2019 Match Day MLS Playoffs Round 1: (3) Union v. (6) New York Red Bulls, October 20, 2019 p/d/p

If this result is a surprise to you, then you haven't been paying close attention to this franchise.

On the other hand, they've come back from 2 down at the half against RB before.

 

WWWWWOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!

 

What just happened?

 

Jesus.

Way to make it difficult for yourselves.

Sounded like a blast in the stadium, well done guys. But my god that first half was classic Union.

 

Great comeback! I hope Ale is good for the next one. He looked pretty gimpy. FS1 and Blake had a very bad day, I hope the next one for Andre is a little better.

 

Worst lead in soccer or hockey.

whatever their initial problems were, the 2-0 deficit caused the Union to abandon the original plan. The rain helped too.

Thought RB would punish the reckless abandon and get another counter but they got tired and nervous.

Good to see the other guys just trying to clear it.

 

Having to use two of their subs for injuries definitely hurt RB as the game wore on, especially in OT... they couldn't sub out tired players or make tactical changes like the Union could.

 

Incredible win!

 

Jesus. That was amazing.

 

Sergio Santos had a great game. I am really excited to see him paired with Kacper up top next season. They should definitely start against ATL if Kacper is healthy.

 

Yeah, we had the same problem. Didn't get to our seats until minute 20 or so. However, they gave us glorious extra time on the back end to make up for it. What a game!

 

Wow.....That was a blast to be at.

Few things.....Blake's best contribution was knocking Sims out, literally. That forced substitution changed the game. RB does not have anyone close to Sims level on their bench. He gave Philly all sorts of issues in Harrison last month, and up until his untimely injury today.

The crowd...holy shit!!! Loudest that place has rocked. When they pushing for the tying and winning goals in the second half....it amazes that people still dismiss soccer as a major sport. Just amazing to be a part of.

Curtin got his tactics* and subs correct.

Ernst should sell Blake this offseason. Let the Matt Freese era begin.

Watching how the Red Bulls pressed up until Sims' injury.....have to feel that a lot of that is how Ernst envisions this team playing going forward. I fully expect him to skew the team younger in the next two seasons.

That said, really not sure why Armas changed the Red Bulls tactics after they got the two goal lead. While some of that may have been the forced subs due to injury, he played into the Unions hands.

Absolutely hysterical how Ilsinho is a magnet for multiple defenders. At times he had 4 Red Bulls defenders swarming to him.

Bedoya, Haris, Santos, & Monteiro played excellent today. Arronson is going to be a very good player next season. His energy and pressing helped to wear down the Red Bulls. Gaddis had a really good game today too.

I'm still in disbelief that they came all the way back to win after that horrible first half.

 

Bet he heard that a lot

 

Here's a sight I never thought I'd see:

Jay Sugarman giving high fives to fans in The River End. #DOOP https://t.co/PlWMMNYdlg

— Joe Tansey (@JTansey90) October 21, 2019

Jim Curtin celebrates with The River End. pic.twitter.com/e3pq7pm0sX

— Joe Tansey (@JTansey90) October 20, 2019

Talen Energy Stadium erupts at the final whistle. #DOOP pic.twitter.com/ywBjprecn5

— Joe Tansey (@JTansey90) October 20, 2019

On the way out of the stadium, @sportsdoctormd and I saw a raccoon going down a staircase.

We both immediately wondered how it got up here from RFK Stadium.

(cc @MLSist, @RFK_raccoon and @cboehm) pic.twitter.com/mnxirbpn7M

— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) October 21, 2019

 

Team showed a lot of heart to come back like that. This side has a different feel than any other Union iteration.

I’ve been critical of Gaddis over the years, but he has improved in a number of areas and he had a great game today.

 

What a game. Absolute blast.

Blake needs to get his shit together.

 

Thought the initial tactic of passing directly to the opponent and not making saves worked perfectly in as much as NYRB became complacent and had no idea what to do when the Union changed their approach. A bold plan.

The union got feisty after turnovers and took some wise fouls to stop the counter. Aaronson got after people in the midfield and slowed transition multiple times. He has a way of pestering the guy on the ball that looks like he is one inch from getting a foul and one inch from drawing a foul.

It seemed their frustration with falling behind increased the vigor of their tackles and it worked. They need to maintain that tenacity.

And, for all of his bad calls, the ref let the game get a little crazy which can only help the trailing team.

 

Agreed, but he'll need to bulk up during the off-season. He had a good game today, but he still gets muscled off the ball far too easily.

 

I was going to make a Bren swolo meme and post it here but I am too lazy

 

He's still all of 18 years old. He'll fill out in a few years.

 

No one's going to buy him now, he's been in decline for a few years. Might be able to trade him if we eat some of his salary. Have heard Robles is done in NY, would take him to start until Freese is ready.

Anyway... let's just enjoy.

 

So, after sleeping on the win I might as well write some of my thoughts today.

- I've given him a lot of shit this season and throughout his career, but Ray Gaddis stepped it the hell up last night. There were several moments in the game where he played gritty, determined defense and 1 on 1 against some Red Bull players he managed to get the ball away from them. Someone told me that Ray is aware that "his days are numbered" with the team and as well as he played last night Ray still can't do dick in the offense, but he showed he has some value as a bench player in my opinion.

