Photo: Marjorie Elzey
First-half goals by Robin Lod and Cory Burke canceled each other out, and Philadelphia Union came away with one point in the first game of the 2022 MLS season, drawing 1-1 with Minnesota United at Subaru Park.
For his first lineup of the season, manager Jim Curtin sent out his squad in the familiar 4-4-2 diamond formation. New boy Julian Carranza partnered with Cory Burke up top, while Daniel Gazdag patrolled the No. 10 position. Leon Flach took Jamiro Monteiro’s old shuttler role alongside Alejandro Bedoya in midfield. There were no surprises in the back six.
Fitting for a late February afternoon, it was bright but chilly at kickoff. In a nod to world events, the Sons of Ben replaced the usual River End banners with two Ukrainian flags, and the stadium observed a moment of silence in support of the people of Ukraine.
Neither side took control of the game early on. Instead, both teams looked like they had just finished their preseasons, with the passes just a touch off and the tackles just a touch heavy.
But Minnesota would take the lead in the 23rd minute, as Robin Lod scored the first goal of the MLS season. Franco Fragapane beat Olivier Mbaizo far too easily for a cross and pushed down the Union’s right flank, getting to the end line and crossing back to the penalty spot. No one tracked Lod’s run, and the Finnish midfielder finished sweetly into the top corner of Andre Blake’s net.
Philadelphia answered back in the 36th minute through Cory Burke. Recirculating after a corner, the ball fell to Jakob Glesnes on the right wing, who pumped in a sumptuous cross over the Minnesota keeper to the back post. Burke rose up and headed home emphatically in front of the River End.
Minnesota nearly seized the lead back before halftime, after a late challenge by Glesnes led to a yellow card and a free kick from the edge of the box. Kervin Arriaga’s curling kick looked destined for the top corner, but it struck off the crossbar instead.
The second half started with both sides marauding up and down the pitch. Philly had a great chance to grab a second goal when Burke turned Daniel Gazdag loose in space. The Hungarian’s cross through the box just missed Carranza’s run, which would have led to a tap-in if they’d synced up.
The chances kept coming for Philadelphia. Gazdag came inches away from his first goal of the season when he collected a ball over the top at the doorstep. Tyler Miller instinctively made himself big and did just enough to push the ball wide; the offside flag came up a moment later.
Curtin introduced Jack McGlynn in the 68th minute for Flach, an attack-minded move with the points still up for grabs. Sergio Santos and Paxten Aaronson entered moments later. But the flow came out of the game, and scoring chances became few and far between.
Lod nearly won the game in stoppage time for Minnesota, but Andre Blake came up big yet again. A brilliant pass and run slipped Lod behind the Union’s defense, and his first-time rocked looked destined for the top corner. But Blake pounced, getting to maximum stretch and parrying the shot into the River End.
The final whistle blew, and both sides left with a point.
Philadelphia heads north to Canada for their first road game of the season next Sunday, when they face Montreal Impact. Kickoff from Stade Saputo is at 4 p.m.
Three Points
- Good to be back. This is one of the most anticipated seasons in Union history. It was great to be back at Subaru Park, in front of a robust and energized crowd — even if many fingers and toes are now numb.
- Mbaizo, more problems. The right back’s defensive errors put his team under pressure and led directly to Minnesota’s goal. Can he hold down his place in the side, or will Curtin be forced to bench the Cameroon international?
- Scory Burke. He’s probably fourth on the striker depth chart, but Burke did well with a somewhat unexpected start. The powerful headed goal was Burke at his best.
