After a year, a win on the road
MONTREAL » You have to go back exactly one year to find the last time the Philadelphia Union won on the road and mid-October for the last time the Union scored a goal away from the friendly confines of Talen Energy Stadium.
Both streaks mercifully came to an end Saturday afternoon.
Cory Burke scored late in the first half and Haris Medunjanin added a goal late in the second half as the Union topped the Montreal Impact, 2-0, to snap its 16-game road winless streak.
The victory was the first on the road for the Union since a 4-0 triumph over D.C. United May 13, 2017 and the first time Philadelphia found the net away from home since a 3-2 loss to Chicago, Oct. 15, 2017.
“Yeah, it was a team performance,” Medunjanin said. “I think we played as a team very good. When we play as a team we are tough to beat but this is only one game. We need to show this every game when we play. I think in the back (Auston) Trusty and Mark (McKenzie) did an amazing job for two guys who just got to the league and show that they are very good players and they looked very experienced in the back.”
Philadelphia’s defense limited the Impact to four shots on goal, none by Ignacio Piatti, Montreal’s leading scorer. Keeper Andre Blake was equal to the task on each shot to post the 20th shutout of his career.
“Overall, I’m very happy with the performance,” Union manager Jim Curtin said. “The players really executed. They did everything we asked of them. They did a good job on Piatti. I thought Keegan Rosenberry did a really good job. Mark McKenzie helped out too and Ale Bedoya kept an eye on him so overall, a complete team effort. A lot of guys had good days. We needed to have fresh legs on the field and a lot of guys stepped up in a big way, from our teenage center-backs to Cory Burke up top. I thought every guy on the field left everything out on there today, which was key.
“And at the same time, they dealt with, in my opinion, one of the best attackers in our league in Nacho Piatti and limited his chances, which is what it’s about when you play against Montreal. There’s a reason he’s involved in 11 of their 14 goals and overall, I thought we did a good job on him.”
Burke headed home a pass from Ramon Gaddis in the 43rd minute to break a scoreless deadlock . It was his first goal of the season.
“As a striker, you have to have the killer instinct and to be there whenever the ball is there,” Burke said. “You’ve got to breach before the defender and try to get something on it.”
Burke’s day wound up being a short one. He was sent off in the 58th minute when he hit with a red card.
“To get the win kind of shakes off the red card feelings,” Burke said. “And to get the goal… that’s my job as a striker. To help my team to get the three points so yeah it’s a good feeling but picking up the red card I let my team down.”
Curtain did not appear to be overly concerned about Burke’s indiscretion, especially considering that Montreal’s Daniel Lovitz was hit with a red card 11 minutes later with the Union still holding a 1-0 lead.
“The Burke one happens because of a bad ball,” Curtin said. “And Cory is just trying to help the team. He leaves his feet and makes a tackle. I haven’t seen the replay of it but I know Cory well and he’s not a malicious player. He plays very hard. He left his feet in a bad spot and once you do that you leave it up to the referee so no argument from me on that one.
“I think their red card, although the ball is still far away, the guy still takes down Fafa (Picault). Fafa made it uncomfortable for him and you can see he really does an NFL football tackle on him, so that’s also leaving it in the ref’s hands. I think they got it right. And with the video review that’s all you want. You want them to get it right and I think they did today.”
Medunjanin ended any hopes the Impact had of getting a point when he took a pass from David Accam and fired a shot off the left post in the 88th minute to seal the victory.
“It gives you back confidence,” Medunjanin said of the victory. “It is very important to win games on the road and be in a playoff spot. Today was a good win. But we need to continue. It’s not only one game. Now Saturday we play against Salt Lake so if we lose that game everybody is going to forget about this game.”