Early strike sets tone for ‘must’ win over Revolution
CHESTER » For most of the 2017 season, the Union have struggled to find consistent play at the No. 10 position.
Through injuries, lack of fitness and ill-fits in the position, the Union have tried three players in the role, and the connection between a slow team start and the lack of attacking midfield production is evident in retrospect.
But now, manager Jim Curtin has a benevolently unusual predicament: Two in-form No. 10s.
Both Ilsinho and Roland Alberg provided delightful finishes to augment a fourth-minute penalty from CJ Sapong as the Union routed the depleted New England Revolution, 3-0, at Talen Energy Stadium Sunday. The inspiration to put the game away stemmed directly through the middle of the park.
“Roland for me is an amazing striker, an amazing player,” Ilsinho said. “I just try to help my teammates like he tries. So I think he right now is in a good moment.”
The win vaults the Union (6-7-4, 22 points) over the Revs and into eighth place in the East, just three points shy of the sixth-placed Red Bulls.
Both Alberg and Ilsinho appear to be firing on all cylinders. Alberg rested Sunday after scoring in Wednesday’s shootout loss to the New York Red Bulls in the U.S. Open Cup. But Ilsinho, who missed the Red Bulls trip with a calf injury, rewarded Curtin’s confidence as the fresher option at a crucial moment.
“The position of No. 10 has always been one that has to add up to goals and assists,” Curtin said. “You don’t think too much about just defense at that spot, but we do ask a lot of our No. 10 to defend. I had a tough conversation with Roland yesterday, it was healthy, it was back and forth and he was pissed, as he should have been at me. He did play his best game in a Philadelphia Union uniform (Wednesday). …
“He showed me, his first touch of the game was a pretty good one. This is healthy conversations to have with guys. If they aren’t mad at me for not being in our 11, then we have a real problem.”
With the Union struggling to dictate play after taking the early lead, a quick start to the second half was vital. Three minutes in, Ilsinho provided it when Haris Medunjanin played a cross-field ball that Fafa Picault controlled on the right wing and popped over a defender.
Ilsinho ran onto the pass and lashed a volley high and over Cody Cropper, a sumptuous finish from a tight angle for his second goal of the season.
“When I was running, I read it so fast and I didn’t see anyone inside the box,” Ilsinho said. “I tried to shoot and score or the keeper saves it and someone else takes the rebound.”
It was the kind of seductive skill Ilsinho showcases every so often that enchants Curtin. Both goals have come since he was turned inside to play as a No. 10, hedging against Alberg’s inconsistency that had forced Alejandro Bedoya to deputize in an unnatural position for him early in the season.
Alberg stated his case with a superlative strike in the 78th on his first touch, leaning back to laser a shot home from 35 yards. Medunjanin picked up the helper, his seventh of the season.
It’s Alberg’s third goal in fewer than 400 league minutes.
“It’s always great when you have players in there that are able to pull anything out of their pocket,” Sapong said. “Ilsinho and Roland are two of those kind of players. I definitely enjoy playing with them. And moving forward, it’s good they both got goals. And if they stay confident, I think we’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”
Sapong’s opener was tinged with controversy. It wasn’t a question of whether defender Benjamin Angoua handled a Sapong cross, but where his arm was at contact, with the defender sliding diagonally across the edge of the box. Referee Chris Penso swiftly pointed to the spot, and Sapong went high and down the middle with his penalty.
The goal is his ninth, tying a career-high (2015 with the Union, 2012 with Sporting Kansas City). He’s 3-for-3 on penalty kicks.
The Union didn’t perpetuate the advantage, ceding 58.9 percent of possession to the Revs (58-5, 20 points) in the first half. Andre Blake made three saves in the game, his last before decamping to join Jamaica for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The most difficult was a 13th-minute charge off his line to snuff a chance by Kei Kamara after Teal Bunbury pilfered a pass in midfield.
But without Kelyn Rowe and Juan Agudelo (international duty) and certified Union-killer Diego Fagundez (suspended), the Revs attack was shooting blanks, and the absence of center back Antonio Delamea, on the bench after recovering from a concussion, showed as the game progressed.
Oguchi Onyewu weathered a scary moment in the first half when he absorbed a close-range Kamara shot in the chest, and Jack Elliott exited with a minor knee injury, his first minutes off the pitch since early April. The Union still blanked the Revs for a third straight game, a streak of 324 MLS minutes since their last concession to New England dating to 2015. It’s the Union’s seventh clean sheet of 2017.
The Union can improve their position in the table with Thursday’s trip to Sporting Kansas City, the final game before the Gold Cup break. Curtin is happy to approach that challenge with a pair of No. 10s pushing each other.
“They are not stupid, they are smart players, they are aware of what’s going on around them and it’s a good problem to have because when both of them are playing like that, they are unstoppable,” Curtin said. “To score the goal that Roland did, how quickly he releases that shot is world class. It was a special performance from both of them. We do need production at that spot at the 10.”