Lineups
Philadelphia Union
Andre Blake, Kai Wagner, Jack Elliott, Jakob Glesnes, Olivier Mbaizo, Jose Martinez, Alejandro Bedoya, Leon Flach (Jack McGlynn 68′), Daniel Gazdag (Paxten Aaronson 75′), Cory Burke, Julian Carranza (Sergio Santos 75′)
Unused subs: Matt Freese, Matt Real, Nate Harriel, Stuart Findlay, Jesus Bueno, Quinn Sullivan
Minnesota United FC
Tyler Miller, Bakaye Dibassy, Brent Kallman, Michael Boxall, Oniel Fisher, Franco Fragapane (Bongokuhle Hlongwane 78′), Emanuel Reynoso, Robin Lod, Hassani Dotson, Kervin Arriaga, Luis Amarilla (Adrien Hunou 84′)
Unused subs: Dayne St. Clair, Callum Montgomery, D.J. Taylor, Nabilai Kibunguchy, Niko Hansen, Joseph Rosales, Justin McMaster
Scoring Summary
MIN: Robin Lod — 23′ (Franco Fragapane)
PHI: Cory Burke — 35′ (Jakob Glesnes)
Discipline Summary
PHI: Jakob Glesnes — 41′ (foul)
PHI: Jose Martinez — 51′ (foul)
MIN: Michael Boxall — 74′ (foul)
MIN: Robin Lod — 79′ (time wasting)
MIN: Emanuel Reynoso — 85′ (foul)
Statistics
| PHI | Statistic | MIN | PHI | Statistic | MIN |
|
52.5 |
Possession % | 47.5 | 60 | Duels Won | 58 |
| 19 | Shots | 14 | 9 | Tackles Won |
10 |
|
5 |
Shots on Goal | 6 | 5 | Saves | 4 |
| 7 | Blocked Shots | 1 | 7 | Clearances |
31 |
|
402 |
Total Passes | 378 | 12 | Fouls | 16 |
| 74.4 | Pass Accuracy % | 72.8 | 3 | Yellow Cards |
3 |
|
11 |
Corners | 2 | 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 23 | Crosses | 9 | 1.3 | xG |
0.9 |
|
3 |
Offsides |
1 |
New season, same Mbaizo. But I’m a broken record from day 1 at this point. He’s simply not MLS caliber.
And people gave Ray a hard time for his ‘limitations’. I’d take Ray every game over Mbazio.
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But that is well known here.
Gaddis definitely had offensive limitations, but I would take him any time over Mbaizo. Harriel can’t grow into the starting role fast enough.
Mbaizo was awful on both sides of the ball today. He’s usually just awful defensively and sub-par offensively, but today it was so obvious why he’s not starting material. He holds the team back a lot. And people hold onto the like 3 good crosses he’s had since joining the first team lol
I thought Martinez had an interesting game. Pretty bad offensively, near perfect defensively.
Martinez was even more intense than usual! Did not seem to miss Monteiro and I’d argue moved the ball forward faster.
It’s hard for me to be too critical for a first match and with Uhre off the pitch… and with my mind on friends in Ukraine.
Was a nice touch having a moment of silence and flying the Ukraine flag. SOB colors. Coincidence?
I appreciated those gestures of solidarity.
Terrible match, ref even worse. So inconsistent and simply awful.
As far as the squad… first game, looked it, but definitely outplayed Minny. Should have gotten 3 points.
Already -2 at home. [Points missed].
Prayers and solidarity for Ukraine!
The ref was wretched. Should have given a red card for that elbow to Flach and it was not even called a foul!
Mbaizo is a serious liability. I miss Rosenberry. And I know that Real is primarily an LB, but couldn’t he take over at RB? And cringing at how slow and unimatinative Gazdag is, I miss Dockal.
Hopefully Uhre can light things up, as Carranza was pretty much invisible, except when he was diving like an Argentine prima dona. No surprise that Miami wanted to loan him out.
First game, I know, but I think this season is going to be another bereft of hardward (And, really, who cares about the Supporters’ Shield?)
Mediocre investments in your team breeds mediocre play on the pitch, and it does seem time to put Bedoya out to pasture.
Finally, J.P. drives me crazy in the play-by-play when he calls players by their first names!
Oh, and how about a bit of diversity on the corner kicks? “Kai” did the same thing every single time, the near post thing.
Peace, everyone. Doop…
A bit disjointed. Some players were much cleaner than others. Hard to be critical with the first game of the season.
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Martinez was an absolute UNIT today. Jeezus. Need more from Daniel as I’ve lobbied for him to be a difference maker but in truth….Paxten outplayed him completely… in his limited time on the field. Paxten was much more dangerous with some cheeky passes and attacking the end line.
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Andre with a huge save at the end.
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And then there is Mbazio… who was brutal for portions of the game. Reynoso had him on stilts… then skates then megged him for a full on taking of the soul.
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He did get better and whipped in some excellent service in second half. But Man.
True about Paxten, but we should have kept his brother!
Pax10 gave them life immediately on the offensive end. Wouldn’t be surprised that he starts over Gazdag at some point this year unless Gazdag playmakes a bit better. Mbaizo was a shit show today. Worst reffing I have seen in recent memory, completely inconsistent. But a Fun game to see live…
Agree with others that it’s tough to be too critical in the first game out, especially with Uhre unavailable. Need to give them a bit of space to gel.
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But this is also going to be a new problem the Union have to deal with just about every home game, which is teams content to play on the counter and grab a point. Again, hoping that the striker core, once integrated, helps us break that sort of game plan down.
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Not going to be too harsh today (first game of the year), but Mbaizo definitely had a disappointing day. I hope he gets back to his best, because quality fullbacks are not easy to come by in the MLS, and we’re going to need him going forward. Fingers crossed he bounces back.
