Photo Credit: Marjorie Elzey
Philadelphia started off fast, when on a set piece in the second minute, Jack Elliott sliced a ball through a group of bodies that unfortunately hit the top crossbar and deflected out. Down the other end, New England’s Andrew Farrell had a chance in the 10th minute, but found the top crossbar as well.
The return of José Martínez brought a welcome spark to the Union midfield, as by the 13th minute, he’d already alreadt attempted two strikes at goal from well outside the box. It seemed Martinez’s confidence overflowed to the team early on, as Tai Baribo took his own shot on goal moments later, and Jakob Glesnes followed suit within the 18th minute.
New England’s response to the Union’s offensive stride was to play compact, but on a set piece in the 29th minute, Elliott’s second attempt at slicing it across the ball found its way to Tai Baribo, who headed it in goal for his fourth goal of the season.
Before the half, a series of corner kicks for the Union came to fruition when Glesnes delivered on a Wagner strike to make it 2-0.
An increased press by New England fell flat as the Union stayed alert and avoided any costly mistakes, even turning the table on New England’s push to go down the field and score a third goal before the half, courtesy of Baribo. Philadelphia’s third of the night is also Baribo’s fifth goal in six games, just one behind Uhre and Carranza’s totals for the season.
With no changes from either side at the half, the rain started pouring just as the half started. The weather hardly put a damper on the Union’s energy, as minutes in, another strike from Martinez hit the goalpost, signaling that even up 3, the Union weren’t slowing down.
The second half saw two goals within two minutes. From the top of the eighteen yard box, Ian Harkes struck one past Andre Blake, but New England’s excitement was short-lived, as Baribo signed, sealed, and delivered for his third of the night.
A flurry of substitutions by New England bookmarked a delay in game after two consecutive head injuries to Olivier Mbaizo and Baribo. Return to play was quickly interrupted due to a blatant foul by Jack Panayotou on Martinez.
Play was slowed down for much of the second half, until a mistake in the back end by the Union almost allowed for a second New England goal. Fortunately, Andre Blake was there to save the day, and the near miss seemed to electrify the Union. Almost immediately, Quinn Sullivan took his time to set up outside the penalty area before blasting an absolute rocket into the back of the net. Amidst cheers for his brother, Cavan Sullivan made his debut as the youngest player in MLS history. Before the final whistle, Cavan challenged New England with his first shot on goal, which was ultimately saved by Aljaz Ivacic.
The night ended 5-1 for the Union, breaking the winless streak at Subaru Park (finally). The Union have a quick turn around before hosting Nashville SC this Saturday, July 20 at Subaru Park.
Three points
- First home win since March 30th: even if this isn’t a pivot point for the season, at least the streak is over.
- Goal Differential of 0: need I say more?
- 2 points from the playoffs: I don’t wanna be delusional, but I’m just saying, it’s in the realm of
delusionalpossibility.
Lineups
Philadelphia: Andre Blake, Jack Elliott, Jakob Glesnes, José Martínez, Kai Wagner, Olivier Mbaizo, Dániel Gazdag, Leon Flach, Alejandro Bedoya (Jesús Bueno—71′), Mikael Uhre (Quinn Sullivan—71′), Tai Baribo (Cavan Sullivan—85′)
Unused subs: Damion Lowe, Markus Anderson, Andrew Rick, Jeremy Rafanello, Christopher Olney, Chris Donovan
CF Montréal: Aljaz Ivacic, Xavier Arreaga (Henry Kessler—57′), Dave Romney, Jonathan Mensah, Matt Polster ( Mark-Anthony Kaye—58′), Ian Harkes, Ryan Spaulding (Peyton Miller—74′), Andrew Farrell, Bobby Wood (Thomas McNamara—57′), Jack Panayotou, Esmir Bajraktarevic (Malcolm Fry—62′)
Unused subs: Earl Edwards, Joshua Bolma, Brandon Bye, Marcos Dias
Scoring summary
PHI – Tai Baribo — 29′
PHI – Jakob Glesnes — 39′
PHI – Tai Baribo — 44′
NE – Ian Harkes — 50′
PHI – Tai Baribo — 52′
PHI – Quinn Sullivan — 84′
Misconduct summary
NE – Jack Panayotou — 66′
Baribo now has the same amount of goals as both carranza and Uhre this season, He IS that guy
I’m loving it. And he’s really involved on defense, too. It’s great to see him flourishing, but also an indictment on Jim for patently refusing to play him until Carranza was sold.
