Bedoya’s 2nd-half goal gives Union 1-1 draw with Quakes
CHESTER » The good news is that the Union left Talen Energy Stadium Saturday night a goal in 11-v-11 action. The bad news is it left two points on the field against a San Jose squad that is also struggling to get going this season.
Alejandro Bedoya ended a long drought for the club with his header in the 64th minute, but the Union couldn’t translate a decided edge in possession into more than one goal in a 1-1 draw with the Earthquakes Saturday night.
Bedoya got the Union on the board for the first time in 11-v-11 play this season (after more than five halves of soccer) with his header at the far post in the 64th minute. The insertion of Ilsinho for David Accam just a minute prior rejuvenated the attack down the right wing. After a clearance, Borek Dockal sprayed the ball to the left side of the six-yard box, where Picault took it inside to his right foot and lofted a cross for Bedoya to run onto the bury into the net.
It’s just the third goal for the Union (1-1-2, 5 points) this season; the first two came in the opener against New England with the Revolution reduced to 10 men.
A second goal wasn’t in the offing Saturday, as the Union’s winless streak extends to three. The best chance after the goal came in the 81st minute when Haris Medunjanin steamed a roller from 25 yards out just wide of the post.
The Union had the better of possession in the first half but generated diddlysquat. San Jose goalie Andrew Tarbell was called into action four times in the opening half and seven times overall, the best stop a diving denial of a Picault header in the 43rd minute off a Matt Real cross.
Picault, playing his first game after a three-match suspension to start the season stemming from a preseason altercation, looked active early, but the headers that the 5-8 winger kept finding in the box were often wayward of the target.
His opposite winger, Accam, tested Tarbell in firsthalf stoppage time, and Dockal, still very much finding his feet in MLS, stung his first shot in target in his third MLS match, but Tarbell beat it away.
What the Union sought in the first half was a finish like Eriksson’s a deft, right-footed lash around the on-rushing Jack Elliott and past the paw of Andre Blake. Anibal Godoy sprung Danny Hoesen down the right wing, and the Dutchman’s second touch squared to Eriksson for the Swede to bury his first MLS goal.