Photo courtesy of Kevin Barrett / Philly Soccer Page
On a rainy night at Subaru Park which saw both squads missing key players on international duty, the Philadelphia Union (11-6-10) largely dominated a toothless Orlando City (10-4-13) to win their sixth game in a row. Milan Iloski scored his second hat-trick of the season and Indiana Vassilev put up 1 goal and 2 assists. Although the Lions managed a late rally, it proved to be no more than a consolation. The result gives the Union needed breathing room in the Eastern Conference standings, seeing the Boys in Blue remain in 6th place, but separate themselves from the teams below them, while starting to threaten towards home playoff seeding position.
First Half
Philadelphia started the game on the front foot, creating a chance inside the first minute from a Kai Wagner cross that found the head of Bruno Damiani, but the striker was adjudged to be in an offside position.
Orlando had their first shot of the game in the 3rd minute, with Martin Ojeda finding space in the Union’s box. Japhet Sery Larsen was there to make the block, and while play was halted for a few minutes to review for a potential penalty, center referee Sergii Demianchuk opted not to go to the monitor.
Philly would take the lead in the 11th minute of play. Following a reset of play by the Union after a corner kick, Milan Iloski rounded Atuesta, and was brought down by the Colombian in the box. Demianchuk pointed to the spot, awarding a penalty to the Union. Iloski won it, and he would convert it, putting the Boys in Blue ahead.
Iloski was back at it again a few minutes later. After the Union sprung a quick counter-attack, Indiana Vassilev fed the former UCLA Bruin in behind the Lion’s backline. With Damiani crashing the back post, Iloski had plenty of options, but elected to cut inside and shoot, beating Crepeau for the second time on the night and netting his 14th goal of the season.
The Union continued to apply pressure for the rest of the half, thoroughly dominating the midfield and outshooting Orlando 12-2, with the lions also seeing three of their players enter the referee’s book, while the Boys in Blue remained outside of disciplinary trouble.
Second Half
The Union picked up right where they left off after the break, netting their third goal of the night in the 47th minute. Jesus Bueno slipped Vassilev in on net, and the former Aston Villa man slotted home from close range.
Milan Iloski would complete his hat-trick, scoring the Union’s fourth goal of the night in the 51st minute. Philly’s leading scorer received a pass outside the 18, and picked out the top corner of the Orlando net, leaving Crepeau no chance. It was his 16th goal of the year, and his second hattrick of the season. He is the only player to record multiple 3-goal games so far this season.
Smelling blood, Philadelphia kept their foot on the gas and were rewarded with another big chance in the 61st minute. Sullivan was played 1v1 with the keeper, but Crepeau was able to make the stop, preventing the scoreline from getting too out of hand.
Orlando scored a consolation goal in the 77th minute, through Ivan Angulo. Japhet Sery Larsen hauled down Daryl Dike just outside the Union’s penalty area. From the ensuing free-kick, Griezmann played a short pass to the Colombian, who fired his shot past Andrew Rick and into the net.
Not content to sit back, Ryan Richter turned to his bench, bringing on forward Ezekiel Alladoh. The Ghanaian was immediately involved, and had two great opportunities to increase the score, but both his shots were saved by Crepeau.
The Lions, trying to claw their way back, would net a second goal in the 90th minute through Martin Ojeda. However, it would prove to be a futile effort, as the Union held on through 7 minutes of stoppage time to get the win.
3 Points
- Record Setters: With the result tonight, the Union are unbeaten in 12 games, setting a new franchise record for longest unbeaten streak.
- International Absences: Break be damned, the Union put together a complete performance while relying on depth players at several key positions. This is the sign of a team that is completely locked in at all levels.
- Milan the Man: We have to have a serious talk about Iloski’s season. He has 16 goals which has him level with Brian White and Sam Surridge at third place in the Golden Boot race. Add on his 6 assists for 23 goal contributions in 27 games, and it might be time to start seeing his name in MVP conversations.
