Photo: Marjorie Elzey
It was a night to forget on the turf in Montreal for the Philadelphia Union, who battled back from an early Montreal penalty to take a 2-1 lead. The Union then found themselves down a man for the last 20 minutes due to a Julian Carranza red card and saw their lead and points vanish in stoppage time after to two late goals that stole a win for the home side.
Player ratings
Joe Bendik — 6
Not much for Bendik to do on the penalty, but perhaps could have done better on the 2nd and 3rd goals. Cutting the goalkeeper some slack for conceding twice down a man.
Olivier Mbaizo — 5
Mbaizo does well getting forward, but can be a defensive liabilty at times. Unfortunately for Philadelphia, that liability showed on the game winner, as Mbazio was out-muscled by his man.
Jakob Glesnes — 6
Was unlucky to give away the early penalty and hard to give any defender high marks when you give up 3 goals. Made some good blocks when down a man though.
Jack Elliott — 5
Similar to Glesnes above, played well while a man down but was unable to keep Montreal off the scoreboard.
Kai Wagner — 5
Wagner is at his best when he is able to get up and down the pitch and send in crosses. Unfortunately, when the Union went down a man that strategy was quickly abandoned. An okay night defensively for the German.
José Martínez — 5
A quiet night for the usually high volume Martinez. Wasn’t able to control pace of play when Philadelphia went down a man.
Leon Flach — 6
A usually quiet night for Flach, but he did do well denying passing lanes and pressing Montreal. Created some chances off of forced turnovers.
Alejandro Bedoya – 5
Wasn’t very dangerous in the midfield for Philadelphia. Subbed out for Damian Lowe when the red card occurred.
Dániel Gazdag — 6
When the Union were on equal terms, Gazdag was a large part of both of Uhre’s goals. Played the key pass and earned the assist in both cases.
Mikael Uhre — 7
2 goals to get rolling was big for Uhre. Hopefully this will be the spark to help him keep finding the back of the net.
Julián Carranza — 4
An unnecessary second yellow card which cost his team points. Will now miss next weekend with an already light squad.
Substitutes
Andres Perea — 5
A tough ask for any defensive-minded player to come into a match a man down and make an impact. Covered defensively and wasn’t at fault for either goal.
Chris Donovan — 5
Another tough ask for a forward to come in a man down. Provided some hard running and good back tracking.
Damien Lowe – N/A
Subbed in for the final ten minutes to see out a result, but unfortunately both goals came shortly after he entered.
Geiger Counter
Nima Saghafi – 3
A rough match for one of MLS’ best referees. Had to go to the VAR monitor twice on Montreal’s second goal, and missed a foul in the buildup twice. Got Carranza’s second yellow correct but let things get out of hand.
Man of the Match — Romell Quioto
With a match with that much drama, Quioto takes home the honors by opening the scoring and the game winner.
I don’t like to quibble much on scores but I will say that Mbaizo would be lower relative to the rest of the defense for me. He was directly at fault for the game-winner. Needs to contest that ball better. And I’d also give Carranza a lower score because he never figured out the right way to play with that ref and made a big error that he really didn’t need to make. Costly.
Agree here. Carranza can’t go for a tackle like that already on a yellow. I could be wrong, but also thought M’Baizo was largely at fault for not marking and challenging the initial free header that led to goal #2.
M’Baizo did cause the turnover that lead to the Union’s first goal. So IMO his score is about where it should be. Elliot is a bit high though. He gives the ball away a lot in bad spots. Has for a few seasons now.
Goalkeeper is a hard position for me to evaluate, but even aside from the goals I thought Bendik had a rough night. Almost got caught out on one ball over the top early in the first half and had to be bailed out by Glesnes.
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I don’t know if there was a better backup option available, and I can understand why the U let Freese leave for a starting opportunity. But it’s tough to feel confident if Bendik needs to play more than a couple matches.
I agree with everything Pete says.
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But it is way too soon to ask Holden Trent to start MLS matches. He needs MLSNP minutes first.
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And bring Blake back too soon is way too risky. Re-injury would be disastrous.
Not sure what Tanner’s end game is with goaltenders. Has been a challenge since trading Freese.
Bill Hamid just signed with Memphis, and plenty of MLS experienced goalies unsigned.
Why rush Blake…. and no disrespect, but Joe should be a goaltender coach, not starting.
Been thinking about this result for a bit now… I agree with Pete A. above that Bendik wasn’t great. Andre never lets that second goal in. He’d easily palm it over the bar. I think Joe probably deserves a 5 or a 4 for just being below average.
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Also, I think Curtin might deserve a bit of blame for switching systems in those final minutes, which clearly caused a defensive short circuit. Now the players should be familiar enough to execute, but it’s a lever Curtin pulled a goal up that pretty quickly turned a winning position into a losing one.
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That said, I think it’s too early to hold a grand inquest on “what’s wrong with this team”? Particularly after watching them play on that turf. Looked like one of the bigger SoFive fields. Back at home against Orlando on Saturday. I’d like to see a positive response.
I agree. I also recall that down the stretch last year there was a clear correlation between results and turf. It’s early season yet, but maybe that correlation still exists?
FIRE CURTIN
Or just encourage him to get involved with USMNT…..
Have had enough.
We lost to 2 mediocre teams… Miami and Montreal… And yet NO PASSION.
Just depressing.
I think the scores are good with adding a minus one to everyone. We lost to the one of the worst this season.
I may be alone but to me Martinez did not seem to be able to connect his passes. He was good at getting the turnover but seemed to just give it right back, in the middle. Granted he was not directly responsible for any goals but he interrupted Union momentum numerous times. Also there was no offsides on Montreal 2nd goal, but Glesnes was fouled and that should have been called’
He’s had 15+ passes direct to the opponent the past 3 matches.
I have counted.
Enough is enough….
Am I alone thinking that Martinez could not connect a pass and kept turning over after great defensive plays? He was not directly responsible for a goal against but really interrupted the midfield flow which we sorely needed.
Also while I agree no offsides on the second Montreal goal, Glesnes was clearly fouled and that should have been picked up especially since the ref had TWO good looks at the replay.
You are right on.
I don’t see how Carranza gets more than a 1. He took a second yellow by committing a foul off of an opposing goal kick in the offensive half of the field when his team had the lead in a game they eventually lost. It was exactly the opposite type of performance that earned Torres a 10 recently.