CHESTER, Pa. – The Philadelphia Union battled to a scoreless draw Wednesday night in a home friendly against English club Crystal Palace FC, surviving the first of the team's two games over the next five days. After a dull start to the match, both defenses held clean sheets in the face of numerous promising goalscoring chances.
The story for much of this game was the excellent goalkeeping of Union netminding duo John McCarthy and Matt Jones. McCarthy made a few key first-half saves before being replaced at halftime by Jones, who kept Philadelphia level numerous times.
First half action
McCarthy made a firm save on a 35th-minute header by Crystal Palace's Sullay Kaikai, a commendable effort despite the play being whistled offside after the fact. Eight minutes later, Union defender Joshua Yaro gifted a near-post chance to Freddie Ladapo, but McCarthy was there to deny the strike.
Meanwhile, on Philadelphia's attacking half, there were glaring chances to put in a goal during the latter portions of the first 45 minutes. Keegan Rosenberry bounced a volley over the crossbar in the 28th minute from a corner kick, CJ Sapong snapped a 34th-minute header just too high, and in the 41st minute, Walter Restrepo blasted a top-of-the-box feed from the skilled Sapong into the stands.
Second half action
Philadelphia put it an almost entirely new lineup at the start of the second half while Palace gradually took off most of its starters throughout the final 45. After a few early flares from the Union attack that did not prove fruitful, the Eagles took over and turned up the attack.
Luckily for the Union, Matt Jones played a gem in net.
Jones shut down a strike from Connor Wickham in the 58th minute with a diving effort and similarly sprawled out to deny Bakary Sako's left foot ten minutes later. Wickham had another promising run at goal - this time a one-on-one, but once again, Jones was there to lunge in front of the shot and clear out the danger.
Wilfried Zaha, who came on for Kaikai in the 54th minute, looked very desperate for a goal as he fought out a tough matchup with Union fullback Ray Gaddis on the left wing. Zaha was able to whip in a few crosses but Gaddis made just as many tackles to help earn the clean sheet.
Night of debuts
Making debuts on Wednesday night for Crystal Palace were Andros Townsend and James Tomkins. The two played well in their first matches of the preseason for the Eagles.
Additionally, Freddie Ladapo made his first start for the London side while for Philadelphia, Derrick Jones and Ryan Richter were called up from Bethlehem Steel FC to make their first-team debuts as substitutes.