In just their third preseason match of the year, the Philadelphia Union looked much better than their previous two outings. More significantly, Wednesday's 1-1 draw came against a DC United team that is about a week further along in preseason due to their preparation for their impending CONCACAF Champions League Quarterfinal match down in Mexico.
Union Score First
The Union wasted little time getting on the scoresheet. Fabinho sent a nice through ball forward to Chris Pontius, who ran onto it and crossed it towards CJ Sapong. Sapong got a foot to it and it bounced off the crossbar before Sebastien Le Toux calmly knocked in the rebound in the 17th minute.
Much of the first half was a lot of back and forth action with a lot of physicality, especially for a preseason game, leading to several yellow cards being handed out. For the Union, there was a lot of good combination play to excite the fans.
For DC United, they had a lot of the possession, but it didn't come in dangerous areas. Most of their chances came from Union mistakes, especially turnovers in the middle of the field such as Keegan Rosenberry’s poor pass that led to Luciano Acosta being fouled right outside the 18-yard box.
The Union made three changes to start the second half, bringing on Leo Fernandes and Brian Carroll as well as trialist Ilsinho in place of Tranquillo Barnetta, Roland Alberg, and Sebastien Le Toux. DC United made no changes to their starting 11 at the half.
DC United Tie the Game
It would not be long before DC United tied the game. Patrick Nyarko was able to keep the ball away from Fabinho along the endline before Chris Pontius stepped in late and took Nyarko down. Fabian Espindola stepped up to take the penalty, which he was able to just sneak under a diving Andre Blake.
Outside of the penalty shot, Blake was rarely tested and was very composed in his decision making. His opposite number was tested a few times throughout and made some very solid saves towards the end of the game on rookie Fabian Herbers.
Around the 60th minute, the Philadelphia Union swapped out their remaining starters, except for Blake who stayed in goal. DC United kept their starters in longer because, as manager Ben Olsen alluded to after the game, this was the final tune up before their big match down in Mexico for the majority of the starters.
Overall, there were a lot of positives to take out of both of these performances today, but it is just preseason so there is time to fix some of the mistakes that need to be worked out. The Philadelphia Union have three remaining preseason games with the next one coming this Saturday against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.