Photo: Marjorie Elzey

The Philadelphia Union advance to the Leagues Cup Round of 16 after defeating CF Montreal. The Union’s 2-0 victory means they have now won four out of their last five matches.

The Union’s Olympians returned to the squad earlier this week, with Nathan Harriel getting the start over Olivier Mbaizo on Friday night. Jack McGlynn, however, did not feature in the starting XI.

Montreal was without Josef Martinez for what was believed to be a disciplinary measure.

The crowd certainly was not as rambunctious as the previous match vs. Cruz Azul, as the weather and the various protests of Leagues Cup kept fans and supporters groups alike out of the seats.

The field tilt swung furiously early, with both teams trading chances with one another.

The first opportunity of the match came when Quinn Sullivan curled a pass from just past midfield in behind the Montreal defense to a scurrying Sam Adeniran. His initial touch around the Montreal keeper took him too wide of the goal to get a shot off, and his cross was lofted too high for the Union to get on the end of.

Minutes later, Montreal were in behind the Union defense when Montreal’s Mathieu Choiniere dashed through the the Union defense after a lovely sequence of passing. Andre Blake stood his ground and got down to the effort – a trademark Blake save to keep the score level early.

Sullivan again created an opportunity for Adeniran, when he led the counter attack with his keen dribbling ability. He found Adeniran running through, but Adeniran didn’t do well enough and put his shot directly at Montreal’s Sirois.

Moments later, Leon Flach came close to stealing a pass by Sirois to one of his defenders. Flach went to ground in the box after being shouldered by a Montreal defender, but VAR determined that there wasn’t a penalty to be awarded.

It took until the 45th minute for first blood to be drawn. Sam Adeniran took a wonderful first touch with his back to goal and ripped in a cross that deflected off of a Montreal body before Baribo tucked it home just before the end of the first half.

Adeniran came close to doubling the lead five minutes into the second half. Daniel Gazdag did well to guide a pass into Adeniran’s feet, where he took a touch and fired off a shot that Sirois punched away frenetically.

In the 59th minute, Daniel Gazdag was sent to the turf when the follow-through from an Ariel Lassiter shot ended with a knee going into Gazdag’s lower back. Gazdag laid on the grass for a little over a minute before he hobbled directly to the locker room and being replaced by Alejandro Bedoya.

Montreal controlled possession as the half wore on. It took until the 80th minute for them to actually use that possession to generate a chance. Iankov had a wide open look on Blake after receiving a low cross, but he smacked it 2 feet wide.

Mbaizo was close to being sent off after a clumsy challenge on Montreal’s Sunusi. The referee initially showed Mbaizo a red card, but after VAR took a look, it was rightfully downgraded to a yellow card.

With Montreal committed forward in search of an equalizer, the Union were able to bag another tally. Jack McGlynn and Tai Baribo worked a 2 on 1 situation with McGlynn deftly playing a ball into Baribo’s path who finished it home with authority.

The game finished 2-0 with Andre Blake only truly being tested once – due in large part to the Union playing very stout defensively ahead of their resident brick wall.

The Union will now head to Cincinnati to take on a familiar foe in Pat Noonan’s FC Cincinnati, after they beat LigaMX side Santos Laguna in penalties on Friday night.

Three Points

• Olympians return – Nathan Harriel and Jack McGlynn returned to the lineup from their calling into the US Olympic squad. The Inquirer’s Johnathan Tannenwald reported yesterday that the Union had fielded calls this week from European clubs interested in the latter. McGlynn not being in the starting lineup drew some interesting comments over the broadcast with Steve Cangialosi and Danny Higginbotham both insinuating that a move to Europe could be imminent.
• Tai Bury-bo – The Israeli international continues to bury his chances clinically. He just can’t stop scoring and it couldn’t be coming at a better time for Philadelphia. His goal-scoring prowess and incredible work-rate off the ball has been on display in every minute he has played of late.
• Gazdag injury – Gazdag went immediately to the locker room after suffering what appeared to be a lower back injury when he was the recipient of a high knee there on the follow-through of a shot. Any time that Gazdag misses will truly hurt the Union, as he was really in great form ever since coming back from the European championship.

Lineups

Philadelphia Union 

Andre Blake, Kai Wagner, Jack Elliott, Jakob Glesnes, Nathan Harriel (Olivier Mbaizo — 70′), Leon Flach (Jack McGlynn — 60′), Jose Martinez, Quinn Sullivan (Jeremy Rafanello, — 90′), Daniel Gazdag (Alejandro Bedoya — 60′), Tai Baribo, Sam Adeniran (Mikael Uhre — 60′)

Unused subs: Oliver Semmle, Holden Trent, Damion Lowe, Jesus Bueno, CJ Olney, Cavan Sullivan, Chris Donovan

CF Montreal

Jonathan Sirois, Gabriele Corbo (Sunusi Ibrahim — 76′), Joel Waterman, Fernando Alvarez (Joaquin Sosa — 62′), Dawid Bugaj (Mahala Opoku — 62′), Mathieu Choiniere, Samuel Piette, Tom Pearce (Raheem Edwards — 62′), Bryce Duke (Dominic Iankov — 62′), Ariel Lassiter, Matias Coccaro

Unused subs: Sebastian Breza, Victor Wanyama, Alessandro Biello, Lassi Lappalainen, Ruan, George Campbell, Logan Ketterer

Scoring Summary

PHI: Tai Baribo — 45′

PHI: Tai Baribo — 90′

Discipline Summary

PHI: Kai Wagner — Yellow card (foul) 69′

PHI: Olivier Mbaizo — Yellow card (foul) 86′