Philadelphia Union fall 2-1 to DC United

By Chuck Booth | Apr 1, 2017

Apr 1, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; Philadelphia Union defender Oguchi Onyewu (5) and D.C. United forward Patrick Nyarko (12) battle for the ball during the first half at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports /

The Philadelphia Union traveled to RFK Stadium to take on the once lifeless DC United team.

The issue here is that the Philadelphia Union seem to be a tonic for struggling teams as DC United got on the scoresheet for the first time this season. Thanks to goals from Jose Guillermo Ortiz and Luciano Acosta, DC was able to hold off the Union and win 2-1.

The Philadelphia Union weren’t able to give their traveling support anything to cheer about in the early going in a homecoming game for center back and DC native, Oguchi Onyewu. While both teams had early chances, it was DC that made the most of theirs with Ortiz taking advantage of poor distribution from Andre Blake to give DC and early 1-0 lead within the first 4 minutes of the game.

From there it didn’t get much better for the Philadelphia Union as Jay Simpson was largely anonymous in front of goal. The story on him coming to the Union was that if he got proper service that he would score a lot but that wasn’t the case today as countless crosses went in front of goal without him taking advantage of them.

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Things went from bad to worse in the 27th minute as Onyewu was called for a questionable penalty in the box. When the ball hit his hand, the assistant referee judged that it was just outside the box but the line judge overruled him saying that it was just on the line, constituting a penalty. DC took advantage of that with Acosta driving it home for a 2-0 advantage.

There wasn’t much good in the half with Marquez picking up a concussion and Gooch giving up the penalty but looking solely at statistics (disregarding the score) it was an even half. But such is the game of soccer, a small mistake can have large consequences.

The second half saw an interesting shift to the lineup as rookie Jack Elliott made his MLS debut in place of Marquez. After the match, Jim Curtin was hesitant to say definitively that Marquez has a concussion but he did say that he had concussion-like symptoms. Elliot stepped in admirably for Marquez and Curtin had praise for him after the game saying,

"“You never want to sub a center back in, in that situation. You tell him to do what he does in training each and every day. He’s worked hard to be the reserve center back and he did well in the 45 minutes that he played.”"

In the second half, the attack was still anemic until around the 60th minute when CJ Sapong was subbed on for Jay Simpson. Shortly thereafter, the in-form Sapong netted a goal on a rebound from an Alejandro Bedoya shot but it was the shift to the formation that made all the difference.

Jim Curtin explained it as inverting the midfield triangle to create a 4-1-4-1 formation but it looked more like a 4-4-2 with Chris Pontius tucking in behind Sapong while Ale moved out to play left wing. The fluidity gave DC United issues and against a keeper who isn’t Bill Hamid, the Philadelphia Union would have likely tied this one up. Sapong forced a few saves of his own but ultimately it wasn’t enough.

Next: ‘Boys in Blue’ travel to D.C. United

There are things to build from in this game and hopefully, the 4-4-2 option will be looked at in the future because the Union looked good in the formation. A three-game homestand will be the perfect time to break in a formation but we’ll have to wait and see. Next up is a matchup with the Portland Timbers.

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