Philadelphia Union vs. NYRB: Recap
The Philadelphia Union tried to make it three in a row against a tough opponent in the New York Red Bulls. In the end the side that clawed it’s way back to knock out New York in the U.S. Open Cup failed to show up this time as the Red Bulls took down the Union 3-1 at PPL Park. Sebastien LeToux would get the teams only goal and newly added Swiss international Tranquillo Barnetta would unfortunately make his MLS debut on a bit of a sour note. “The guys put a ton into the game. We talked in the locker room it was going to be a tough task to beat these guys three times in a row.” said Union head coach Jim Curtin following the loss. “I thought we started the game very well, I thought it was a strong first half. It got until about the 65th minute and the penalty call happened.”
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The entire match particularly in the first half had both teams playing at a high tempo with multiple chances at goal. The half would eventually show no goals even with an early press by the Union. Added Curtin, “It’s devastating obviously to give up a goal after you worked so hard to get your first to tie it up. It’s a mentality thing but the messages we try to preach is to never get too low or too high in the run of the 90 minutes. We could have done a better job managing that. We’re always trying to make the play backwards off the kickoff after you score a goal, that didn’t happen. They were able to get forward fairly fast and it was difficult because again, I thought we had a lot of the play tonight and deserved something from the game tonight.”
The second half would have the Union bringing in Barnetta and with moments after entering the field he would concede a penalty to give the Red Bull’s a 1-0 lead. “Yeah for me it was not really a foul because I was standing behind but he fell down and the ref thought that I hit him. It happens like this sometimes and you can’t change it so you try to come back and fix the mistake then you can’t hold on to the 1-1 scoreline and it was hard to come back again.”
The Union would get the equalizer with the LeToux goal but New York would counter quickly with a goal from Bradley Wright-Phillps assisted by his brother Shawn to make it 2-1. Anatole Bertrand Abang would put the game away in extra time to make it 3-1.
The Union have now fallen to 6-13-4 and are seeing their playoff hopes fade in three straight league game defeats. They will travel to Orlando next week.