GOALS/ASSISTS
PHI – Milan Iloski (PK) 11’
PHI – Milan Iloski (Indiana Vassilev, Nathan Harriel) 19’
PHI – Indiana Vassilev (Jesus Bueno) 47’
PHI – Milan Iloski (Indiana Vassilev, Jovan Lukic) 51’
ORL – Ivan Angulo (Antoine Griezmann) 78’
ORL – Martin Ojeda (Harvey Sarajian) 90’
DISCIPLINARY SUMMARY
ORL – Edward Atuesta (Caution) 11’
ORL – Iago Teodoro (Caution) 37’
ORL – Joran Gerbert (Caution) 43’
PHI – Quinn Sullivan (Caution) 63’
PHI – Japhet Sery Larsen (Caution) 77’
ORL – Ivan Angulo (Caution) 84’
Lineups
Philadelphia Union: Andrew Rick, Ben Bender (Jordan Griffin 90’), Nathan Harriel (C), Japhet Sery Larsen, Kai Wagner, Jovan Lukic, Jesus Bueno, Quinn Sullivan (Alejandro Bedoya 78’), Indiana Vassilev (Jeremy Rafanello 85’), Bruno Damiani (Ezekiel Alladoh 85’), Milan Iloski (Agustin Anello 78’).
Substitutes not used: Finn Sundstrom, Geiner Martinez, George Marks, Rafael Uzcategui
Orlando City SC: Maxime Crepeau, Zakaria Taifi (Vinicius Nogueira 54’), Robin Jansson, Iago Teodoro, Bernardo Rhein (Harvey Sarajian 54’), Eduard Atuesta, Jordan Gerbert (Luis Otavio 54’), Martin Ojeda, Ivan Angulo, Antoine Griezmann, Daryl Dike (Tiago Souza 89’).
Substitutes not used: Adrian Marin, Javier Otero, Nolan Miller, Gustavo Caraballo, Justin Hylton.
Officiating Crew:
Referee: Sergii Demianchuk
Asst. Referee 1: Kyle Atkins
Asst. Referee 2: Matthew Nelson
Fourth Official: Joe Surgan
VAR: Kevin Terry Jr.
AVAR: Tom Supple
One of the craziest mid-season turnarounds I’ve ever seen in pro sports. Iloski isn’t going to win MVP, but man has he been on a bender, he creates one chance after another.
+1. Never seen anything like this.
Nice writeup, but I disagree with Orlando being described as “toothless.” Both teams had key depletions. Further, Orlando had Griezmann out there, an aging superstar now past prime for France but very capable of causing MLS level damage. They paid top MLS level dollar to acquire him. They also surprisingly had Canada’s Crépeau to mind their net given an unspecified personal matter that prevented his call up.
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Despite our depletions, we dominated them until victory was assured. What’s telling is the team can still produce high scoring wins without other key players. Our missing players make us better, but It’s not necessarily fatal without them. The team is simply playing quality football as a well rounded squad right now.
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Conceding mission accomplished, the knock is how they finished by giving up the last 2 goals on a backslide to victory.
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Goal differential certainly matters for playoff qualification and seeding, and the 4-0 backslide to a 4-2 finish heavily neutralized what should have been yet another big GD pickup. It’s a privilege problem beef given the result, but important enough to address in this week’s training. Orlando’s first goal obviously involved a set piece defense gaffe.
Given MLS having it ass backwards and making most losses the first tie breaker (and yes, they say most wins, but for every additional win, that means 2 additional losses if the teams are tied), goal differential is not a big deal. The Union are 3rd in the conference in GD. They aren’t catching Nashville in either points or GD and if they catch Miami, they will already have the first tiebreaker without going to GD.
Agreed that more wins is an incredibly arseward departure from global tiebreaker rules for the reason you explained. That’s what wrongfully cost us the SS and home field advantage when we lost the MLS.Cup final to LAFC.
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Still, GD is the next breaker, so while devalued, it remains relevant.
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Take the current table. We’re 3 points behind Chicago and Charlotte. If we win our next fixture and they drop theirs, we’d move into 4th place for much better home field and opponent seeding because we’d have the same wins total as Charlotte with a superior GD.
