The Union's failure to build on their one goal leads continues to haunt them
The Union have had the lead in 11 games this season, and in those 11 games they haven't been able to build a multiple goal lead in seven of them, going 1-4-2 in the process.
Toronto, ON— Nothing can seem to go right for the Union as they blow a 1-0 lead, losing 2-1 to Toronto as it marks one win in the last 17 games for the Union. With that loss, the Union sit in last place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 4-10-9 with 21 points.
Mikael Uhre, who had missed the last four games for the Union with an adductor injury, and Jesús Bueno, who missed last weekend’s game against New York Red Bulls with an ankle injury, both returned to the starting lineup, and desperate to give a spark to a team that so desperately needed one.
The Union’s first real opportunity in the game came in the 26th minute when Dániel Gazdag played a ball out in space on the right hand side into Olivier Mbaizo. Toronto’s midfield was caught too high up the field, which saw a three v two advantage for the Union inside Toronto’s 18-yard box. Mbaizo whipped in a cross to the far post where an unmarked Bueno was located. Bueno connected with his left foot, but couldn’t put the ball on target. One minute later, Jack Elliott played a long ball over the top of Toronto’s defense into a streaking Mikael Uhre, who got himself in a 1v1 opportunity with Toronto goalkeeper, Sean Johnson. After a couple touches, Uhre released a shot, but watched his effort be saved by Johnson.
The Union’s Dániel Gazdag has earned his team a free kick on the left side of Toronto’s half after Toronto’s Matt Longstaff had fouled the Hungarian. Kai Wagner would whip in the free kick towards the far post towards an unmarked Tai Baribo, who headed home the cross. That goal would mark Baribo’s third goal of the season and the Union would go into the half up 1-0.
Toronto’s first shot on target would come in the 56st minute, with Lorenzo Insigne playing a through ball into Prince Owusu. Jack Elliott did a good job going stride for stride with Owusu, making it difficult for him to get a shot off that would trouble Andrew Rick. In the 74th minute Toronto would equalize off a Jack Elliott own goal. Federico Bernardeschi would cross the ball to an unmarked Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty inside the Union’s 18-yard box, Marshall-Rutty heads the ball towards DeAndre Kerr, who was making a run towards the near post, Elliott slides to try and make a ball on the ball, but it wounded up in the back of the net.
Four minutes later, DeAndre Kerr would score the go ahead goal, after a Jack Elliott misplaced pass right down the middle of the field. Elliott left himself in no mans land with that pass, as his teammates were pushed up the field, Lorenzo Insigne played a through ball into Kerr, who was making a run in behind Elliott, and the Canadian did well to beat Andrew Rick at his near post to make it 2-1. The Union would go on to create three more shots the rest of the game, but none of those shots were on target.
One thing to note about the game, which may be a crazy statement, but despite conceding two goals, the Union were solid defensively for majority of the night. They blocked two shots, forced a lot of rushed, off target shots and didn’t give Andrew Rick a whole lot to do in goal. That’s something that Jim Curtin made mention of in his post game press conference.
“Again, we're tough to play against,” said Jim Curtin. “I think we gave up two shots on goal, zero corner kicks, but still found a way to make some big mistakes and get punished for them.”
Union’s failure to build on one goal leads continues
Once again, the Union were able to get a lead, create chances to build on that one goal lead, but as this season has shown us, they struggle to go up by two goals. There’s only been four games this season where they Union have gone up by two or more goals, and with in those games the Union have a 3-1-0 record. That lone loss came in their 4-3 loss to Chicago Fire where they gave up three goals in the final 10 minutes to blow a 3-1 lead.
Just for comparison, last season there were nine games that the Union went up by more then one goal, and in those nine games the Union’s record was 9-0-1, with the one draw being against FC Cincinnati when the Union blew a 2-0 lead at Subaru Park. The Union came close to blowing a 4-0 lead in April at Subaru Park when they allowed Toronto to score two goals to end the game at 4-2. And then again in October against Atlanta at Subaru Park, the Union went up 3-0 and gave up two unanswered goals to Atlanta, which that game ended 3-2.
“We're playing with a 1-0 lead on the road,” said Jim Curtin after the Toronto game. “Of course, we can talk about the chances we had in the first half. The best defense sometimes is to get that second and third goal, but we didn't do that. So once it gets to the 75th minute, can we be strong enough to bend, but not break?”
And Jim Curtin’s not wrong, that sometimes the best defense is offense. When you’re a team that has given up the tenth most shots on target (108), and the team that has given up the sixth most goals per shots on target (0.35), you’re going to want to go up by multiple goals. The Union are tied for the seventh most goals given up this season with 41, which is unusual for a team that has prided themselves on defense over the years. It’s also not like the Union aren’t creating any chances this year, they sit in fourth place with 343, and in seventh in terms of shots on target with 110. Yet, when this team needs to build on their one goal lead, they can’t do it.
When the Union have the lead, they’ve failed to go up by more than a goal in seven of those matches, and in those seven games the Union have a record of 1-4-2, with the lone win coming against Nashville on April, 6, where the Union came from behind and won 2-1.
And again, just for comparison, when the Union had the lead last season they failed to go up by more than a goal in eight games, but unlike this season, they actually had a positive record of 5-1-2. In two of those five wins, the Union came from behind against Colorado after being down 1-0, and eventually winning 2-1, and against NYCFC when the Union went down 1-0 as well, eventually winning 2-1.
The only major difference from last years team to this years team is that Andre Blake has missed 18 games so far with multiple different injures, where last year he only missed 7 games. Maybe we are seeing just how much Andre Blake is missed for this team.
What’s next
The Union take on New England Revolution (7-13-1, 22 pts) from Subaru Park this Wednesday, July 17th, with the game on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Funny enough, the last win for the Union came on May 18th against the Revs in their 3-0 win.
Video: Philadelphia Union