The Philadelphia soccer community has been buzzing this week with the National Team in town and today’s signing of Freddy Adu. The Union should harness that positivity and claim their first win over visiting FC Dallas.
Soccer By Ives and Fox Sports reports, and the Daily News and Comcast SportsNet confirms, that Freddy Adu will sign with the Philadelphia Union. An announcement from the club is expected on Friday. [Updated]
The remaining twelve games present challenges and opportunities for the Union. How they do in the first two may be critical to their future over the following ten games.
The number of wins and draws in the last eleven games is almost an identical reverse of the first eleven games – what gives?. Also a quick look at the stats from Saturday’s draw before a look at the consistency question: having started seven different forward combinations and 15 different midfield combinations, where’s the offensive consistency supposed to come from?
Another frustrating tie means it’s time to start asking how this team should be handled during the latter stages of the season.
A stunning performance from Jack McInerney gave the Union an early lead, but Geoff Cameron equalized five minutes from time as Sebastien Le Toux’s snake-bitten season in front of net continued.
The Union are slumping, but Houston has yet to win a match on the road in 2011. This one may be a case of first goal wins.
The Union managed just one shot on goal against Chicage. Fortunately, it went in. A look at the match stats in Chicago and the connection between the team’s shots on goal percentage and match results. Also, the Danny Mwanga slump.
Soccer being a team sport, player ratings have the inherent flaw of isolating an individual out of eleven interconnected pieces. In this case, it was eleven pieces who struggled to find consistency in connecting well.
Veljko Paunovic returned to the starting lineup and netted a fine opener, but the Union never took control of the match and a Pavel Pardo equalizer doomed Philadelphia to a single point in Chicago.
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