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We don’t know how the season will finish, but since playoff seeding matters, tiebreakers matter.
Orlando was ‘toothless’ only because the Union rendered them so. With a defense consisting of two backups (GK & CB), and a converted winger at RB, they held World Cup winner Griezmann to 3 shots – none on target – and Daryl Dike to one off-target shot. Orlando finished with just 2 shots on target to the Union’s 9.
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Sure, they got two late goals, but for a team that was coming into the fixture in good form, and one that still had leading scorer Martin Ojeda (13 goals), it seems like a fair descriptor.
Was originally planning to skip last night’s game given that I had minor surgery on Monday, but I felt good enough to go and my wife’s daughter decided she wasn’t up to it, so I went and am glad I did. I was expecting the unbeaten streak to end given past history in these types of games but was pleasantly surprised.
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I’m going to give kudos to Ben Bender who was playing for the first time in 4 months AND playing out of position. Was he perfect? No. Did he have a solid professional game? Absolutely. When the lineup came out I wasn’t sure if they would go with the back 4 in the places they did or if Bender would play on the left, Wagner as a centerback, and Harriel on the right. Richter got it right with the choice he made.
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Still think it is a joke that MLS schedules these games during breaks. They should at least reduce ticket prices by 30-50% given the quality of players not there.
Agree 100% on Bender. Harriel had a very strong game at centerback and Bender was better than expected. Richter got that one right. Q.Sullivan didn’t have the impact I was expecting- not a bad game but not impactful. Bedoya looked like Ilsino at the beginning of spring training, about 20 lb too heavy- but he did good work helping close it down.
I think maybe being on the same side of the field as Bender affected Sullivan’s game…needing to help cover the right side defensively and also lacking the offensive support usually provided by Westfield. So Sullivan’s impact was more about helping out on the defensive side than his usual contributions on the offensive side. From that perspective, kudos to Quinn for his unselfishness and following the gameplan.
Great game considering they were missing so many players. What was most impressive is they kept the same museum momentum going with different players stepping in and having outstanding games. Nathan Harriel and Indiana Vassilev raised the level of their game against Orlando. This was a huge win considering the circumstances and who they played.
Please loan Alladoh to Lyngby. I know about the $4 million. But what’s the point if he remains stuck in neutral? He obviously has talent and potential but he really needs some seasoning and experience to fulfill his promise and he’s not getting it now.
Here is the view from Section 105:
1) It was a chilly, windy and rainy night in the high 50s on the Delaware in Subaru Park. I asked my 3 7th grade companions (2 of them, my grandchildren) to estimate the percentage of filled seats, and they (and I) agreed that it looked like 40% or so. The Union had to replace 5 starters who were on international duty, and Orlando also had 5 players on international duty.
2) One of the annoyances of attending in person is that we in the crowd are not necessarily privy to the reason play is stopped. In the 4th minute, there was a lengthy VAR review of a potential handball in the Union box, although we did not notice anything amiss from the play in front of us. I had to watch the Crapple replay this morning to see why there was a review because we in the crowd were told nothing and shown nothing. I did correctly guess in real time that it was a handball review. I do think that we should at least be informed of the nature of the review (i.e. potential handball). In looking at the replay this morning, I disagreed with the Crapple announcers that the ball came off Sery Larsen’s arm—it looked like it was chested and the trajectory of the ball did not change.
3) After that lengthy review, the Union were on the front foot. Iloski was sprung in from the left and beat his man. From our vantage point, and apparently from Referee Demianchuk’s as well, we saw the forearm applied to Iloski’s back which sent him down. The penalty was immediately awarded. There was another lengthy delay before Iloski took the penalty. He parked his shot high and to his right into the net and goalkeeper Crepeau was left standing flatfooted
4) Bruno Damiani had a very good match even though he was not on the scoresheet. His hold-up play allowed the Union to play much more direct than usual. In looking at the first half statistics, I was surprised to learn that the Union had possession less than 40% of the time. It seemed like every time the Union were in possession, they were in the offensive end and they created chances with the ball. I don’t remember an instance in which the Union tried to build out from the back.
