Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Fabian, Fontana shine in bounceback win over Fire
The most compelling matchup Saturday night at Talen Energy Stadium didn’t necessarily involve the Chicago Fire.
Instead, it featured two versions of the Philadelphia Union: The team they are and the team they want to be.
The Union should’ve gotten the jump on the 10th-place Fire, fresh off a midweek game, in the Chester swelter. It should’ve, with its goalie limping in the first half and the backup in town for all of 36 hours, pushed to pour it on for a second strike before relying on its usual attacking subs. It needed to keep its first clean sheet in nine games against a team without a road win this season. It should’ve made the matchup of polar opposites a straightforward exercise.
The Union of the present more or less followed that script.
Goals by Marco Fabian and Anthony Fontana led the way, and the Union kept its first clean sheet in nine games in a 2-0 win that keeps them atop the Eastern Conference.
Off their worst performance of the season, a 4-0 loss in Real Salt Lake termed by Jim Curtin as “a disaster,” the Union (116-6, 39 points) responded the way the coach wanted. It’s telling that the Union haven’t lost consecutive games since the first two outings of the season.
“We talked about it in my pre-game talk,” Curtin said. “I said. ‘great teams respond after bad performances. After losses, great teams respond.’ And you look after every loss we’ve had this year – and we haven’t lost a ton – the next result has been a big one.”
Brenden Aaronson drew a free kick with a nutmeg of fellow American Under-23 Djordje Mihaliovic in the 12th (off a superb linesplitting ball from Auston Trusty), and Fabian cashed in. A training-ground move led to Haris Medunjanin’s take to the top of the box being passed on by Kai Wagner to Fabian to blast home from 20 yards, a screamer that Kenneth Kronholm had no chance on.
“That’s one of my best things,” said Fabian of his fourth goal. “When I came here, I said one of my best things is shooting from far, so I try all the games to take those shots. … I try just to shoot.”
Just like the last home game, a disappointing 2-2 draw with Orlando City in which Fabian netted in the fourth minute, the Union didn’t take immediate advantage, letting the Fire creep back in. Against Orlando, the Union allowed two set-piece goals and needed a stoppage-time equalizer. In this one, they got the all-important second goal, something that the ideal Union team would do.
The hosts renewed the pressure after the break. And when Fabian’s race was run after 60 minutes, Fontana entered and made an impact, scoring a lovely goal in the 65th.
Wagner did the work, battling down the left wing and drawing out Kronholm, then pinged a cross off defender Jonathan Kapplehof to Fontana to tap home his first league goal of the season (to go with one in the U.S. Open Cup and an assist against Orlando).
“We showed more energy in the second half,” Curtin said. “We got the second goal. And that’s the sign of a good team.”
Chicago (5-10-8, 23 points) played without regulars Nico Gaitan and Dax McCarty and employed a helter-skelter formation, nominally a 5-3-2 with bouts of man-marking in defense courtesy of Bastian Schweinsteiger, who played both sweeper and center forward for spurts. They created 13 chances, forcing three saves from Andre Blake, but remain winless in 11 road games (0-8-3).
A corner kick in the 32nd turned into trouble when no one marked former Union man Fabian Herbers at the far post. Ray Gaddis got a block in, and Schweinsteiger’s follow skied high. Another former Union forward, CJ Sapong, nearly broke through in the 50th, his downward header thumped right into the gut of Blake. He did the same in the 64th, rising over Wagner.
Sapong spent four seasons with the Union, scoring 36 goals and 14 assists, before being traded to Chicago in March. He’s second in club history in goals and seventh in assists. Sapong entered as the leading American goal-scorer in MLS with nine and was greeted with warm applause by the Talen Energy Stadium crowd of 17,471. He mingled with fans afterward as part of his urban farming charity initiative, Sacred Seeds.
The Union defense did enough to keep its first zero since the May 18 draw with Seattle. Blake, who worked through a hip flexor strain in the first half, was solid, though he was beaten by a Diego Campos curler in the 88th that rattled the crossbar.
“Still not our perfect game, I would say not a complete game, but the word I would use is a professional performance,” Curtin said. “In the middle of July, you need these types of wins and you need a clean sheet, to be honest. … We can improve on a lot for sure, but in a lot of ways, a big three points for us.”
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NOTES >> Goalie Joe Bendik, acquired Friday from Columbus, made the bench for the Union, with Matt Freese out with a quad injury. … Wagner was whistled for a yellow in the 19th for taking down Nemanja Nikolic after the striker got a step on him in an otherwise quiet night. Wagner will be suspended next game for yellow-card accumulation. … Ilsinho made his return from a threegame absence with an adductor strain as a secondhalf sub. Warren Creavalle came on in the 90th minute, his first game action since June 2 thanks to a metatarsal fracture.