Photo courtesy of Kevin Barrett, PSP
The Union (9th in the standings, on 27 points) came into the game looking to keep their winning streak and playoff aspirations alive, while Cincinnati (6th, with 31 points) needed to stiffen their form away from home of 1-1-5. But the cagey, intricate, probably low-scoring match many expected is not what the Wednesday night crowd at Subaru Park got. Coach Ryan Richter’s lineup changes from the Montréal game may have been about countering the extra rest Cincinnati had after their game last week against D.C. United was cancelled due to weather. Cavan and Quinn Sullivan started together in an MLS match for the first time, and forward Ezekiel Alladoh made his first start since May 9. The new starters picked up right where the team left off–and ran with it.
First Half
The Union started on the front foot, with two well worked attacks down the right. In the 5th minute, the Union’s press forced a turnover, but the good chances didn’t translate into shots on goal. The defense, particularly Harriel and Pierre emphatically tamped down Cincinnati incursions. And Cincinnati midfielder Evander, who leads MLS in goal contributions, adept at creating from distance, was largely kept out of the game.
In the 11th minute, the game changed when Cincinnati’s Obinna Nwododo was shown a yellow for a nasty foul against Frankie Westfield, which VAR later adjudged a straight red card. Cincinnati retreated into a defensive shell the Union had difficulty cracking. Bit by bit, the Union’s intricate passing and grit started to push Cincy back, their lone attacker, Kevin Denkey, the only outlet. To their credit, Cincinnati continued to look for a goal, either through Denkey or via free kicks.
Cincinnati’s best chance of the half came in the 37th minute, but the final shot was pulled wide. Immediately at the other end Alladoh had a shot blocked by what looked like a handball. Nevertheless, the Union were only awarded a corner. In the scrum around the goal, however, Evander pulled Quinn Sullivan down in the box. After a lengthy review and attending to Neil Pierre for an off-the-ball foul, Quinn Sullivan stepped up to take the penalty kick. And buried it. 1-0 to the Union in the 43rd minute. 9 minutes of stoppage time were added.
The Union continued their press and attacked with energy and creativity. And in the 45+1 minute of stoppage, Damiani was gifted a tap-in on a beautiful slow cross from Cavan Sullivan. 2-0. Less than two minutes later, Danley Jean Jacques had a stinging shot saved on the line. The Union continued to find joy down the right and left, in the dying minutes of the half, Frankie Westfield sent a shot high.
Second Half
Cincinnati made three substitutions to begin the second half. If they had hoped for fresh legs and energy, Kai Wagner, the Sullivan brothers and Bruno Damiani put that–or any sense that the Union was going to play conservatively–to rest when a looping cross from Quinn Sullivan found Damiani, whose shot kissed the inside of the far post and bounced in. 3-0.
The Union continued the attack, moving the ball with confidence and purpose. In the 61st minute, Damiani got his third, with an assist from Cavan. The attacks, shots and near misses came thick and fast. In the 72nd minute Kai Wagner brought down a looping cross from Indiana Vassilev, which he fed to Damiani. Who made no mistake. But the goal was disallowed.
In the 66th and 75th minutes, Richter made substantial substitutions, taking off Bruno Damiani among others to wild, appreciative applause. In the 81st minute, the clean sheet seemed in danger when Pavel Bucha controlled a poor clearance and put away his chance. But VAR showed he was offside, and the goal was chalked off. Thereafter, the Union seemed to want to slow the tempo down. But in the 88th minute, Jakupovic was brought down in the box and the referee signaled for a penalty. Iloski stepped up and converted the penalty kick in the 89th minute. 5-0.
It could be said that the early red card against Cincinnati sealed the win, but sometimes the team that’s down a man scrapes out a win or a draw. But the Union performance tonight was confident and unrelenting. Damiani found his goal-scoring boots, and the wings delivered crosses and shots that kept their opponents on the back foot for most of the game.
Three Points
- Transition. There were very few hopeful long balls, and few head-tennis matches. In the midfield, the Union looked coldly efficient and creative. It hasn’t always been a strength, but tonight it was. Cavan Sullivan continues to impress, adding speed, skill and guile to the Union’s transition and attack.
- Depth. Given the early season trials, lacking width through Quinn Sullivan and Kai Wagner, the lack of depth at key positions was missed.
