The Philadelphia Union fell to the New York Red Bulls by the final score of 3-1 on Saturday at PPL Park.

The first half featured very sloppy soccer from both sides. The Red Bulls were unable to take advantage of numerous Philadelphia turnovers in the defensive half. In the sixth minute, Mike Grella picked off a poor pass by Maurice Edu from about 30 yards, out but was unable to keep his shot anywhere on frame. One noticeable tactic for the Red Bulls was a deliberate attempt to go at Philadelphia’s Ray Gaddis. Gaddis had major trouble with his positioning all game, which culminated in his inability to keep Mike Grella and, later on, Shaun Wright-Phillips in check.

On the other hand, Philadelphia looked like the more likely side to open the scoring. The Union had nine corners in the first half, none of which led to any serious attempts on net. Edu was able to get his head on a few of the deliveries from Cristian Maidana but sent them all wide of the net. That would be the story for the Union tonight: an inability to capitalize on opportunities and sloppy defense.

The game would go into halftime with no score, despite the numerous opportunities for both sides.

The second half would prove to be far more exciting, with a two MLS debuts. Philadelphia’s Tranquillo Barnetta as well as New York’s Shaun Wright-Phillips both came on for the first time for their new clubs.

New York nearly scored in the 48th minute when Bradley Wright-Phillips was denied by a great save from Philadelphia goalkeeper John McCarthy. This was the Red Bulls first registered shot on net in the game.

In the 61st and 64th minute respectively, S. Wright-Phillips and Barnetta made their first appearances for their new teams. S. Wright-Phillips came into and was immediately matched up on Gaddis, who was unable to deal with the former English Premier League standout.

The two debuting players would meet in the 64th minute, just 30 seconds into Barnetta’s debut, as he ran into S. Wright-Phillips’ back, causing him to fall, leading to the referee pointing to the penalty spot. “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,” Barnetta would say after the game about the call. Despite some protests by the Union, Sacha Kljestan stepped up to take the penalty and just slid the ball right under a diving John McCarthy for the 1-0 lead.

The Union would come right back and equalized within the next seven minutes, when Sebastien Le Toux finished off a Maidana cross. The tie would be short lived though, as the Red Bulls would come back just a minute later to score as the Wright–Phillips brothers connected on the play to score. On the play, Shaun Wright-Phillips showed his class as he used his ball skills to create space between him and Gaddis before finding his brother wide-open from six yards out for the easy goal.

Down a goal, Philadelphia manager Jim Curtin attempted to throw the kitchen sink at the Red Bulls by subbing in Conor Casey to play alongside CJ Sapong and Fernando Aristeguieta. With their three most potent offensive weapons in the game, the Union would have some opportunities to equalize. In the 82nd minute, Casey almost scored off a header from a Maidana free kic,k but was denied by a great diving save from Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles.

The Red Bulls effectively ended the game with their third goal, when a 2v1 counter attack led to Anatole Abang sliding one past McCarthy on a near breakaway. For the Union, the 3-1 loss is their third straight in Major League Soccer play and brings them to an average of only 0.96 points per game, second-worst in MLS.  For the Red Bulls, the win puts them into second place in the Eastern Conference, only behind Supporters' Shield leading D.C. United, with four games in hand on United.

“We knew we needed three points tonight… I thought our pressure in the first 45 was very good, I thought we had that pinned in, had some chances but again lacked a little bit on the final passing in front of goal. It was a game where there wasn’t a lot of short balls in the midfield for both teams,”  Curtin said after the game on his team’s style and inability to capitalize, despite controlling most of the game.

One key for the Red Bulls this game was the play of Dax McCarty. McCarty was magnificent on the night as he did his job of clogging up passing lanes in the midfield. At times, it looked as if the Union tried to bypass the midfield entirely by playing the long ball, possibly thanks to the play of the MLS All-Star. Another key was the play of Shaun Wright-Phillips. He immediately made an impact in this game, as he got the Red Bulls the penalty call as well as set up his brother for the go-ahead goal.

For the Union, it was a tough loss to swallow as the Union looked like the better side for most of the match. However, the same story continued as they had 17 recorded shots but only three shots were on target. To compound this, the Union also had 13 corner kicks but were unable to create much on any one of them. “We didn’t take our chances very well tonight, a lot of opportunities for shots and we missed the target a bunch,” said Curtin.

There were positive performances though despite the loss. Fabinho did well to contain Lloyd Sam all night and then, later on, Grella. In addition to Fabinho, Maidana continued to play decent balls into the box, whether off of set pieces or just from open play, but no one was able to put them in the net. Lastly, besides the penalty, Barnetta had a decent performance in central midfield. Once he is able to mesh with Maidana and Nogueira, the Union’s midfield will be very dangerous.