Photo: Marjorie Elzey
Daniel Gazdag scored the only goal of the game from a penalty kick in the 31st minute as the Philadelphia Union edged New York Red Bulls 1-0 on Saturday evening in Harrison, NJ. Julian Carranza was adjudged to be fouled by Sean Nealis inside the NY box and Gazdag stepped up to slam home the winner as Philadelphia collected their first road win of the season.
Jim Curtin made three changes to the team that lost midweek in Los Angeles in Concacaf Champions League. Quinn Sullivan replaced Mikkel Uhre up top, Nate Harriel came in for Olivier Mbaizo at right back, and Daimon Lowe took Jack Elliott’s place at center back. Leon Flach started again at the base of the diamond for the injured Jose Martinez.
The Red Bulls would have a great chance to open the scoring in the 10th minute. John Tolkin found himself one versus one against Harriel and cut back onto his weaker right foot to fire a shot from 15 yards. The shot looked to be bending toward the top right corner but Andre Blake was equal to it and pushed it over the bar with a brilliant dive to his left.
Philadelphia would take the lead in the 31st minute through Gazdag. Alejandro Bedoya played a clever ball into the NY box on the right for Julian Carranza. Carranza took a good first touch away Sean Nealis who threw out an arm and Carranza went down as referee Joseph Dickerson pointed to the spot. After a lengthy VAR review, Dickerson went to the video monitor and reaffirmed his call for the penalty. Gazdag stepped up and set Carlos Coronel the wrong way and finished to the low left corner.
The Union would come close to doubling their lead in the 56th minute. Kai Wagner’s low free kick from the right side deflected into the path of Harriel, but Coronel was over quickly to push a close range shot over the bar.
Philadelphia Union are next in action on Tuesday when they travel to Minnesota to take on the Loons in U.S. Open Cup play (8:30 p.m.). The Union return to MLS play when travel to Colorado next Saturday (9:30 p.m.)
Three Points
- Ugly. It’s rarely been pretty when the Union have gotten together with the Red Bulls in recent years, and it wasn’t in the first installment this year. Luckily for Philly, Gazdag’s penalty settled the match.
- Changes: Lowe, Harriel, and Sullivan came in to start and all looked comfortable in their appearances.
- Form: It’s been ugly, but the Union grabbed a second straight league win and a clean sheet with a victory at Red Bull Arena.
Philadelphia Union
Andre Blake, Jakob Glesnes, Damion Lowe, Leon Flach, Kai Wagner, Nathan Harriel, Dániel Gazdag, Jack McGlynn, Alejandro Bedoya (Jesus Bueno 78′), Julián Carranza (Chris Donovan 90+2′), Quinn Sullivan (Mikkel Uhre 62′)
Subs: Jack Elliott, Matthew Real, Joaquín Torres, Andrés Perea, Olivier Mbaizo, Joe Bendik
New York Red Bulls
Carlos Coronel, Sean Nealis, John Tolkin, Andrés Reyes, Cristian Cásseres Jr., Dru Yearwood, Omir Fernandez (Wikelman Carmona 59′), Cameron Harper, Dylan Nealis, Elias Manoel (Tom Barlow 64′), Cory Burke
Subs: Ryan Meara, Daniel Edelman, Jayden Reid, Ronald Donkor, Peter Stroud, Hassan Ndam
Scoring Summary
PHI: Daniel Gazdag – 31′ (PK)
Disciplinary Summary
NY: Andres Reyes – 24′ (foul)
PHI: Leon Flach – 36′ (foul)
PHI: Quinn Sullivan – 45+7′ (foul)
NY: Cory Burke – 68′ (foul)
Okay. 3 points.
.
…. Hol e Shit though, watching these two teams play soccer is the absolute worst. It is the WORST soccer I’ve ever seen.
.
Think about that for a minute- I’m 50 years old and literally grew up in Route 1 era US soccer.
Just constant bashing of the ball, bashing of bodies, the ball is ping ponging around the field in the air 90% of the time the other 10% of the time the ref is blowing his whistle to call a foul, the other 10% of the time….wait? did I mis-add?
.
Transition Transition Transition. Hey there’s a midfielder wide open but fuck him lets lump it up top and hope? That’s it that’s the Red Bull way as evidenced by Red Bull and Union. TRANSITION. HOPE. It’s exhausting and so unsightly. Crusted smegma of soccer.
.
I think about Jack McGlynn and what it must be like for him to see so little of the ball. How he’s tailor made to get touch after touch but he doesn’t.
.
I am struggling a great deal with Leon Flach. There isn’t anyone in that line up who can offer more then him? We see clearly how important Jose is and despite how maddening he can be at times, his absence in the Hold is making a team who doesn’t like the ball even a little even harder to swallow.
.
But hey, like I said the model is only acceptable with wins and they won and kept a clean sheet because, did I mention? Red Bull is terrible.
.
Anyway, carry on. I guess. We have no other choice thanks to US Soccer policy and the like’s of Don Garber One Ring Policy.
Pach… we were there.
It was worse.
So that happened. A w is a w is a w. Move on, nothing to see here.
