Central defense starting to jell

CHESTER » Week to week, the composition of the Philadelphia Union’s central defense will be an open question for manager Jim Curtin.

For 87 minutes Sunday, the choice to go with Jack Elliott and Oguchi Onyewu seemed to be working just fine, until Bradley Wright-Phillips blistered a fatiguing and shorthanded Union defense twice for a 2-0 win by the New York Red Bulls.

Sunday, Elliott and Onyewu found themselves in the starting lineup for a seventh straight MLS game, with Josh Yaro on the bench and Richie Marquez the weekly odd man out. Elliott had played midweek in the U.S. Open Cup, meaning the rookie has started 10 straight games in all competitions.

Yaro started alongside Elliott in central defense Wednesday against Harrisburg City. With Yaro making his season debut June 3 against New York City after nearly four months out with following shoulder surgery, manager Jim Curtin has preferred to be careful in doling out his minutes.

“We chose Gooch and Jack,” Curtin said. “They’re guys that have put together a good run, haven’t conceded a lot of goals in our last seven or eight games, so consistency there. On a different day, you could judge the backline a little differently, but they had to deal with being down a man and taking a lot of crosses. And we didn’t get the job done. (If), we can get away with a shutout and a point there, we’re talking differently.”

Elliott and Onyewu were part of the squad that started to turn the Union’s season around in late April. They put together three straight shutouts; in six starts together, they had allowed just four goals entering the Red Bulls tilt. Onyewu sat out Wednesday in part while recovering from a knock to the head in the New York City FC game that caused a chipped tooth, swelling around his eye and forced his first-half departure at Yankee Stadium.

Sunday’s performance isn’t necessarily reflective of their relative ability, with the Union (4-7-4, 16 points) under constant pressure down a man following Derrick Jones’ 53rdminute red card and the constant danger posed by WrightPhillips.

So deep are the Union at center back that Richie Marquez, who played all but one game last year, didn’t even make the matchday 18 Saturday. But he’s another face in the training mix, and with four viable options to start, Curtin will be faced with a weekly decision on how to construct a central pairing.