- Striker. Hat trick for Bruno Damiani! Alladoh looked more involved than in previous games, but he still lacks the striker’s instinct for goal, or maybe it’s confidence. With Iloski struggling, there aren’t many good options. But his PK tonight can only help.
Lineups
Philadelphia Union (4-4-2):
André Blake, Frankie Westfield, Neil Pierre, Nathan Harriel, Kai Wagner, Cavan Sullivan (Malik Jakupovic 75′), Danley Jean Jacques, Jovan Lukić (Jesus Bueno 66′), Quinn Sullivan (Indiana Vassilev 66′), Ezekiel Alladoh (Milan Iloski 66′) Bruno Damiani (Alejandro Bedoya 75′)
Substitutes not used: Andrew Rick, Ben Bender, Japhet Sery Larsen, Jeremy Rafanello, , ,
FC Cincinatti (3-5-2):
Roman Celetano (GK), Miles Robinson, Kyle Smith, Andrei Chirila; Obinna Nwododo, Evander, Geraldo Valenzuela; Pavel Bucha, Ender Echenique, Kevin Denkey, Ayoub Jabbari
Substitutes not used: Alvas Powell, Nick Hagglund, Samuel Gidi, Evan Louro, Teenage Hadebe, Tom Barlow, Kenji Mboma Dem, Brian Anunga, Bryan Ramirez
Scoring Summary:
PHI – Q. Sullivan (PK) 43′
PHI – Damiani (C. Sullivan) 45+3**
PHI – Damiani (Q. Sullivan) 49′
PHI – Damiani (C. Sullivan) 61′
PHI – Iloski (PK) 89′
Disciplinary Summary:
11′ – Red Card – Obinna Nwododo
Officials:
Ref: Joe Dickerson
AR1: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho
AR2: Eric Weisbrod
4th: Joshua Encarnacion
VAR: Victor Rivas
AVAR: Craig Lowry
The early man advantage was certainly a gift, but the U certainly took the fullest advantage of it tonight to make it a gift that kept giving by annihilating a quality opponent. That exhibits good team cohesion, belief, and purpose.
They seized the opportunity like sharks in an old Mortal Kombat game sensing advantage to “finish him”. We obtained a nice goal differential pickup doing so for playoff seeding purposes along with individual advertising. I liked the hunger. They were in individual and collective shark mode.
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Failing to take advantage of a man advantage has been a traditional lax attitude and tactical failure for this club. Well done to fully maximize it.
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Damiani certainly needed a night like this for his confidence, and the teamwork provided it for him in good supporting tradecraft, especially Cavan. They were collectively in sync, a good sign.
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Agreed that improving the long ball will add additional options, but this team is undeniably improving in confidence, tradecraft, and sync and have flipped a disastrous season on its head.
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Glad to see Alladoh and Jakupovic get time. We put moneyball into Alladoh so let’s see if it pans out. Jakupovic has already shown true prospect potential. Young Jakupovic even drew the last PK with his late appearance. Since we all know this is a developmental club by ownership intent, and no success will ever be purchased by established star power, we might as well do best what the plan is for it, and it’s good at that.
The older Sullivan needs to start and use Vassilev for some Kate running while we still have him. Damiani had an epic night. To take it to the MLS cup tho we still need some depth, at least a real striker.
Fun game! Interesting that announcers compared the Red Card to Balogen’s red. I don’t recall Balogen’s foot bending the ankle of the defender… In any case, the first game probably in the history of the Union where a one man advantage actually played out! How many games have we seen no scoring or worse yet, the other team score with a man down? Great to see the team with Quinn playing fast and loose and making plays!
I know everyone will fixate on the five goals and they should but would stood out to me is how many times Pierre and Harriel snuffed out counters and were always in the right position. When you get so aggressive on offense it leads to counters and I thought both of them were outstanding in intercepting passes and being in the right place. Not sure how Poch doesn’t take both Pierre and Cavan this cycle. Frankie was awesome as well. The one downer was at the striker position. Alladoh is amazing in controlling and passing but his positioning in the box is not good. He doesn’t know how to get open or make the right runs. Iloski continued to miss open shots. Hope the Penalty kick corrects that. We need him! Ending on a high note. How about Malik for the second game in a row making an impact! Last game should have been a penalty and this one was! Fun game!
