Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union
The Philadelphia Union defeated CF Montreal 2-1 at Subaru Park on Wednesday evening. On a night where Montreal’s man marking system forced the Union into some untimely errors, goals from Tai Baribo and Olwethu Makhanya, along with some key saves by Andre Blake, were enough to clinch the victory.
After a very disjointed opening to the match, where the Union struggled to connect passes cleanly, Danley Jean-Jacques took matters into his own hands and drove into the Montreal box. Off a Montreal challenge, the ball fell to the feet of Baribo who placed a shot home in an empty net heading into the 45th minute.
But Montreal drew it even just before the end of the first half. Former Union academy product, Brandan Craig, sprayed a beauty of a pass out wide left to spring an attack via Joel Waterman. Waterman beautifully curled a ball into the feet of Prince Owusu, who easily placed it to Andre Blake’s right.
The Montreal striker came into the match with ten goals, and surprisingly only left with eleven. Owusu was unlucky not to capitalize on multiple other opportunities throughout the match as the German’s pace and power gave the Union backline fits for much of the tilt.
Five minutes into the second half, Olwethu Makhanya earned his first Union goal, finding ample space and heading home a Kai Wagner corner to put the Union in front.
As the match wore on, the Union’s tired legs conceded significant space to the Montreal attack. After a sub to save Jakob Glesnes from a potential second yellow card, Montreal broke through a Nathan Harriel and Makhanya center back pairing with ease. Luckily for the Union, a good angle by Harriel, and a bad pass behind Owusu set the striker off balance and the Union recovered possession desperately.
The Union would bring on Cavan Sullivan and Alejandro Bedoya to help see out the one goal margin. The pair’s fresh legs helped the Union sustain pressure higher up the field – and see the game out by taking the ball to the corner flags.
Next up, the Union head to Houston where they will visit Jack McGlynn and the Houston Dynamo on Saturday at 8:30 pm.
GOALS/ASSISTS
PHI – Tai Baribo (unassisted) 37’
MTL – Prince Owusu (Waterman) 45+2’
PHI – Olwethu Makhanya (Wagner) 50’
DISCIPLINARY SUMMARY
PHI – Jakob Glesnes (caution) 21’
MTL – Victor Loturi (caution) 41’
PHI – Quinn Sullivan (caution) 42’
MTL – Brandan Craig (caution) 72’
Lineups
Philadelphia Union: Andre Blake; Nathan Harriel, Jakob Glesnes (Frankie Westfield 60’), Olwethu Makhanya, Kai Wagner, Danley Jean Jacques, Jovan Lukic, Quinn Sullivan (Cavan Sullivan 86’), Indiana Vassilev (Alejandro Bedoya 82’), Tai Baribo (Mikael Uhre 60’), Bruno Damiani (Chris Donovan 82’).
Substitutes not used: Andrew Rick, Olivier Mbaizo, Ben Bender, Jeremy Rafanello.
CF Montreal: Sébastian Breza; Brandan Craig, Joel Waterman, Luca Petrasso (Olger Escobar 82’) , Dawid Bugaj (Fernando Álvarez 80’), Fabian Herbers (Tom Pearce 45’), Victor Loturi, Samuel Piette (Bryce Duke 66’), Prince Owusu, Hennadii Synchuk (Caden Clark 60’), Dante Sealy.
Substitutes not used: Kwadwo Opoku, Owen Graham-Roache, Jonathan Sirois, Aleksandr Guboglo.
Probably the worst first half the Union have played since the LA game where they were trailing 0-2.
Their offensive spacing was trying to overload zonal marking. Because Montreal was in man, it didn’t work. Trying to create overloads simply concentrated the defenders closer together.
Trivia question about Montreal CB Brandon Craig:
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He played one first team game with the Union. Which one was it?
Ir was either DC United or Colorado, when of the 7-0 drubbings in 2022. Brief cameo.
Good job. It was the DC game (Colorado was only 6-0). It was just after Craig, Aaronson, Sullivan, and McGlynn had helped the US qualify for the Olympics and all 4 came on as subs that game.
I’m glad the Union are doing well but these games are painful to watch.
Some decent interplay in the midfield for me, but the final third was a mess.