Don Garber, worried about the MLS ‘product’ tarnishing itself in play against USL teams in the open cup, doesn’t have to worry. We don’t need the Open Cup to to make a mess of the sport. That was nearly unwatchable.
–
On the win, I think we got very lucky. Carranza very clearly done to earn the pen, though the defender should have known better that to hook his arm. Good news is we rotated a bit and held got a win on the road.
Don “Grabmoremoney” is a tool.
He’s trying to get control over the US Open Cup or he’ll create a new one.
That’s all that crap was about.
Posturing when US Soccer is down, at its knees….
He is such an *ss.
Sepp 2
That was fun… RBA has great food… much, much, much better than we have at Subaru… and love the refill yourself machines. Great idea.
And thanks to Liz for driving! Could sleep on the way home.
Thanks Liz!
… but this squad is s-i-c-k.
Very lucky we got that penalty… we’ll take the 3 points and move forward.
Tied for 6th place with 4 other teams. NYRB had 5 starters out, last place and this is the result we get?
PS: Lowe looked like he was imploding, several times, including the hand ball in first few minutes. We saw it perfectly, sitting at that end… he carried the ball. We were very lucky.
Don’t think that ref was awake at that point.
Doop!
Could have been a handball but it seemed the only camera angle of it was from behind the goal through two layers of netting. From the first angle it seemed his arms were around the player so I don’t know how he knew much about it.
I attended the match as usual. I’m glad I did again. For those who haven’t, do the Turnpike Tournament sometime. It’s worth it, and it’s not that much more of a hassle given the short distance. Even ticket prices are cheap for Union supporters areas. Tolls are far more cruel, but SoB supporters club buses or pooling with fans makes it easier.
. . .
SoB ruled the roost again and with lots of other Union fans in attendance in a half empty stadium. Whether RBNY is good or bad, this is normal there at least the past few years. I’d hate to play for NYRB. They have a devoted clique of fans that also travel to Subaru, but that’s the small dependable fan base.
. .
Despite the rivalry, I always have a classy experience with their fans and staff who know it’s all in good fun and same when I attend NYCFC and DCU matches. It’s fun to be an away fan, even when it’s not a truly ‘away’ match.
. . .
A win is a win, and we all know we need them. Still, we are continuing to struggle to score on live play even with roster rotations. Getting goals on PKs is nice, but we need finishing on live play. It still isn’t there. As we all know, winning requires more goals than the opponent, and relying on PKs isn’t going to cut it long term.
. . .
Good weather for the match…how refreshing given our luck this year on Mother Nature at home despite good weather seemingly any day we don’t play at home.
. . .
I’m happier about the clean sheet. We need the defense to be unbreakable like last year.
Watching on TV we could hear the SoB clearly!
Last year we went to TQL in Cincy. That is a great stadium with great food and beer. Big fan party in a park across the street from the stadium. Only bad thing was the U getting thrashed by FCC. Oh and the drunk Union fan making an a$$ of himself.
Can’t wait to see PSP player ratings from this match…I know they will be higher than mine.
On TV, it looked like Carranza’s penalty was VERY soft. Did they actually have a shot on goal the entire game? On recent evidence, Martinez is the most important player on the team. McGlynn has flatlined at a meh level. Flach continues to look lost.
Onward and upward?
At the very least, Harriel had the shot that Cornel made a great save on (although Harriel could have directed it to the corner where there would have been no chance of a save).
The call on Carranza wasn’t soft for me. It was not about the pull back. It was the trip. The announcers were so focused on the arms and grabbing they didn’t see his foot get taken. The angle from behind is the best. You can see Carranza’s heel go sideways.
Martinez has been the MVP of the Union for years.
McGlynn has flatlined because he can’t get even a little service. Team is terrible in posession.
Let’s not discount the fact they’re playing a game every three days. Even the kids legs can’t keep at it.
The penalty call was borderline — it looked clearly like Carranza caught his toe on the turf — but Nealis was a freakin’ idiot to grab him in the box and has zero to complain about.
–
Lord that was one terrible game of soccer. Blake was his usual awesome. So was Glesnes. I thought Lowe did well. Harriel was good & bad. Flach is a problem at the 6 and I think we need to give Bueno (or Perea) a shot there when he’s out. Quinn was lively but our attack just wasn’t clicking, yet again.
–
I will say this: the Union did a masterful job of killing off stoppage time. Into the corner, again and again, for prolonged periods, snuffing out any hope the Red Bulls might’ve had. It was really a masterclass in seeing out the tail end of a game. Other than that, I gotta agree with El Pachy that I hope we see some more pleasant soccer from this team sometime soon…
He was tripped. There’s contact on his foot that makes him miss the next step.
Another blatant example… winning without wearing the SoCal Surfer kit!
Hahahahaha….
Never wear those again, please!
the surfer kit is when they play soccer not football, the game is foooooooottttbbbbballll.
It’s called soccer here. Maybe just learn to live with it instead of being a weirdo about repeatedly
the philly football page needs to rebrandt and be prochange to football american football is soccer go soc somebody