Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Short-handed Union are left to lament ‘cruel’ night
CHESTER » It was going to be tough sledding for the Union playing a fifth game in 14 days, particularly while hosting a hungry Toronto FC side. Playing without its two most veteran midfielders … that wasn’t going to help either.
But the Union had the possession and the chances Friday night to carve out at least one point for themselves. They just couldn’t get it done in front of goal.
The Union missed the precious few chances it created. Jonathan Osorio did not, and his brace led Toronto to a 2-0 win at Talen Energy Stadium.
“Soccer can be a cruel game at times,” manager Jim Curtin said. “You look at missing your top two players, starting the way we did, creating a ton of chances in the first half, being aggressive, we put a very attack-minded lineup on the field and the guys did everything to create chances in the first half. We just weren’t clinical. Credit to Toronto: They took their chance in the first half and buried it.”
Osorio finished a lovely through ball by Victor Vazquez in the 19th minute, then capitalized when Keegan Rosenberry looped a throw-in directly onto the foot of Sebastian Giovinco in the 79th, launching a 3-on-1 that Osorio deposited into the net to put the Union out if its misery.
That’s two straight losses for the Union (5-7-3, 18 points), who were without Alejandro Bedoya and Haris Medunjanin after red cards in last week’s loss in Atlanta. Bedoya had an appeal rejected by the league Friday morning, forcing Borek Dockal to be deployed as a No. 8 behind Ilsinho and next to Warren Creavalle. The thinking, Curtin said, was to keep the veteran and in-form players together against the reigning (albeit struggling) MLS Cup holders.
That resulted in the Union gaining the better of possession for the first hour or so. But they did too little with it. Fafa Picault came closest to a breakthrough, striking the crossbar in the 58th minute after a layoff by Marcus Epps.
“That’s a shot I’m pretty good for — cut in and bend it back post,” Picault said. “It goes in a lot, sometimes it doesn’t go in. Today, it didn’t go in. It’s unlucky honestly.”
CJ Sapong was held without a shot in 61 minutes, and the Union looked largely out of ideas late as the tide turned in Toronto’s favor, leaving nothing to prevent a third straight shutout loss at the hands of FC. The result extended Toronto’s unbeaten streak to 10 matches (8-0-2) vs. the Union. The result is the fourth non-win in eight home games this season (4-2-2), a rate incompatible with playoff aspirations.
The difference in the first half didn’t so much owe to midfield composition as to the Union’s wastefulness on its two chances.
Osorio buried his look in the 19th minute, after Michael Bradley connected to Vazquez for the Spaniard to unleash a defense-opening ball. Mark McKenzie, playing his third game in seven days, stepped but didn’t get there, and Osorio slithered in behind before curling a ball into the net. It was the one misstep for the Union’s youthful center back in an otherwise strong game that included bottling up Giovinco.
There was no such rational defense for the second goal, when Rosenberry plopped a throw-in under the lightest of pressure straight to Giovinco. That sent TFC (4-72, 14 points) off to the races for Osorio’s second goal and the team’s first win on the road (1-4-1).
Osorio’s first goal came on the heels of two consecutive misses by the Union. Creavalle launched a perfect ball in the 13th minute that sprung Picault, but the winger buried his shot into the breadbasket of an onrushing Alex Bono.
“He’s really fast,” Bono said. “And as he kept coming closer, I saw his touches getting further away and further away from him as he started to push away from the center backs. That split second where he touches that ball a little too far in front of him once he was in the box, I was just trying to close it down. I knew he was going to get to it first, at that point I just to try to make him bury it and let it hit you.”
Ilsinho bombed forward a minute later after dispossessing Bradley, but his shot skittered wide as Bono scurried out to cut down the angle.
The Union had the ball the net three minutes after Osorio broke the deadlock, but it was correctly called offside for Creavalle’s redirection of an Ilsinho shot.
Bono denied sub David Accam in the 87th minute, the Ghanaian still looking for his first MLS goal of the campaign after converting a penalty kick in Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup win. But Toronto had the better of the chances even late, with Andre Blake forced to deny a drive from Giovinco and a follow-up header by Ager Aketxe in quick success in the 84th.
“It was just a tough night,” Curtin said. “It felt like the ball wouldn’t go in for us. The breakaway we have with Fafa, the Ilsinho goal that Warren gets a piece of, off the bar — it wasn’t just the night for us.”