Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union
The New York Red Bulls came into tonight looking to reverse their slide, while the Union entered the match looking for another win and to prove that their streak was not just a new manager “bounce.” It was a tight, physical match, but the Union showed fight and talent against a strong Red Bull side and have probably put the rest of the league on notice that this team is for real.
First Half
Both teams started the half with a high press. There wasn’t much room in the midfield, with both teams staying compact. The Red Bulls looked the more likely to score in the first 20 minutes, breaking Union lines and sending strikers forward on a couple of occasions. Both of their best chances, however, came from offsides, with Andre Blake saving both. Gradually, the high press from the Union started to pin Red Bull back, and their incisive passes couldn’t get going. Then, in the 18th minute, against the run of play, Iloski got a toe on a looped shot from Indiana Vassilev that went home, giving the visitors a 0-1 advantage. A minute or so later, some rare, nice combination play from Damiani and Iloski saw Iloski’s shot just miss high.
Cavan Sullivan looked strong and full of his trademark gritty dribbling and cheeky passes. Though the Union continued to press and find space for shots, they were not able to find the back of the net again. Red Bull continued with their incisive runs, mostly through their midfielder, Donker, and a quick counter through the lines looked like the way Red Bull would equalize. But Neil Pierre and Nathan Harriel were having a strong game, and it was Pierre’s block of Hall’s shot in the 42nd minute that kept the lead for the Union. The frenetic pace continued into stoppage time, when a shot from a corner kick was saved off the line by a sliding Che for New York.
Second Half
The second half got off to a flying start, when a blazing shot from New York’s Hall rattled the back post. The Union answered three minutes later with two shots on goal that didn’t go in. But in the 50th minute, a beautiful, arcing cross field pass from Danley Jean Jacques found Cavan Sullivan, whose first touch out of the air turned the ball inside, and with his second touch, slotted the ball low into the far corner. 0-2, Philadelphia!
Red Bull continued to carry a threat, and they seemed most effectively dangerous whenever they could get through the Union’s high press. Which wasn’t often. Cavan Sullivan continued to find–and to make–space for himself, and looked dangerous throughout the game. Neill Pierre continued to show why he is so highly rated, chasing down attacks and coming up with the ball on a number of occasions. It was congested, end-to-end game.
In the 64th minute, Richeter substituted Quinn Sullivan for Vassilev, and roughly a minute later, Milan Iloski sent a looping free kick that was flicked on by Bruno Damiani. Neil Pierre, showing the offensive side of his game again, slid forward to poke the ball in, 0-3, Philadelphia Union.
New York had subbed in Eric Maxim Choupo-Moteng to start the second half, and in the final third of the game, they made three subs, and Harper, Safo and Marshall-Rutty . They brought new energy to the game, but nothing definitive. Until the 74th minute when Choupo-Moteng got between the two Union defenders and clawed one back for the home side. It was the be the final score of the match. The Union held on and continued to show commitment and skill on both sides of the ball.
Three Points
- The Union”Kids”: Cavan Sullivan and Neil Pierre continue to impress with their play. The younger Sullivan is a creative and gritty handful for any defense, and Neil Pierre is showing a savvy maturity to go with his physical gifts.
- Defense: The high press denies space for teams to build an attack, but the Red Bulls looked dangerous in the moments they broke through.
- Link up play: The Union are superb at winning the ball up high and converting, but quick, effective passes from midfield through lines continues elude the Boys in Blue.
Lineups
Philadelphia Union (4-4-2):
Andre Blake; Kai Wagner, Nathan Harriel, Neil Pierre, Frankie Westfield; Danley Jean Jacques,
Jovan Lukic, Cavan Sullivan, (Jesus Bueno 80) Indiana Vassilev (Quinn Sullivan 64) ; Bruno Damiani, (Anello 80), Milan Iloski.
Unused Substitutes: Ben Bender, Andrew Rick, Malik Jakupovic, Japhet Sery Larsen,
Red Bull New York (4-2-3-1):
Horvath, Nealis, Che (Harper 67), Bazan, Ruvalcaba, Donker, Mhemeti, Forsberg (Safo 67), Cowell, (Marshall-Rutty 67) Dos Santos, Hall (Eric Maxim Choubo-Moteng 45)
Scoring Summary:
21st – Iloski (Vassilev), Union
50th – C. Sullivan (Jean Jacques), Union
65th – Neil Pierre (Damiani), Union
74th – Choupo-Moteng, Red Bull New York
Disciplinary Summary:
91st – Yellow – Anello, Union
92nd Yellow – Westfield, Union
This was the opposite of the first half of the season where the Union couldn’t finish their chances and their opponents couldn’t miss theirs. The game wasn’t nearly as lopsided as the score and if New Jersey had been able to finish it would have been a different story.
