Clincher has the feel of something different
CHESTER >> Every year in Chester has been the same song and dance for nearly a decade. There would be playoff berths, but not without houseof-cards caveats — winless streaks of unseemly proportions, back-room intrigue that would be brought to light, the fresh air collapsing the whole edifice.
There would be starts and restarts, plans enacted and abandoned, and always the same hope proffered by well-meaning coaches never given the resources to execute their missions. Just wait, they’d say — for that player, that stretch of the schedule, that bit of fortune. Then you’ll see what this team can do.
And just wait, the fans would. And just wait, reporters would write, until the waiting was proved bunk too many times for the keyboards to remain silent.
So it was again Saturday, that the temptation was so palpable to decree, for once and for all. This was the game in which the Philadelphia Union — not as a team or an organization but as an idea — would turn the corner, the game that would be different, the game from which there would be no sliding back.
It was a 5-1 victory over Minnesota United that clinched a playoff spot for the Union, one executed so ferociously as to hint at much more to come.
The Union’s first-half throttling sure felt different than anything before it, for the killer instinct showed in stomping on the throat of a decidedly inferior opponent who could only beat you with their sporadic talent if you let them hang around. The hosts were up a goal eight minutes in, up three in the first 23 minutes and added a fourth in the 44th. Each person in their starting front six recorded either a goal or an assist, plus two helpers from right back Keegan Rosenberry.
Cory Burke opened the scoring. Captain Alejandro Bedoya piled on. Then twice Fafa Picault, who this week earned recognition with a U.S. national team call-up, buried a pair of shots past an overmatched and underinterested Minnesota backline. Borek Dockal set a franchise record for assists with 17 on the season, reascending the MLS in that category this year. Ilsinho, returning from injury, chipped in a second-half thunderbolt from distance to complete the rout.
What else? The Union (15-12-5, 50 points) finally surpassed the franchise record for points in a season set in 2011 (48). And they climbed into fourth place in the Eastern Conference, in position to host a playoff game for the first time since 2011.
“We’ve set ourselves up now with the record for wins in a season,” manager Jim Curtin said Wednesday. “… All to play for in terms of being focused on getting ourselves into the playoffs and trying to get as high a seed as possible. Working hard to now get our fans a home-field game here at Talen Energy Stadium. That’s the No. 1, singular focus of the group right now.”
One by one, the Union have dispelled illusions this season. Dockal has proven to be the affordable and accommodating impact player the Union have long fantasized about; he trails only Sebastian Le Toux’s illustrious 2010 season (14 goals, 11 assists) for total goals and assists in a Union season (five goals, 17 helpers). That mythical stretch of seasonsaving form that seemed perpetually out of reach finally manifested in a 7-1-2 run since early August, vaulting the Union not just into playoff position but the belief of many pundits that they unimpeachably belong there. The talk of hosting a playoff game that had long been idle pipe-dreaming is now two games of holding serve from reality, the Union two points (and two wins, for tie-breaking purposes) up on fifth-place Columbus with two to play.
Even when the playoff dream seemed to crumble into “same old Union” nonsense, like the 4-1 drubbing meted out by Montreal three weeks ago that could’ve permanently chilled that hot August, the Union flipped the script. On the heels of the Impact downer, they responded with their two best wins of the season, at Seattle and with a reserve team at home against the Sporting Kansas City. That answer was different, dare we say, unprecedented in Union lore.
Saturday’s festivities, of being able to celebrate a playoff berth, are unique for the club. In 2011, the achievement was buried under a mountain of workmanlike draws. The 2016 nod arrived by attrition, when the Union had no more games to lose and chasing New England ran out of time to recover a comically large goal-differential deficit.
The way the Union handled business Saturday breeds hope that the other obstacles will fall in their turn. Failing to host a playoff game since 2011? That goose egg winking at the Union from the postseason win column? They seem more like entries on a todo list topped by a bevy of crossed-out accomplishments. The need to knock down that final wall of winning the ultimate win-orgo-home affair, as September’s U.S. Open Cup final loss at the hands of Houston showed, persists. But a playoff win would be an equivalent of the Cup accomplishment by many measures.
It’s something the Union have never done. Maybe another first to add to the list.