Chester, PA - The Philadelphia Union suffered their first loss at home on the season Saturday night when they fell to Vancouver Whitecaps, 3-2, in front of over 17,000 fans in attendance at Talen Energy Stadium.
Whitecaps and Union play back and forth first half
The first half featured a fast paced, back and forth affair between the Union and the Whitecaps. Philadelphia would open up the scoring within the first 15 minutes of the match. In the 14th minute, Union forward Fabian Herbers unleashed a shot from the left side of the box that managed to hit the top left corner of the crossbar. On the ensuing rebound, the ball appeared to hit off Union winger Sebastien Le Toux’s hand and landed at the feet of Roland Alberg, who slammed it home for his seventh goal in four games with the Union.
To their credit, Vancouver responded in less than five minutes to tie the match at one. In the 19th minute, Vancouver would capitalize off an rare Andre Blake bobbled ball on a corner kick as the ball found a wide open Andre Jacobson on the back post for the easy header goal to equalize the score at one.
The fluidity of the Union's front five opens up the offensive attack
One of the main points of tactical success for the Union in Saturday’s match was the free flowing nature of the front five: Alberg, Le Toux, Herbers, Ilsinho and Tranquillo Barnetta. The image below is the five player’s completed passes chart, which shows how fluid the Union were in the half.
The ability for the front five players to consistently move freely around the pitch created lanes to sneak passes through the attacking fullbacks in Keegan Rosenberry and Fabinho. To add, the front five used quick, one touch passes, which also added to the fast paced nature of the first half. On the whole, the first 45 for Philadelphia was some of the technical and skillful the first place squad has played this season.
However, despite Alberg and Barnetta doing their best to track back on defense to help Brian Carroll, their more offensive tendencies would come back to bite them in the 41st minute. In the 41st minute, off a Union turnover in the offensive half, Kekuta Manneh burned Joshua Yaro with his blistering pace. Once he reached the Union 18 yard box, Manneh cut in on Union centerback Richie Marquez and hammered home a shot in the bottom left corner from 19 yards out to put Vanouver ahead going into halftime, 2-1.
Union's attacking mindset leaves them vulnerable on defense
The second half further undercut the point of the Union’s attacking mindset leaving them vulnerable in the back. To add, despite the attacking mindset Philadelphia appeared to have played with, the Blue and Gold could only muster one shot on net, besides their first half goal, as the aforementioned front five looked to try to create the perfect shot by being unnecessarily selfless with the ball as opposed to taking opportunities when they had them.
Vancouver would add the necessary insurance goal in the 84th minute off a deflected Christian Bolanos goal to put Vancouver ahead by two goals, 3-1.
Philadelphia midfielder Chris Pontius did managed to score in the fourth minute of stoppage time to cut the lead to one, but the comeback would end there as Philadelphia fell to Vancouver 3-2.
Where do both teams go from here?
Both sides will be in action next Wednesday. For Philadelphia, they will host New York Red Bulls in the U.S Open Cup Round of 16. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 PM EST and will beed via YouTube. Vancouver will look to continue its momentum on Wednesday when Toronto FC comes to BC Place for the second leg of the Canadian Championship Final.