I’m not wishing it because I don’t want Union to lose him, but I am convinced that there are quite a few lower half of the table teams in Spain, France, Germany and Italy that Danley could start for today. Maybe they don’t have the money to hit Union’s target for the player, but every match he shows another part of his game is at that level of quality.
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Have to take care of business against Montreal next week.
He played in all 3 of Haiti’s WC matches against Scotland, Brazil, and Morocco. His WC experience seems to have helped him improve.
Strong effort from our lads. It would be nice if they stopped conceding sloppy goals when they have the lead. The only thing more annoying than a player standing with his hand up like a doofus when the other team scores is the atrocious tv production by crapple.
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They routinely show cut shots of players, coaches, people in the stands, whatever WHEN THE BALL IS IN PLAY. Goal kicks magically become throw ins at midfield – WTF happened, who knows? I would rather watch a midfield computer-controlled camera that follows the ball. At least I’d see the damn game then. Does anyone at the MLS league office watch these games? Does anyone at crapple assess individual producer performance or perform quality control? Does either organization do customer satisfaction surveying? Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave. Apple used to be known quality products and innovation. Now, they’re crapple.
Apple doesn’t handle the production only the distribution. According to Wikipedia: ”Beginning in the 2023 season, all MLS match telecasts are now produced in-house by the league as part of a joint venture between IMG and NEP Group.” So blame the production quality, which I agree is bad, on MLS and those other two groups.
Nice win!
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I have definitely been critical of Vassilev but, I have to say, he has definitely stepped up his game. He is no longer looking backward first, and is now head up, looking downfield. It seems to coincide with the new coach, so perhaps he was previously told to be super careful. Either way, he’s been playing much, much better.
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Iloski, Cavan, Pierre, Danley, Blake, Harriel…so many other great performances, too. Bring on the “Impact”! Doop!
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BTW, Wagner was right. That goal was totally offsides. Why even have replay if you refuse to change the call?
no he wasn’t. Wagner kept him on.
What bugs me is the announcers on that, saying it wasn’t a clear and obvious mistake so VAR didn’t get involved, when all goals are checked by VAR (and I would expect with a line drawn), since the visual angle that was shown wasn’t conclusive without an actual line. Do they really not know how this works or do they just feel they have to say something to fill the empty air?
James pretty much said all that can be said about the match itself. The team is playing much better with more to improve upon.
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The stadium visuals last night with all the blood red vines and veins seemed like a ‘Red Vines’ War of the Worlds ripoff from Spielberg’s 2004 rendition. The film’s opening alien tripod attack scene was shot a stone’s throw away at St. Stephan’s United Church at the Five Corners with Tom Cruise fleeing down Polk St. from its vaporizing heat rays.
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The atmosphere was yet another home-lite match for us. It was again poorly attended where Union fans could easily infiltrate at cheap cost. The RB fans were uninspired while the away section dominated the noise production.
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A founding MLS member, RBNY has only won 3 SS and nothing else including tournaments. Sugarman should take note that patience with everlasting failure to win any sort of championship does run out. RBNY simply has a head start.
Anyone else think that City didn’t pay enough for Cavan?
Not only that but we overpaid for him without a meaningful ROI yet.
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He was widely regarded as a top global 14 year old prospect. MC locked him at $2M min to $5M max. That’s chump change for MC plus it locked him before his value rose through promising performances. Basically they bought him for a song.
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Meanwhile, the U has paid him over 500k per season, the highest homegrown contract in MLS history, all despite him being a growing teen who rode the bench until recently and will depart shortly to MC. Despite the U’s post-WC upturn with his starts, this season is already virtually a trophy hunt bust.
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The apparent thinking was to overpay him so he wouldn’t exercise his German/EU passport to go to EU/EEA/Swiss options at 16.
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Since he’s already ‘end of life’ for the U on his 18th birthday and he’s almost 17 now, unless he plays a meaningful role in getting us some silverware next year, IMO keeping him until 18 wasn’t worth it. This club needs to invest in its own future to obtain local silverware. Alas, we don’t have that kind of ownership.
I think it comes down to what the new roster rules might bring before we judge how they handled Cavan. If they change how teams can recruit for the academy by getting rid of the territory rules, Cavan might turn into the poster boy for recruitment and joining the Union.