Disappointing that Mbaizo is still on this roster. Have the Union learned nothing?
Bad ref. Bad Mbaizo. Bad draw? I mean Minnesota is alright and they acquitted themselves well but this was a winnable game. Not gonna freak out over one game. Burke was good. Excited to be back at it and feel like a draw was a fair result. Can’t wait for Uhre.
The biggest takeaway from this game for me is that , once again, mbiazo is so clearly the weak link in this team..I know it’s the first game but he hasn’t been up to it for many games prior as well..I’ll give him 2 more games to try and get back to the form he had his 1st 7 or so games after that it’s heavy on the start Harriel vibes
Mbaizo primarily responsible for the last 3 goals the Union have conceded, over 2 seasons. He’s horrible and his liabilities compound Bedoya’s age and slowness. Remarkable that the one cross from deep in the R corner that led to a goal was neither from our R winger nor from our R back, but from a center back!
Curtin should sub Bueno for Bedoya at 60 minutes going forward. And should sub any warm body for Mbaizo at 0 minutes. Oh Ray, we hardly knew how much we’d miss you!
I was disappointed to see that formation with this line-up. U were missing 2 very important pressers over the last 2 seasons. The midfield + Carranza are too slow to play that way without them.
I don’t think they can escape the tree with this squad-even with the Great Dane. Minnesota was faster, quicker and better on the day. Union lacked any danger excluding sets.
Cameroonian skewered ad nauseum already-so I’ll refrain other than affirming an upgrade is needed.
I see the trend is already to aim at Mbaizo this year… and honestly, I’m not really gonna oppose it. May even join that bandwagon. I’ve tried to defend him but he continues to put us in bad positions. Unless he continues to be atrocious, let’s give him a few months. I’m ready to see Harriel get minutes but is he ready to start every game? Either way, let’s remember their recent history in openers is pretty bad. This is the least rusty-looking opener in the Curtin era, if memory serves well. Glass half full, glad we’re back!
I was at the game and I agree with most of the comments above. Even though possession was nearly even, it seemed as though the Union had the better of play. Why? Take a look at the statistics above–11 corners to 2. But most of the services were not very good. I know its the first game of the season, but the Union need to do better on set pieces. I like the idea of having Glesnes, Elliott and yes, Burke in the mixer, but the service needs to be high enough to give them a chance. Even keeping in mind that this was the ref’s first game of the season, he was awful. He clearly did not want to call a PK, even though there were a couple instances where it looked like one could have been awarded. Minnesota is a very hands-y team, and the ref allowed all manner of clutches, grabs and pushes. It is disappointing that although the quality of play across MLS has improved remarkably over the past five years or so, the quality of the officiating has not.
I have to pile on about Mbazio, but we all see the same thing….he is not an MLS caliber player. He could’t get on the pitch for his home country in the Africa cup and he shouldn’t get on the pitch for the Union. His 2020 was shaky at best. Admittedly he showed some improvement at the beginning of 2021, but then he went into the toilet again. It is so obvious he should not be playing. But what galls me is that in today’s Inquirer, they made it sound like he is an all star. The headline read that he has a “bright future” and Curtain was quoted that he is French Ligue 1 caliber player. Are you kidding me? I give credit to Tanner for addressing some things, but he needs to address this and Curtain needs to not be blind and see the same thing that all the intelligent posters here see.
I am not panicking after this one game and this team has great potential so I am excited. But stop playing Mbazio and stop pretending he is good.
Soo on Mbaizo, yes he had a horrible game. You also have to factor in who he had to cover. Reynoso was destroying our defense and their front line was pretty good and keeping possession in the final 3rd. So yes, I wouldn’t mind trying Harriel at that spot. The youth are ten times faster and smarter with the ball at their feet.
Martinez is a liability as well. Hangs on to the ball way too long. Has no sense of who’s around him, creates horrible turnovers in dangerous areas. Very inconsistent. He should have been subbed this match.
McGlynn and Paxton need to start on this team, or at Least get subbed in way before the 80th minute every game. No exceptions. Paxton has brilliant ball control at his feet in the final third we need that. McGlynn is a monster with controlling the midfield and is always showing as an option it’s incredible. He’s always an outlet. His awareness and calmness on the ball is special and we need that on this team desperately. We also need to start Sullivan. The kid is smart with the ball in the final third.
Burke and Santos are trash. They are horrible with the ball at their feet. It’s like they are trying to play in flip flops. No ball control at their feet at all! No awareness to try to break away from defenders, horrible at hitting the target. They aren’t going to change. Time for them to be last resorts if need be.
