Philly Sports Jabronis
Report From Philadelphia Union
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Against D.C. United on Saturday, Philadelphia Union struggled to find its way, falling 1-0 at RFK Stadium. The Union (9-10-11, 38 points) despite a strong second half effort still fight for a spot in MLS’ postseason now battling the Columbus Crew and a Toronto FC team that snuck its way back into the playoff picture. Both teams sit on 40 points, with the Union trailing by just two with four crucial games remaining.
Ten minutes into the match United forward Luis Silva finished off a pinpoint floater in the box with a header that froze Union keeper Rais Mbolhi and ultimately gave United (15-9-6, 51 points) a commanding lead in a tight Eastern Conference race.
“We are just not finishing off our plays,” said Union forward Conor Casey postgame. “Whether it’s that last pass or that last ball…we are frustrated anytime we don’t score and it’s been a couple of games now were we have had some decent looks and just hadn’t made the most of them. Today was a little bit further off. But we still have some games ahead of us we just need to keep the focus and do better in front of goal.”
Despite the early goal, Mbohli was a strong presence in net making six saves on the afternoon. Defensively, the Union managed to keep United at bay, but it was an attack that looked frustrating at times, and certainly not indicative of a squad that for over two months looked revived under interim manager Jim Curtin.
“The goals have dried up,” Curtin said. “We are still getting chances; getting looks in front of goal, but we need to have a little more commitment to get into the box, we talked about that at halftime. The goals have dried up, but we are going to have to find a way to fight through it. We need to win three games in a row to give ourselves a chance to make the playoffs.
Adding further insult to injury was an ankle sprain to Union talisman Sebastien Le Toux in the 28th minute who came down awkwardly following a challenge.
“I was just putting pressure on the ball and my ankle rolled on the play,” Le Toux explained. “It just a bad roll…we’ll see, I hope that it’s minimal, but I won’t know for sure until I get an MRI.”
It’s another week of short rest for the Union who now look to pull even closer when it hosts Chicago in a Thursday night prime time matchup on ESPN2 at PPL Park. The match against the Fire in just one of four remaining as the regular season draws to a close with the playoffs on the horizon.
Right now, shaking off a poor performance is the only mindset for a team that has grand plans of being one of the last ones standing in the Eastern Conference.
“Chicago is a team that knows how to grind out [draws] so on our home field we’ll have to do a better job of committing more numbers into the box…it’s a commitment to get into the box. I am pleased that we didn’t give up a ton of chances on the day, but now it’s time to get back to finishing some of our own.”
BOX SCORE
Philadelphia Union 0, D.C. United 1
Saturday, September 27, 2014
RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C.
SCORING SUMMARY
DCU: Silva (Korb) 10’
DISCIPLINARY SUMMARY
DCU: Kitchen YC (handball) 86’
PHL: Edu YC (foul) 90’
PHILADELPHIA UNION STARTING XI
Mbolhi, Williams, Valdes (Ribeiro 81’), Gaddis, Edu, Maidana, Okugo, Le Toux (Cruz 22’), Wenger, Nogueira, Casey (Brown 63’)
Unused Subs: MacMath, Fabinho, Carroll, Fred
D.C. UNITED STARTING XI
Hamid, Korb (Pontius 61’), Boswell, Birnbaum, Kemp, Franklin, Arnaud, Kitchen, DeLeon, Espindola (Neal 85’), Silva (Johnson 68’)
Unused Subs: Willis, Opare, Inoom, Jeffrey
