Union’s winless streak reaches 15 games
CHESTER >> You could see it all coming a mile away, even if it started as just a sardonic remark from (probably more than) one fan to another, half-hopeful that speaking the sentiment into existence would forestall it happening.
“They couldn’t blow this, could they?,” the thought hanging palpably at Talen Energy Stadium Saturday.
Not after the Philadelphia Union scored three goals in 39 minutes. Not after being gifted a turnover that led to a goal, plus a penalty kick in the box that Montreal goalie Evan Bush essentially saved into his own net. Not after a barren streak that had run to historic proportions, where the worst team in the Eastern Conference faced the league’s second-worst,
in the last chance for to recoup something — anything — from a disastrous homestand, spotted the Union three-goal lead.
Surely then, the lead had to be secure? The Union couldn’t squander this. Right?
“Pure frustration,” captain Alejandro Bedoya called it after the final gut punch in a 3-3 draw. “I’m at a loss for words. To be up 3-0 at home and lose — I mean, it feels like a loss. I don’t know. It’s hard to stomach.
“This team deserves a lot better. The fans deserve a lot better.”
It’s the latest installment in a winless streak that dates back 15 games in all competitions, 238 days, and into the previous presidential administration. The 14 regular season MLS games without a win (0-9-5) tie the Union with Chivas USA in 2013 and Vancouver in 2011 for the eighth-longest in MLS history.
The symmetry as it pertains to manager Jim Curtin is striking. The last time the club made a coaching change, in 2014, it came on the heels of a 3-3 home draw against a Canadian side that featured a coughed-up lead. That game against Vancouver sealed the fate of John Hackworth in the eyes of boss Nick Sakiewicz. (It also came in the midst of a sevengame home winless streak, a level of futility equaled by the Union Saturday.)
Indications are that the man with Curtin’s fate in his hands, sporting director Earnie Stewart, isn’t about to make such a drastic change. But even as things changed Saturday, so much painfully stayed the same.
“It’s not where we want to be, it’s not where anybody wants to be in the table,” Curtin said. “These three games we knew were important, were critical. We come away only with a point, so it’s disappointing. We’ve had some good moments in there but have yet to put together a full 90 minutes and we’re still in search of that.”
For 40 minutes, the Union (0-4-3, 3 points) were flying. Roland Alberg scored in the fifth minute when CJ Sapong pounced on a terrible turnover by Marco Donadel and played in the Dutchman to weave around Laurent Ciman and calmly slot home. Sapong doubled the lead on 23 minutes, Haris Medunjanin’s secondtime cross to the far post nodded on by Chris Pontius right to the head of Sapong on the line.
And Alberg grew the lead to three in the 39th, converting a penalty after rookie Jack Elliott was felled in the box.
But Montreal (1-2-4, 7 points) started chipping away immediately, starting with a defensive breakdown that allowed perennial MVP candidate Ignacio Piatti criminal amounts of space to bury a shot low past Andre Blake in the 41st. The Impact could’ve made it two had Dominic Oduro not fluffed a chance on the doorstep on the stroke of halftime.
“We talked about that at halftime. What’s our game plan now, up 3-1?,” Bedoya said. “We were controlling the game. We said, Let’s start first 15 minutes let’s pressure. I thought we weren’t getting there. So after 10 minutes I just called everyone together and said, ‘Let’s not go and press, let’s have CJ at the half-circle and stay compact.’ But you keep dropping back and you play soft defense and you allow second balls in the box and don’t put bodies on guys in the box, you get punished. That’s what happened to us today.”
The Union appeared to right the ship in the second half, until young homegrown forward Anthony Jackson-Hamel struck twice — first in the 69th off a pinpoint Ambroise Oyongo cross, then in the 87th when Blake allowed a juicy rebound off a Matteo Mancosu attempt.
To his credit, Curtin appeared to push the right buttons. He made a switch defensively, bringing in Ray Gaddis for the struggling Keegan Rosenberry, but the Union still conceded multiple goals in a game for the 12th time in their last 15 games. He inverted his wingers, producing Pontius’ strongest game of 2017 with him swapped to the right wing. And Bedoya, again playing as the No. 8 behind Alberg, authored another strong performance.
He even struck the correct balance with a sub, bringing on Fafa Picault only for Bush to stone the winger pointblank after Sapong played him in one-v-one in the 81st.
But it wasn’t enough, in terms of talent or mindset or whatever ineffable concept seems to be consistently tripping up the Union in a season doomed for misery. That fuels the incarnate dread that filled a mostlyempty stadium Saturday.
“I said in the huddle to the guys, ‘I don’t care how you win. This is a win we need to be able to scrap out,’” Bedoya said. “It just wasn’t there but I’m proud of this team still. I have 100 percent belief in these guys and everyone and Jim. I feel bad for him. It sucks. We deserve better. And we know we’re better than this.”