While it was great to see the youngster get some minutes, he didn’t have much time to do anything.
Man of the Match – Kacper Przybylko
Another very involved performance from Przybylko who put away half of the Union’s goals for the night. He’s finally back to form as a goal scorer for the team.
Geiger Counter
Fotis Bazakos – 6
Another match where I didn’t really notice the referee. A decent job in keeping the match moving, but there were a few missed calls, specifically on Monteiro that made him lose points.
I think the reason Mbaizo looked so good for a 19 year old is that he is actually a 23 year old :-).
.
Overall, pretty accurate ratings. I might drop Blake a point for the goal combined with the lack of need to make any spectacular saves, but if you’re going to give up a goal, being up 4-0 with a wet ball is the time to do it.
My thoughts exactly. He picked the absolute best time to play his “worst” game in the last month.
I did not watch the whole match — I only saw the 15-minute highlight version on MLS. But in that subset, it looked like Monteiro was *everywhere*, on the ball the entire game. Maybe this was misleading? But it seemed like he was the team’s engine.
–
Also, “Striker Muffin” is the worst nickname ever. Can we please stop trying to make it happen? (I promise not to be a curmudgeon about anything else.)
Monteiro continues to quietly go about his business as our best outfield player. Maybe not as impressive or even as important as others, but I think he’s the best.
I can be blamed for the invention of Striker Muffin (or, more specifically, a random internet nickname engine can be blamed). I cannot, however, take responsibility for its overwhelming popularity or lack thereof.
I’ll take some of the blame, too, as it was my opposition to “the Friendly Striker” — actually the worst nickname ever — which caused Chris to fire up the nickname generator. Sorry!
My friends call him Prizz-bylko because his name is tough for them to spell. I wouldn’t mind calling him Prizz or Prizzy here from now on. Just a thought…
Nothing short of a message from god or Peter will get me to stop using “Striker Muffin”.
Agree with most of the scores but +1 for Mbaizo – I dont think I have ever seen Ray hit any cross field pass to the corner like Mbaizo did, and he hit a couple good ones.
Minus one for Wooten and Ilson – neither one affected the game which should not be worth a 5.
Also, I think that while Bedoya was tired and his legs did look heavy, he was intentionally moved back into the double pivot as a holding mid with Crevalle, as part of a formation change to 4-2-3-1.
While this is a nice way to save some mileage on his legs, and protect young Mbaizo, I still would have preferred him subbed as the others mentioned above.
I agree, it’s time to take Striker Muffin out of the PSP style book.
I would add a point to Mbaizo. I thought overall he played better than 6, and that 60-yard bomb to Kacper (that wasn’t so hard to type) to set up Brenden’s goal is worth an extra point itself.
Found a good article on el Brujo: https://worldfootballindex.com/2020/08/jose-andres-martinez-el-brujo-the-maracucho-identity-the-next-venezuelan-to-light-up-mls/