Obviously the 5 goal win was impressive (and disappointing that they didn’t get another 6 goal win), but can anyone think of another game where the other team threw in the towel at halftime and decide to pull their best player rather than risk a 2nd yellow card?
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Second straight game where a former Union defender came on at halftime for the other team.
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Apparently the Sullivans tied the Higuains for most goal contributions by brothers in an MLS game. Pretty impressive that they picked up 5 assists (plus Quinn’s PK) when there were only 3 non PK goals scored.
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Well done by Richter to limit Iloski’s time and save him for Sunday, also limiting his exposure to picking up a yellow card suspension and have to miss playing against his former team. He’s also one more game away from getting a yellow dropped.
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2 shutouts in a row after not having one since the Seattle game right after the break.
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I am worried about the Orlando game in 2.5 weeks given the talk of national team callups. Hopefully none of the US teams wants to call Rick up, otherwise the Union will essentially be without a keeper if Blake plays for Jamaica. Plus they will likely be without Danley and Cavan at the very least.
Not a red, not a PK. The Sullivan show continues for the MLS to exploit
Lol. I’ve absolutely seen both of those calls given many, many times. Easy to fix, though: Don’t go in studs up and don’t whack your arm into an opponent’s face.
100%. Definitely a red and pk.
I could have accepted the yellow instead of the red. It wasn’t malicious, just unfortunate timing. But I understand that, by the letter of the law, it should be red. It seemed a little harsh at the time, and especially after slow-mo. But I get it.
For the PK, you can’t elbow someone in the head. That was an easy call.
Here is the view from Section 105:
1) It was a beautiful night in the high 70s on the Delaware in Subaru Park. The stadium was around 60% full, and very few Cincinnati supporters were to be seen.
2) In the 12th minute, Cincinnati’s Nwobodo delivered a crunching tackle on Frankie Westfield that left him in pain on the ground. Referee Dickerson immediately gave a yellow card, but he was summoned to review the play by VAR. Following the review, a red card was issued. The replay clearly showed a very dangerous studs-up tackle, although it was from the front. Frankie was very fortunate to have escaped serious injury, and the red card was fully justified.
3) If you only watch the highlights, you will not see the buildup to the penalty that led to the first Union goal. After a lull from the issuance of the red card, from the 25th minute on the Union started to apply good pressure in the offensive third, but in the 36th minute, Cincinnati had the best chance in the match thus far with Denkey barely missing on a cross. At the end of the 37th minute, Quinn Sullivan got the ball to Alladoh for a shot which went off the Cincinnati defender’s arm. From our vantage point, it looked like a handball (and I have seen such awarded against the Union for the same play in other matches). Referee Dickerson was not summoned to review the incident and only a corner was awarded. On the ensuing corner, Quinn Sullivan was fouled and he converted the penalty.
4) MOTM Bruno Damiani scored goals in the manner we expected of him in the beginning. It has taken awhile. I think that having Cavan in the game has sped things up offensively so that there are more spaces within which Bruno can operate. It was nice to see him upright and not trying to get foul calls—he doesn’t need to do that.
5) Nate Harriel had an outstanding game. I think that he and Neil Pierre are in the process of forming a great working partnership, Cincinnati’s disallowed goal notwithstanding.
6) The Union’s putative fifth goal (which would have been Bruno Damiani’s fourth goal) was disallowed for a (properly-called) hand ball against Kai Wagner. Wagner was ticked off, and we could see him jawing with referee Dickerson saying that he did less than the Cincinnati defender on Alladoh’s shot in the first half.
7) The Union have moved into playoff position, and they are starting to play extremely well as a team. Granted, Cincinnati this year are mediocre, but this was a very good win against an opponent who have proved difficult in the past.
The people in the 2 seats in front of us were Cincinnati fans. They left between Damiani scoring his disallowed goal and Dickerson being called to the monitor.
LOL, just last week I said that maybe Damiani should just be a box-to-box midfielder instead of a striker, so I am personally taking credit for motivating last night’s hat trick.
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It’s not hard to win when your opponent gets a red card 15 minutes into the match… but squashing Cincy like a used cigarette was quite impressive. Noonan pulled Evander because it wasn’t worth wearing him out for a match they were never going to win when they play again this weekend.