5) It was good to see the Union come out on fire in the second half. I have witnessed far too many occasions when the Union, after having grabbed a first half lead, let an opponent back into the game with a sub-par first 10 minutes. Not last night. Vassilev’s goal was happily deflected and Iloski, who was clearly feeling it, scored on a 22 yard rocket, which effectively put the game out of reach.
6) Nate Harriel bounced back with an outstanding first half. I think he prefers the right side. I counted four separate occasions when he thwarted Orlando attacks. Likewise, Bender, Sery Larsen and Vassilev had really good games. Sery Larsen came out of nowhere to repel an Orlando attack late in the second half.
7) At the risk of being labeled a Negadelphian, I have to again report that the Union are really poor at playing a low block. I realize that with 25 minutes left in the game, it is going to be difficult for an opponent to score enough goals to make it a game. Although they did not miss their internationals that much, it really hurt the Union not to have Pierre in the lineup playing the low block. This team does much better playing offensively than playing defensively. I hope that this is a problem that can be solved before the playoffs because it may become necessary to hold a 1-0 or 2-1 lead late in a game.
On the Iloski foul that lead to the PK, the question was not if a foul occurred but where. It was very close and I guess one of those decisions where there was not a conclusive view to overturn what had been called by the referee on the field. It was a very similar call to the one that lead to the PK in the USMNT match earlier in the day.
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I agree with your comment about the problems Union have playing a low block when trying to hold a lead. I wonder if it is the system or the players because even last year the team had wins turn into draws (thinking Columbus and Miami) when they gave up a goal near the end of the match
Nice analysis. A couple of additions from section 130. Larsen had his hands behind his back and we were thinking it would be very harsh to call that. Very frustrating that there was no video notice of VAR or replay on the screen as in the EPL. Although I have seen it before at games so I am curious why there was no notice posted. On Indy’s goal we thought it was going in in spite of the deflection and the Crapple highlights confirmed that.
Angulo’s pace was troublesome throughout. Griezmann was quiet most of the game. He didn’t get a shot until the second half but did play some good passes. The training ground play on the free kick was a good call with everyone thinking Griezmann would shoot.
We were impressed by Bender even through Angulo had him on pace. Bender was playing on his weak side. As you note a lot of players stepped up and had great games. Jordan Griffin had his first team debut and had at least one clearance. It was a relief that Kai had cleared his yellow accumulation as well!
I don’t think Kai has cleared his accumulation yet. I think he still has 4 more games to go before he is no longer one yellow away from suspension.
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Sery Larsen will be suspended for he RSL game.
This was possibly the most impressive win of the season. I figured we were in trouble once I saw that Griezmann was starting. But missing 5 starters — two ultra-hyped — and not just beating a revitalized Orlando team, but completely dominating them, is not something I anticipated in the slightest. This was a message to the entire league: this team is a lot more than Cavan Sullivan (and Neil Pierre).
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Agree with the above comments about Ben Bender being a pleasant surprise at RB. I wondered if they might play Martinez at CB and Harriel at RB, but this really worked. Harriel had a great game too, and is generally just doing a kick-ass job in the middle.
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Orlando’s 2 consolation goals were a minor downer; the first I would lay on Sery (for the dumb foul) and Kai (for leaving the shooter wide open). The second one has ro be blamed on Lukic & Bueno for not getting back fast enough to pick up the late runner. They each played really well overall, though. Bueno is definitely starting caliber and we’re very fortunate to still have him.
Was pleasantly surprised by this result. Nice to get these international break, missing talent points. Good pace throughout. Some great awareness in the passing game. Milan’s 3rd goal was pretty.
Keep on truckin’
Missed this on in person. Not due to the weather, we knew we were going to miss this one months ago. So when that event was cancelled due to the nor’easter , I was just hoping to catch a good game from the couch! The boys did not disappoint!
remove “interim” title.
I disagree. Not because he hasn’t earned it, but don’t change anything! We have the mojo. Ride it as long as you can. They can (and most likely will) remove the tag after the season.
Or even once they lose a game.