It seemed like the mugginess got into their heads. In the first half their thinking couldn’t keep up with their own frantic one touch passing and they weren’t on the same page as each other often. In the 2nd half they slowed their play a bit which helped but then they fell asleep several times and only won because of Prince’s bad luck with finishing.
They increased their spacing in the second half, and emphasized passing the ball rather than running all over the field.
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Thus, they reduced Montreal’s ability to support each other defensively, since Montreal was in a man-for-man defense. And they also created more space for them to play into.
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Since Montreal was not trying to possess the ball particularly, spreading the field and making the ball do the work was successful.
Is Baribo ok? Subbed at 60’
Hot humid night. Only second start since returning from injury. Another game Saturday night…in Texas which will likely be even hotter and just as humid. And unlike everyone else besides Glesnes who also came off at 60, he has a game next Tuesday, also in Texas. So probably just looking towards the future.
To add to Andy’s intelligent responses, pulling Baribo at 60 minutes preserves the possibility of stating him on Saturday night in Houston.
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I have learned from somewhere over the years that an hour of maximum effort should not debilitate a properly conditioned soccer player. Recovery should take only a couple of days. Much more than 60 takes disproportionately more days recovery time
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Extra recovery time is not in this week’s Union calendar.
How did that Red Bull team put 5 past New England? Is New England that bad ?
Some of it is matchup but this season is going to get uglier and uglier if more bottom feeders feel their best chance to get points against us is to not play their game and just sit and defend and only take chances off of free kicks and transition.
5 minutes or so before the Baribo goal my son said, “It’s time for Danley to make one of his runs.” And while those runs leave some space for the opponent to counter into, it seems to be the best chance for the U to break down a team that just wants to sit deep.
I wonder if Cavan Sullivan said “what the fuck are you doing taking that ball from me like a 15 yr old” to Chris Donovan —who then butchered— the easy ass pass for a sitter that ultimately didn’t matter.
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Sullivan was 2 steps away from the ball, closing in acres of space and either plays the pass himself or curls the thing where the spiders sleep.
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Golly, Chris. For real?
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So many players in The Wastelands of US Soccer exiled into unidentified-irrelevance … present company indluded—YET this guy is on a first team MLS roster.
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It’s terse and unkind and also 100% accurate.
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Fucks sake.
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Carry on.
But. He. Hustles.
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And can go 60 minutes. Apparently. Don’t quite understand how Olivas can play 90 for UII but Donovan is needed because he can play for 60 minutes.
I hear you. is it fair to say we just need a body due to the squad rotation and that’s sufficient? I’m hoping for upgrades but this year’s squad has surpassed my expectations. maddening complaints about only one player is not where I thought we’d be in mid July.
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Since Rick was getting plenty of starts recently, I wonder how he’d have faired against some of last night’s challenges? Blake was exceedingly acrobatic at times. not sure if they’d have been saves with Rick in. no disservice to Rick, just not sure if we win last night with him in.
In his brief minutes, Olivas looked more dangerous than Donovan. At least my son and I get a laugh every time he subs on.
I think the kids (Olivas, Davis, and to a lesser extent Anderson) are better served long term getting significant minutes with Union 2 and a very occasional run on with the big boys just for the experience. The main goal with them is development so they can either challenge for spots in ’26 or ’27 or be sold on as appropriate. And if they run around for 5 minutes at the end of the game on Saturday with the Union, it limits their playing time on Sunday with Union 2. I also believe that they have a limited number of call ups before they have to take up a full roster spot.
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Donovan on the other hand will hopefully be someone to help give one of the top 3 forwards a breather at the end of the game…at least now that they all seem healthy and that the only midweek games left on the schedule after last night would be for the Open Cup.
Olivas and Davis both need short-term agreements to dress for the first team bench. They are still officially off-roster Homegrown players.
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Anderson is on the first team’s active roster and has no such restrictions.
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By my unofficial count — repeat unofficial — both Olivas and Davis have three short-term agreements left for the MLS regular season.
Philly soccer page note below, I suggested multiple times that you are calling the sport by the wrong name.
We all should pursue this effort as it misrepresents the sport in the global sense as well as in an intellectual one. The president sees this is a common sense change.
