VS. DATE / TIME: Wednesday, August 5, 2020 8:00 PM EDT MATCH PREVIEW: MLS Match Preview VENUE: ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex Bay Lake, Florida GAMETIME FORECAST: Thunderstorms Temp: 79° Feels Like: 88° TELEVISION BROADCAST: FS1 - Fox Sports 1 COMCAST: Channel 857 HD, 33 SD Verizon FiOS: Channel 583 HD, 83 SD MLS IS BACK TOURNAMENT BRACKET MLS IS BACK TOURNAMENT GROUP STANDINGS CURRENT MLS STANDINGS MLS INJURY REPORT MLS DISCIPLINE REPORT LAST MEETING: Saturday, May 25, 2019 Talen Energy Stadium / Chester, Pennsylvania Philadelphia Union 1 - 3 Portland Timbers MLS Matchcenter
Nooooooooooooo............. We're doomed: FiveThirtyEight Projections: Tournament winner (as of August 2, 12:30 am ET) Philadelphia Union - 31% Minnesota United FC - 27% Orlando City - 21% Portland Timbers - 21%
Dance with who brought you: 'Bout time to battle 🔥👀 📝👉 https://t.co/uxXNwh0ctK#DOOP pic.twitter.com/VHDnJWiBtq— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) August 5, 2020
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Union once again wither under the spotlight. Oh well. They were still one of the best teams in the tournament and gave us some good moments.
So the more I think about this game the angrier I get. - I've said this before and I've meant it every time but Curtin led Union teams to shit or get off the pot. Yes, it's great that the Union are seen as an up and coming team now with a youth academy that is starting to produce quality talent. But all of that means nothing if we don't win any trophies. The team CONSTANTLY shits the bed in the big moments and at this point, it's pretty much inexcusable which leads me to my next point. - Curtin with arguably some of the best talent the Union has had in it's history has failed to produce anything. More and more I'm looking at Jim Curtin as the Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Union, a nice guy, the players love him, but he hasn't won dick. At some point you need to shake things up and bring in another coach, Curtin has had years to prove he can take this team to the next level and at SOME point Tanner and Sugarman need to realize that for as nice a guy as he is, Curtin isn't going to get you that and move on. - I've said this for years and even Stu Holden mentioned it during the broadcast, WHY CAN'T THIS TEAM COUNTER!?! Portland it seemed would constantly go flying down the field after a Union corner/set piece and there was more than one time they nearly got a goal from it. I remember Holden saying, "Philly gets the ball with space and they seem to put their foot on it and just slow the attack," We have players with some speed on our team but never seem to turn them loose. It has been a consistent problem for years. - Going back to Curtin, why exactly did we use only two out of five subs? Seriously, down 2-0 in the 80th minute, they literally had only brought on Ilsinho and Wooten. Why not trot out De Vries, Fontana, or even Ngalina? Why not go to three defenders in the last 10 minutes and go all out? Seriously does Curtin get some kind of bonus for not using all 5 subs? Did he think we'd get some kind of extra goals for not using them? My point is when your down 2-0 in the 80th minute what the ******** do you have to lose? - I truly hope that the strat going forward isn't just "Put Ilsinho on, hope he produces magic," because while it may work here or there, I think Ilsinho isn't going to remotely be the super sub he was last season. While we're on the topic of players what the hell happened to Kacper? The guy was an absolute force last season and pretty much did nothing for most of the tournament. Some people and I were discussing could he be having issues despite being recovered from Covid, who knows? But he was an utter shadow of what he once was. - Can this team defend set pieces/corners? When the hell was the last corner we scored off of? I can't even remember. I also can't understand how this team CONSISTENTLY and utterly fails to do anything with corners or set pieces. I honestly don't even get excited when we get a corner at this point since I think the last one we scored off of was in 2018.
How do you leave Wagner in the game? He made one cross into the box. Besides that, just poor defending. I'm trying to explain to my two tweens that on the free kicks you have to hit the frame. Just hit the frame!! And what happens on that third Monteiro free kick. He hits the frame, goalie can't control it and we score. Enough with the short corners. Just enough. Your goalie makes 2-3 huge saves a game. You gotta win. I don't know the bench well enough but as Ascalz said, how are you only using 2 subs. Just put fresh legs into pressure. The group had nothing left at the end. Miss the frame on a PK - ugh. I had hopes.
Seriously? Literally ALL three goals against SKC came on the counter. They scored on the counter against Orlando and Miami as well.....All last season with tugboat slow Harris in midfield they killed teams on the counter..... It's also difficult to score on the counter when your opponent is putting 10-11 guys behind the ball and playing for the counter themselves. Let's not act like the Union are the only team that's struggled to score and create chances against Portland. Again....this is not a big deal. De Vries hasn't even had a cup of coffee in MLS yet, ditto Ngalina. Fontana is primarily a defensive midfielder. They went 3 in the back for the last 10 minutes. They moved Wagner up into wide midfield. Who exactly would you have replaced on the field with De Vries, Fontana, and Ngalina? Aaronson? Nope. Kacper? Nope. Bedoya? Nope. Gaddis? Nope, because then you'd have to leave one of the better crossers in Wagner in the back to defend. This is a genuine concern. 3 of the goals they gave up in this tourney were directly off of set pieces. They scored off of a set piece in the playoffs against RBNY too. The Union aren't alone in their low success rate on corners. Only 1.9% of corners in MLS result in a goal. http://www.goodfirsttouch.com/2017/3/corner-kicks-kicking-screaming Again, who are you putting in for him? Matt real is more of a CB than a LB. Taking Wagner off would have meant one less player in the final third, how would that have helped? A lot of set piece goals are scored by not hitting the frame and simply putting the ball in a dangerous area. We were spoiled the past three seasons with Harris' & Dockal's free kick deliveries. Yeah. The players decide who take the PK's. On the hand you love that Santos has the confidence to step up in that spot and take the kick....on the other hand the result sucked. He's not the first Union player to miss a PK, and he won't be the last. Let's be honest too, if he'd kicked it on frame only for Clarke to save it we'd still be just as unhappy, and it'd still be a terribly taken penalty. I get the frustration. I get being upset. It's a game, we're living through a Pandemic, 150K+ Americans have died, millions more are now out of a job. In the grand scheme of things, sports is a nice escape yes, but it's just not that important.
"Only 1.9% of corners in MLS result in a goal." Wonder what % of those come v the Union? Agree with your other responses for the most part but irritating that our team just can't seem to get past some recurring issues.
Very true, but the stands behind the net are not a dangerous area. I shall clarify by saying if you are going to shoot the ball, at least hit the frame.
Much easier said than done.... I'm struggling to find the number of goals scored on corner kicks for the Union currently. Number of Corner Kicks is listed on the MLS website. My educated guess would be 0.8%. The other thing to consider as well is that the Union always struggle against Portland. They've only beaten them once. The style that Portland play is difficult for most teams in MLS to breakdown. Also since Portland likes to bunker and counter, it's difficult for the Union to press a team that doesn't have the ball. Without a talented player that can make magic out of nothing, it's always going to be difficult for the Union to beat a team like Portland. Especially when they stop paying attention and give up two "cheap" goals on corners. Once that second goal was scored, Portland just sat even deeper begging the Union to poor more number forward, which then plays into their hands. Union poors numbers forward, Portland then murders them on the counter. Blanco doesn't score that goal....it's a much different game. last night's game was begging for a player such as Marco Fabian or a similar skill set.