- Andre Blake had probably the worst game I've ever seen from him. Watching the replays and seeing how he could've stopped one or two of those goals...yeesh. I'm not one of the people who wants to move on from Blake at this time, personally, I'd see how he handles some of the 2020 season. However, I would very seriously consider doing a rotation of Blake and Freese if Andre continues to dip in form with the idea to phase out Andre altogether.

- If NYRB get rid of Luis Robles that would be funny considering he pretty much made 2 or 3 insane saves against the Union last night. The guy had at least THREE goal line/point blank saves that many GKs would let in.

- Wooten did precisely jack over shit last night. I can't recall a single positive impact he made on the game before being subbed out. While I understand that he joined the team midseason and could still be "adjusting" Tanner and the coaching staff need to take a long, hard look at Wooten in the offseason and decide whether hes even worth bringing back.

- Give credit to the entire team for the amount of fight they showed, I even asked my wife about leaving at the half when the Union went down 3-1. My wife, in a very unlike her manner, said she wanted to stay until at least the 70th minute and if the score didn't change, we'd leave. In the 52nd minute Elliott got his header into the net and the team showed it wasn't dead yet. So, credit to my wife for being the more patient one between us for a change.

- I don't know what will happen to the Union when they go to Atlanta this Thursday. However, I would call this season an unqualified success. Yes, they backed into the playoffs, yes, they blew their chance to win the Eastern Conference. But anyone who was there at the game last night should fully KNOW how amazing that game was, how SWEET the victory against our "not rivals" NYRB. I'm glad that our long suffering fan base was finally able to get that playoff victory that they'd suffered an UNGODLY amount of shitty soccer over the years.

- Funny enough, the Union playoff win pretty much erased and even overrode the Eagles getting pasted by the Cowboys. In all honesty the media in the city should be HAILING this team for the fight they showed last night. When one professional team laid down in Dallas, another one in Chester got up from the canvas and knocked their opponent the ******** out.

 

That was fun. Infuriating at times, but fun.

Any word on Kacper?

 

We were visiting family in PA this past weekend from Dallas, and my brother got us all tickets to the game. My first experience at Talen Energy Stadium did not disappoint. Not the most expensive or luxurious MLS digs, but the atmosphere was one of the best I've experienced in a number of years. (Well, the bar is quite low considering it was Denver and Dallas.) And the Philly fans lived up to their reputation with plenty of ref abuse.

I was at the epic 2003 playoff match where San Jose came back from four goals down to the Galaxy. This wasn't quite at that level, but like in SJ, it seemed the fans drove their team out of the hole and on to victory. Probably shouldn't get your hopes up, but the Quakes did go on to lift the Cup...

 

Ray has been borderline one of our best players in the last month or so. Him and Aaronson were the only ones that seemed to be up for the NYCFC game from the get go and he was really good last game as well. He was supposed to be pushed by Mbaizo this year but that never happened. And I don't think anyone on the Steel is going to push him next year. As of now it is up to someone to come in and take the job from him to me.

Andre has been poor for most of the year (worst save percentage of any goalie in the play-offs and pretty much any starter in the league). I'm not sure if the Red Bulls should have had any goals in that game. The first one he gets both hands on but isn't strong enough to push it wide. The second one was M'Bohli-esque with him flapping at air. And the third one he has to punch out even if he crushes McKenzie. He also got beat near post by Barlow but we were lucky to see it go off the bar. I'm not totally sold on Freese but at 20 he came into his first pro minutes this year, did pretty decent in his MLS games, beat out a GK that was on the bench for a UCL game at Anfield a few weeks ago, and played his way into the U-23 team. I think that he goes into the pre-season with the opportunity to push Blake for that #1 spot. If he beats him out I'm expecting a bit of growing pains next year (but I'm expecting that anyway for the team as I think a couple starters are gone next year) but it may be better for the long term.

Also, prepare yourselves for the possibility of Fafa not being on this team next year. I know that will sound crazy to some people but I heard rumors from a reliable source in the summer that he and the Union have some sizable differences in salary. Add in that he really isn't a forward and with him we have 6 players for 2 forward spots (Pryzbylko, Wooten, Fafa, Santos, Ngalina, and Burke) then something has to give there. That also isn't including Faris from the Steel, who may be someone they are considering bringing up after 14 goals in 2500 minutes for the Steel in a year and a half. Wooten isn't going anywhere since he is new and they will hope he settles in next year and Pryzbylko is obviously here next year as well. Santos played 622 minutes this year and had 4 goals and an assist. Picault had 4 and 4 over 1866 minutes. I don't think Fafa fits the 4-4-2 so I think he ends up being traded this off-season (and Haris and Fabian will be gone as well).

Saw this after I posted the above part. I agree with you on him. I haven't seen enough out of him to choose him over anyone else at forward. However, 17 goals in 2.Bundesliga last year and 9 in 23 in the 16/17 season before getting injured (which kept him out for most of 17/18) will get him a full pre-season to try and get settled with this team. If he settles in he plays the spots that Tanner wants (mainly forward but can slide wide like he did a couple years back in Germany) and he should be more goal dangerous than someone like Picault (though he sure as crap hasn't shown that at all this year).