(please no politics)
Trump also mused about the possibility of signing an executive order to have soccer officially recognized as ‘football’ in the U.S
Thanks, Santo, for your feedback. While I understand your argument, and havent overlooked your previous feedback, Phillysoccerpage has been known as phillysoccerpage for over a decade. It’s in the domain name, it’s part of the brand that the writers and editors of this site have worked hard to build, and has been that way since inception. I definitely get where you are coming from, in that calling the sport by a name that the rest of the world doesn’t currently use, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Though, It’s something that I think most of us have come to terms with, because the term “soccer” was actually coined in England as a reference to “association football” to distinguish the sport from rugby in the 1860s. Whatever we call it, and whatever you would like to call it, is totally fine. I personally think it’s great that we can have different perspectives and a platform like Philly soccer page to share those perspectives with each other! Thanks for reading!
nice response, Blake!
what will your response be if an eo is issued by the prez
Thank you Blake for that concise reply! I would have taken a much lower road and pointed out to Santo that the horse is in fact dead and he should kindly stop beating it!
Santo, if a 34 time convicted felon tried to tell me to call it football, I’d switch referring to it as soccer.
We are not writing for a world audience, primarily.
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We are writing for a United States audience primarily.
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If you say “football” unmodified to a United States audience, an extremely high percentage of the population will assume 100 yards long, 53 yards wide, a ball that not spherical, plastic armor worn on heads and shoulders, and running for a maximum of 8 seconds between 40 second rest breaks.
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To communicate with people in the United States, follow general United States usage, just as to communicate with people in Russia, use Russian usage, France, French, Germany, German, etc., etc.
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What should be is an interesting theoretical discussion.
However, what is . . . governs.
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We are told that some time ago a King named Canute ordered the ocean tides to cease.
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They did not.
Just. Stop.
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It was actually called “soccer” in England before it was called football. So there. We are not calling it by the wrong name.
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You bring up politics and then say “please no politics”. Why? The president wouldn’t understand soccer or football or it walked up and hit him in the face. He just said that to spite the NFL. Grow up.
The english do not know what is correct either you call it soccer or football but not both. So get off my case about bringing it up. It’s stupid to have it both ways. I do not insert politics into the beautiful game, is it football a beautiful game or soccer a beautiful game.
Just someone with common sense why call it soccer when its football,,,,it sucks
What part about bringing up the convicted felon is not politics? Bringing up politics and claiming you didn’t pretty much undermines any creditability that may have been given regarding semantics.
I will try to have the final word on the subject, I do not care what all of you do or think. Why all the resentment………this is the USA we do not have adhere to what another country calls this sport but in the USA it should be changed to football, in England you can call it soccer. Good luck and don’t put your foot in mouth LOL
You know there is another game in America called football which happens to be far – and – away –
the most popular sport in the country?
Not ’round here, sir.
@Andy – yes, round here.
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I’m a *soccer* fan and nut, but the Birds are far and away much bigger. C’mon, you know that.
OCTinPHL, I was strictly going for the Monty Python reference…(and if you narrow it down to just the Philly Soccer Page, hopefully soccer is king here).
And I probably should have been more specific regarding the reference. In case anyone is not familiar with it, try watching The Cheese Shop Sketch.
@Andy
My bad. Gotcha now.
Word
Santo – grow up. Or go away.
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You did bring politics into it.
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We already have football.
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So is wrong with “soccer”?
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Every couple of months you rice about it. Grow up.
I’ve always thought that Santo is a bot. I ignore him regardless of what he writes.
Next up on Santo’s playlist – the Union don’t really play a 4-4-2 diamond (last year) or a 4-2-2-2 (this year), they actually play a 4-3-3 because that what Santo thinks is the most “beautiful” formation.
Glad to see the Union Manager unafraid to make subs. The team Is winning and playing effective but ugly soccer. NO complaints overall. Think this team has depth all over the place with the style they play. July and August are brutal. The depth of this youngish team will pay off when the games are played in the humid hot weather. Keep Blake fresh. Keep Wagner healthy at the end of the season. Thinking positive thoughts.
Andy … here’s my quick version
“ Not much of a “ football “ page is it?”
“Cleanest in the district!”
“ Certainly isn’t cluttered with any “football “ talk!”
Hope that helps everyone!! Now off to watch the DVD set of the Flying Circus!! I have all day… I’ll be fine! Also “ Nobody expects the Santo inquisition!!”