Also, fantastic to have Andre back in net!
I went for the purpose of booing the asshole Bobby Wood and was pleasantly surprised by the rest of the evening.
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This was basically the same lineup as a typical 2022 game with Baribo instead of Carranza (and I would say he was an adequate replacement)
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I believe that the Blake save mentioned in the article just before the Sullivan goal didn’t count due to the offsides flag.
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Biggest disappointment was when the Union missed a golden opportunity in the second half when two Union players fanned on an Uhre pass after a New England giveaway. That was immediately followed by the Revs goal so if they had put the ball in the net it might have had another 6 goal win.
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4 of the last 7 Union MLS wins including last year’s playoffs have been against New England. Too bad the two teams are done playing each other for the season.
What did Bobby wood do?
Started the incident that got Wagner suspended (albeit rightly so) in the playoffs last year and got off with no punishment himself.
You are so Philly, Andy (That’s a compliment.)–Bobby Wood is a punk.
Which is really funny since I’m probably the least “Philly” person here having moved from North Jersey 22 years ago and not supporting any Philly teams besides the Union and Union 2.
It’s not Wood’s fault that Kai got suspended (it’s Kai’s) and it’s not Wood’s fault that he himself wasn’t suspended. So booing him seems kind of petty.
While Wagner deserves the majority of the blame, Wood was at least partially to blame. How is it petty to boo him?
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If you saw someone break into your house and smash your TV but you weren’t able to get them convicted in court, wouldn’t you want to beat the crap out of them if you had the opportunity? Or would you just accept that it wasn’t their fault they didn’t get punished?
Woods is a no talent hack who’s objective in that match was to disrupt not to play well or even try to score, since he has no scoring shoes.
Union aggressive from the get-go. Martinez could have had a hat trick with a couple of feet here and there.
Sure, against an injury depleted cellar-dweller. But once a hound picks up the scent, a shark smells blood, a striker tastes the back of the net… you want MORE.
Kai with three assists!
Baribo with a statement, I’m here! Look at me!! All three goals were striker’s goals.
I’m feeling turnaround time.
Union aggressive from the get-go. Martinez could have had a hat trick!
Sure, against an injury depleted cellar-dweller. But once a hound picks up the scent, a shark smells blood, a striker tastes the back of the net… you want MORE.
Kai with three assists!
Baribo with a statement, I’m here! Look at me!! All three goals were striker’s goals.
I’m feeling turnaround time.
Fun fact: Tai Baribo is producing at an elite rate. He’s 3rd in the league in goals per 90 minutes for players with over 200 minutes, behind only Leonel Messi and Tani Oluwaseyi.
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Cavan debuts ten seconds after his brother scores… I mean COME ON. You can’t write this. And it was a really good debut as well. He showed real flashes and popped a shot off too.
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This was a nice spanking. But I’m not yet optimistic that it is a turnaround. The very last game the Union won (way back in May) was against this same NE team. And they didn’t win any of the six before that. Sometimes you just have their number.
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One hopes that having Andre back helps stabilize the defense. He’s the leader. Maybe just maybe they’ve needed him as much for his words and vision as his shot stopping. And thank goodness he did look fit for duty!
1. It was weird seeing the Union play with confidence. Maybe just having Dre back??
2. Tai Baribo continues to make Jim Curtin look like an absolute ***hole for putting Chris Donovan ahead of him on the depth chart. (Chris Donovan?!)
I hope Jim has a really, really long think about himself and his penchant for putting players in the doghouse. Auston Trusty is also doing nicely for himself. Just saying.
3. I don’t usually bother complaining about Apple’s broadcasts, but between missing the second goal for a replay (!?!?) and the repeated, gratuitous, ridiculous mentions of Cavan Sullivan, I was about ready to throw my shoe at the TV. HEY APPLE: DO BETTER ALREADY.