Carranza actually didn’t look too bad. Our team is bad at easily finding our forwards because we hate keeping possession and patiently waiting for opportunities to arise. It’s push forward and force up field for 90 mins. Ugh. His ball control looks good and his awareness was good too. I’m excited to hopefully see more of him and hopefully Curtin will give him the same length of opportunity as Przyblko- like every game !!!
Lastly. I’m sooo happy Curtin actually made changes in the 66 min mark !! I was shocked! As we all know it’s usually the 80th min. Hopefully subbing earlier will be a habit this year. Also, if Carranza was still healthy he shouldn’t have been subbed. You have to let him get integrated and allow him to grow. You did that with Przyblko an entire 2 seasons. So, Curtin needs to work on getting his subs right still in my opinion.
My opinion from watching the game at the Park with my son was that it was CLEARLY two teams in early season form. The ball control was lacking, the passing slightly off, the movement off the ball was tentative, and the shots came just a bit too late. Fortunately for us, our defensive diamond; Blake, Elliott, Glesnes, and Martnez, were comfortable together even if Minnesota slipped through two or three decent passes. That diamond was there to clean up everything except Lod’s goal.
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On corners the Union were clearly trying to redirect the kick at the near post to their players at the penalty spot or the far post. I assume they were hoping to suck in Minnesota’s defenders to give their follow on attackers more space. It looks like they need to train more under better pressure as the Union could not redirect to dangerous positions.
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The Minnesota goal was unfortunate and I hope they remember to defend in layers from now on. M’Baizo and Wagner are going to get beat and we can’t completely over pursue in those instances.
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Lastly I would really like to see more of the Union’s attacks start from our side of the field. They were most dangerous on the break and if that means we need to start the attack deeper and find a streaking attacker, let’s find their feet. Crosses are notoriously low probability chances.
Not that shocking as this team isn’t one of the best on opening day over the years. I think Blake saved a point in this game at the end because that shot was going in. Yes Mbazio had a bad game but I’m not ready to kill him just like that and there is plenty of season for him to get better. Yes, Gaddis probably would have done better but he also wouldn’t be that far up the field most times. He got beat by a guy with speed but his man didn’t score the goal so where was Martinez or Elliott to take away that pass back to the middle? One was ball watching and the other was outside the penalty area. On to next week and what do you do if Burke scores again because you know he’s getting the start?
It’d seem quite a bit more sincere if they’d do a true MINUTE of silence (as they do most everywhere else in the world).
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SIX seconds of silence carries the weight of ZERO sincerity. Don’t break you arms patting yourselves on the back for that “gesture”.
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Seems to me 60 seconds of silent reflection is the very, very least we can do for people who are literally fighting for their lives and their country.
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Do better Union. Do better Fans.
Ditto on the moment of silence. Almost as if we have to do something. Oh, ok that’s enough. Simply disgraceful! They should have played the Ukrainian national anthem instead of that song before the American anthem. People where asking around us, what the blank is this Ashley is singing. Embarrassing…
what’s embarrassing is not knowing about Lift Every Voice And Sing during black history month ffs
+1
The only embarrassing thing is not knowing the significance “Lift Every Voice,” has during /Black History Month.
For some background:
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From the NAACP: https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/lift-every-voice-and-sing
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RadioLab produced a series of podcasts about Harry Pace and the anthem: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/vanishing-harry-pace-episode-6
preach
I was at the game. Some thoughts…
Mbaizo was getting smoked on that side from the beginning. I said to my son before the half, “Jim has to sub him or do something”. But I second the point on Reynoso. He was excellent in the match, and I think our problems start there.
Watching the game live, Gazdag was invisible. I wasn’t even sure he was out there. Then I rewatched on TV at home, and he was much more impressive in that viewing. Lots of class, nice movement, good work ethic. Took some shots too.
Carranza dishing some payback for Flach made me smile. Glad to see he’s integrated with the team so early. Even on the rewatch, I still think there’s a case for DOGSO on that run he made.
Martinez looked strong in the game, and even better on the rewatch! Not every pass was perfect, but the tackling was extraordinary, and most of the decisions were good and incisive. He probably looked the best player on the day.
I appreciate the second watch report because I too thought Daniel was quite- but will trust your judgement. It is easy to not see so many nuanced things off the ball which add up to value.
And I think the other thing the Pax10 should start squad are forgetting is that DG was playing against fresh legs and Pax was not.
WOW… Philly sports talk to the max.
Let’s target a guy, in the first game of the season, after playing how many games for his country, travel and time differences.
HE HAD A BAD GAME… so let’s all hang him from the yard arm and stone him.
Yup….. DOOP!
BTW Gazdag did too.
Ready to tar and feather him too?