Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
For once, Union wins against elite club
CHESTER » With great pride, Jim Curtin has praised his team for taking care of business against teams below it in the standings, for winning games that the table objectively said it should win to fulfill its aspirations.
With New York City FC visiting, the Union had a chance to prove itself against one of the elite teams in the East. They passed with flying colors. Cory Burke made it six goals in six MLS starts, and Ilsinho marked his return from a month on the sidelines with a stupendous goal in a 2-0 win over NYCFC.
“It’s an important win for us, in a lot of ways,” Curtin said. “Before the game we challenged the group to raise their level and we asked a lot of them against Chicago in the Open Cup to get to the final.
We asked a ton of them on the road. They’re starting to ask a lot of each other, which I think is powerful. We knew that this game would be against the strongest opponent we’ve played in quite some time. It would be a real challenge for us to raise our intensity, raise our focus, our discipline, our pressing. I thought that the guys executed exactly what we asked of them.”
“They are a top seed in the East, and I don’t think we even won one time against a top seed,” midfielder Haris Medunjanin said. “So you need to play 100 percent these games, because if one guy doesn’t follow his man or he’s sleeping, they will punish you. And I think today, everybody did great and everybody was like 100 percent sticking to the game plan and we executed it. It was overall a great night for us.”
Medunjanin is correct:
Of the Union’s 10 wins this season, none had come against a team as high in the standings as NYC (146-5, 47 points), which will finish the weekend third in the Eastern Conference. Admirable as the Union’s slog through the East’s sizeable middle class has been — and that may prove ultimately sufficient to earn a playoff spot — it always came with the caveat of what might happen when the competition ramps up. Saturday was a decisive statement that the Union are capable of elevating their game in response.
The win makes three straight for the Union (1011-3, 33 points) in all competitions. The Union have begun their stretch of six straight against Eastern opposition with two consecutive victories to stay fifth in the standings. It also ties the 2013 team for the least amount of games (24) to get to 10 wins in an MLS season in franchise history.
“The players realize it, too,” Curtin said. “Haris was saying it right before we went out of the tunnel. Let’s see us against a top team. We have to win one of these games against a top club and we’ve played good against some of the top clubs. We played pretty darn well against Atlanta, we played pretty darn well against Toronto and now we finally push over that hump.”
Borek Dockal was credited with assists on both goals, and the first was all his orchestration. Dockal and Alejandro Bedoya overloaded the center backs on a run in the 57th minute, allowing Burke to peel off the shoulder of Maxime Chanot and into space ahead of wandering right back Anton Tinnerholm.
Dockal hit Burke in stride, and the Jamaican was ruthless with his finish, his sixth goal of the MLS season and eighth in all competitions. The Union are 6-0-0 this season when Burke starts.
“I saw Bedoya on the
blind side making the run, so I’m not going to try to make the run toward where I saw him go,” Burke said. “So all I did is I started pulling my defender away so I could create the space to play the ball to. And Borek, he saw I made the play and he made a terrific pass for me to finish it off.”
Though Dockal got the assist, the second goal was all Ilsinho, making his first appearance since a quad strain forced him out of a game July 11. Just minutes after needing attention for an apparent leg injury, the Brazilian proved he was just fine. He ate up, in order, Ronald Matarrita, Ebenezer Ofori and Ben Sweat before rifling a shot past a flat-footed Sean Johnson.
“I just got the ball and was waiting for the right moment, and sometimes I just bet, you know. I try,” Ilsinho said. “If the movement’s going to be right, look for me. If they get the ball, I try another one next time.”
Matarrita, still stinging apparently, took a lunge at
Ilsinho in stoppage time, landing a studs-up kick to Ilsinho’s leg that elicited a straight red card.
The Union did the job bottling up David Villa, who is still working back from an injury. He had a shot on goal in the 20th minute that was easily handled by Andre Blake, one of three saves on the day. The only difficult one came in the second minute when Maxi Moralez and Villa flooded forward, Moralez curling a vicious shot that Blake acrobatically parried.
But the Union had the better of the game by a wide margin, thoroughly deserving the win. And while to a many the repeated the same line — that they haven’t yet accomplished anything worthwhile and have to stay focused — they get to enjoy a little increased notoriety of being a hot MLS commodity.
“If we are going to win the league, we’ve got to beat the best teams,” Burke said. “I guess we just beat one of the best teams in our division.”