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It would be amazing if we could get to 6th place, because then we’d face Chicago or New England in the playoffs instead of Nashville or Miami. But I’m not sure we will overtake Orlando; Griezmann has been tearing it up.
I don’t think it was just wearing Evander out that Noonan was worried about. Why take a chance on him picking up a second yellow?
He also took off Denkey, who was not on a yellow. The reason was pretty clear.
We will have the opportunity to test ourselves against Greitzmann in our next home match at the month’s end. We’ll do more than that.
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In what’s left of the season, we play 6 of the 7 teams ahead of us in the East, including Cincy who will seek payback at home. We play Toronto for the last season match that is 1 point behind us. Our West opponents are mid table playoff contenders except cellar dweller SKC in an away match.
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In short, it’s virtually all even or uphill to secure a playoff spot from here to the end, and if we make it, we’ll have to climb it again. We’ll face the clubs paying top dollar for aged superstars who can still thrive at the MLS level.
Probably won’t be a fair test against Greitzmann considering a number of Union players will likely be away on international duty.
Andy,
Ouch, yes. There goee Cavan, Westfield, Pierre and Jacques. Orlando will likely be missing Justin Ellis, Pedro Gallese, David Brekalo, Marco Pašalić, Tyrese Spicer and Gustavo Caraballo.
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They’ll still have Griezmann though.
Thank you Goalzdag for the 93’ goal v NYCFC! Big help from him & best of luck at NER
He let the air out at CitiField with that 3 point steal. He never fit in with the setup and game plans at Columbus and was a complete bust there, so starting off well at NE was exactly what he needed.
St Louis will be a test for sure. So many options from various spots with Cavan and Quinn on. We now have 3 bonadide playmakers who can also score when you add Iloski to the mix. The entire back line has improved.. Hariel has settled in nicely to his role now that he is paired with Piere and Wagner. If they win half of their games they could finish 4th or 5th. Could be a surprising post season. Hope we face Miami in the playoffs. I would just love the Union to beat up Messi and Suarez.
Playing St. Louis would make all of us happy since the only way it will happen is in MLS Cup. I assume you mean San Diego.
my bad
it was nice to see Union actually take advantage of being up a man. The counter attacking DNA is not designed to do that but with the Sullivans now giving our uncreative and static attack build up much needed creativity and movement it was great to watch them actually cook with fire. I only caught glimpses of dead ball Alladoh on wider shots but his body language and expression are troubling. he didn’t seem to be that happy that Damiani was scoring and didn’t seem to really celebrate the scoring with his teammates. and I don’t think he just holds his emotions close because he exploded when he hit that insane game winner a few weeks back. Anyway he certainly didn’t show much promising in a rare opportunity to start. just does not seem to be clicking or making good runs and decisions and not on the same page as his teammates.
I’m wondering how much of this is lack of English proficiency., a temporary hurdle.
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Teammates report that his English is rudimentary in a sport full of complex nuance and jargon in strategy study, training, and on the fly playing, and that he often communicates through action on the pitch when he can’t fully verbally understand or communicate.
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That’s a frustrating experience for all concerned. Although Ghana’s official language is English, many do not speak it fluently but rather converse in their local tribal languages. That those languages aren’t things like Spanish or French that some other players know to bridge the gap, Alladoh is by himself until his English reaches team level proficiency. He has the basic stuff, so at 20 y/o with continued learning, he’ll get there probably by the year’s end.
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For example, Jacques has become accustomed to Union level English, but he understandably struggled with early tactical instruction with complex positional nuances. As his English improved, his play improved, so it wasn’t lack of talent or being a headcase as to why that curve happened.
Appreciate this perspective, RePete. Thank you.
very interesting, never thought of that. I just thought he was 20, from Ghana now in Philly by himself.
M’bohli had the same issues in Chester. Hoping for a better outcome for Alladoah.
Union dominated Team of the Matchday. Damiani was player of the Matchday. He and Cavan both made the starters while Quinn was on the bench and Richter was the coach.
so if we win Sunday night in San Diego… 33 points and 6th place???? IF Charlotte beats Cincy, and TOR beats ORL in FLA.
How fun is this, now????
Doop
Doop!
DOOP!