There is a way to switch audio on the broadcast to the local announcers and not the apple folks… 90% of the time I’d rather listen to the away announcers than the apple folks…
Wait, what?? How do you do that? And who are the local people, Dave Leno & Seba doing the radio broadcast?
We’d only hear our home announcers if it’s a home match on Apple. They play the host team’s local feed. Still a nice option. There should be a little icon on the bottom right if you swipe up from the progress bar, at least on the Apple TV streaming device. Near the closed captions option.
Chris Donovan is making only $60-100K a year, so putting him in ahead of Tai Baribo may have been a “business decision decision”….
But Auston Trusty and his $6.4 million transfee fee that Arsenal gained –yeah, that could have the Union’s!
One wonders how Tai Baribo was buried behind Uhre AND Donovan. Uhre we can at least make a case for since he scored some gols in the league. Donovan? Can’t figure it.
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Having Jose and Andre back and they pitch a shut out. Go figure x2.
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NE is a bad team like 70% of the other MLS teams in the league. gotta beat the bad teams to become a good team so maybe this is trending towards a fix.
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I stand by my point earlier in the year, they JUST need to PLAY WELL and play their best towards the end of the season and who knows in this league. Best game in awhile and right in time to stop playing again for an extended break.. to chase this mindless MoneyGrab Cup.
See my comment above. I really, really, really hope Jim is learning something from this.
Jim Curtin? Learn? About personnel selection? When did the pigs sprout wings?
Baribo is the garbage man picking up goals by just being in the right place at the right time. This has been something that’s been missing for a while. His last goal was the confidence kicking in with the run, touch and shot.
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The goal against was legit and that was it, no hey let me help you out with some bonehead play. Something we haven’t seen all year was Gkesnes, Elliott & Wagner all getting on the score sheet. Wagner had a quiet three assist night, Elliott had two assists & Glesnes had a goal & an assist.
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Quinn Sullivan scoring a goal to get his little brother in the game was just the icing of a delicious cake tonight.
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They need a run to finish the season and I know this won’t be popular with some but the same with Leagues Cup. Playing Cavan in LC and letting him adjust to the speed of the game couldn’t hurt. If they played four games and he could see the field for 50-75 minutes, that would be nice. Same with the rest of the team with most everyone healthy now.
Harkes’ goal was a great strike, and credit to him, but the one responsible was El Brujo for not closing him down.
I thought Union looked good, but even more so I thought NE looked poor. So not sure how much this win means going forward, but it’s still a win. Blake looked shaky like he did at the beginning of the season, hope he can stay healthy long enough to get back in form.
It was both. You can face a poor team, and then if you’re good, you should smash them, and that’s what we did.
I forgot to mention that, even with no goals himself, Uhre’s play on goal #3 was superb. Speed, strength, and vision to set Baribo up for that one. The two of them could gel into an excellent combo.
Much better. Blake back? Martinez? A staring XI that looked a lot more like prime ’22 with Baribo in for Carranza as the only change. Uhre plays a lot more convincingly as a winger than a central striker, sending in some really nice service last night, particularly on the third goal, which relied a lot on his hard work to get down the line and put that cross on a plate for Baribo.
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Amazingly, a change in form can shoot this team right back up the table. Currently in 14th, the U are 3 points off of eighth and are the only team between 8 and 15 without a negative goal differential (that +4 last night helped a lot. Thanks Revs).
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I’m not going to get excited for playoffs or even the Leagues Cup. This team still needs help to be considered a contender of any sort. It will be interesting to see if they do anything of note in the summer window. I’m not holding my breath.
“Top Crossbar”? A little redundant. There’s only one crossbar, and it’s at the top.
Blake presence in the back and Martinez at the top of the defense boosted the confidence of the entire defense. Elliot and Glesnes played with a lot more confidence. This allowed Wagner to show off his offensive skilks. Bedoya brings his calmness and poise to the team when he is asked to play within his game. Just imagine if this team went out and got another forward to compliment Baribo. We could actually beat some of the better teams. Hoping , Praying Sugarman and Tanner make the announcement soon that they have signed that guy.
+1
I am in section 130 and I watched Blake in the first half and the difference was apparent just through his leadership skills handling his defense.