Cavan did not have a contract. At age 16 he could have left the academy and gone to one of city’s eu affiliate clubs. In that scenario the U get nothing but solidarity payments, which are peanuts for an mls level club. city paid 2M up front with apparently up to 5M in add ons – much better than nothing. this all happened because CAVAN (and his family, I assume) wanted to stay in Philly. the deal is an enormous win for the Union.
The $2M pays for his $500k salary minimum in Philly. We could have used that for someone with a future here rather than a teen benchwarmer for more than half of his limited presence who won’t represent our future.
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The Sullivans are a long settled multigenerational soccer family and a tightly knitted intact family in Philly including extended family. Being close is an understatement. Relocating Cavan as a juvenile would have been highly disruptive to the family unit and his growth. Cavan has thrived growing with his family support aside him, especially with Quinn on the pitch. I see early transfer had the deal not been made as a bluff, especially since proven success would drive up his value immensely for a future better sale as a young adult.
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The academy already has a great reputation, and producing a blooming world class player by 14 would have accrued notice value anyway for parents of prospects.
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There’s two ways this meaningfully wins for Philly. One is that Cavan gets us some first time silverware next year before he goes. The other is that he meets his performance-based add-ons and/or gets sold by MC at a high price for a sell on percentage cut and Sugarman uses it to produce a team that wins trophies. That is speculative, and we have a cheap player flipping owner who doesn’t invest in team silverware success.
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These views are subjective of course, but my concern is winning trophies for Philly as a fan. To the extent this deal doesn’t achieve that end, it’s a bust. Cavan winning for MC or others and Sugarman pocketing the money to get richer are not my concerns.
RePete, if your only objective is trophies, then every deal in the history of the Union has been a failure. When you look at the cost/benefit of the Cavan deal to the club and region outside of trophies, it’s way down the list of bad deals the club has done.
I agree with many of the comments. I want to highlight that if the Union sell Pierre for less than $20 million then they are being taken to the cleaners. The kid’s instincts, ball handling skills, interception rate and one on one defending are amazing. Not to mention he is a little tall too. LOL This team with a focus on Cavan as the distributor is so spot on, but again I will credit Richter for having the guts to start Pierre over his other options.
Quinn still looks lost unfortunately and hope that his continued presence on the field improves his play. We need the Quinn from last year.
I was of the mindset of moving on from Andre Blake but after seeing the last several games, I have to admit I was totally wrong. Kai has also brought back that fighting, never quit mentality which was sorely needed.
I think Richter needs move Quinn to the right when he plays. Richter prefers his attackers to be inverted so they can cut in on their strong foot, but Quinn isn’t there yet in his rehab. You can see he doesn’t trust himself to beat the defender or plant and cross on his weaker foot yet.
Always nice to beat the Pink Cows. Can’t wait til we actually bullrush the sprint season and win that “Cup”, so everyone can be happy but also say it’s a fake title. It’s the Union way! HA! I mean this in a good way too – I’ll take any trophy we can get, but after we do that and then Pierre and Cavan are sold/leave – it’ll be interesting to see where we are. Ah well… I’m just gonna enjoy watching this team fight for the playoffs this year – cause that alone will be a hell of an accomplishment, given the start
I started thinking about the future without those two as well and have decided to enjoy what we have, while we have it. They will be gone to brighter futures and probably USMNT, especially since we have no decent central defenders other than Chris Richards. Cavan is a true playmaker and I hope Poch calls them both up this next window.
Cavan’s finish was superb, but that pass from Danley to get him there was just perfection. As somebody above said, Danley has been simply amazing since coming back from the World Cup. He had slid off some in the first half of the year, which contributed to our terrible defense. Now he’s back with a vengeance on both sides of the ball.
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I have to admit that I thought firing Carnell was silly. The Union clearly didn’t have the players, they had several bust signings up top, and blaming the manager for that seemed dumb. But now, looking at Cavan’s play and Neil Pierre’s play, you have to say that Carnell should’ve given those two more of a shot. (Though there were other things that have happened that clearly had nothing to do with Carnell as well.)
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Don’t look now, but this team could actually have further upside if Quinn gets back to form.
Remember when we would approach this same precipice under Curtin… again and again… and we’d lose to or just tie Montreal at home?
With a predicted WIN Saturday, giving us 27 points…. and with predicted losses on the road for NYRB, DC and at home for ORL (vs SD) and TOR (vs CHI)… Union would jump up to 8th place from current 12th and start to challenge for a secure playoff spot against CiN Sept 9th.
DOOP
DOOP
DOOP
NO FEAR!
since the world cup break the most impressive thing to me has been the fight. multiple come from behind wins, stronger second halves. 2 things that are not part of the unions usual lexicon.
+1