Rate The U: Leaving the house of mouse’s bubble
Union’s run in the MLS is Back tournament ends in the semifinals
It’s been a few days since the disappointing loss in Florida Wednesday night. As we all know the Philadelphia Union have checked out of the Disney bubble and have returned home to after a 2–1 loss to Portland Timbers.
I spent some time trying to find out how to really write this article. Personally, compared to other tournament games the team was very sluggish the entire game. However, we here at BrotherlyGame want to see your take on the game.
In your eyes Andre Blake might have had a good game. He made a couple big stops yet again to keep the Union in the game. But one thing that is glaring, and has been for a few years, is this team is not the best when it comes to set pieces. Would you blame the unmarked goals off the set piece on Blake or another player?
Looking toward the end of the first half, Sergio Santos lined up for a penalty kick. If that was converted the U would have gone into the halftime tied at 1. But Santos got too cute and botched the penalty-kick attempt, sending the ball way over the crossbar. Should Santos have taken his reported first ever penalty kick under that pressure? Should another play have stepped up?
With 5 minutes in regular time it looked like the attack finally was on. Andrew Wooten put the Union’s only goal in the back of the net off a second chance ball on a Monteiro free kick and just a minute later it looked like the U tied the game when Brenden Aaronson slipped the ball to Kacper Przybylko, who was eventually called offside.
As head coach Jim Curtin said afterwards, it wasn’t meant to be but it certainly could have been if the Union had better executed against a team that was content to sit in absorb pressure and strike on the counter.
What did you think of the individual performances? Weigh in with our player rating poll.