Blake helps Union salvage tie with Red Bulls
Playoff aspirations slipping away
Jim Curtin didn’t mince words Sunday, not that his team left him much room to.
The first 45 minutes the Philadelphia Union limped through at Red Bull Arena were — twice — dubbed by the skipper, “as poorly as we could play in the first half and still keep a shutout.”
The reason why the Union weathered that storm without conceding, in the first half and through a 0-0 draw with the Red Bulls, stood in net, clad in green.
Andre Blake made eight saves, seven in his team’s dreadful first half, in one of the best performances of his young but distinguished career. Yet all that did was secure for the visitors a sixth successive game without the win, whittling their playoff odds to even more miniscule proportions.
Blake finished two denials shy of a career-high. At the interval, he looked set to blast past that mark of 10 (set in a 2015 game with New England); he’d had just two previous games with more work than he’d seen in the first 45 Sunday.
“Yeah, it wasn’t our best performance, and I said to myself, if I’m able to stop them from scoring, whatever it takes, it could be very good for us because then we can get one goal and try to win the game,” Blake said. “So I just stay in the game mentally, and I was able to make some big plays.”
His biggest was reserved for the second half, a pointblank denial on a Bradley Wright-Phillips rebound attempt as the Red Bulls, who rested several starters with an eye toward Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup final, nearly connected their big guns for the decider.
Fabinho hauled down Wright-Phillips on the edge of the box in the 77th minute, the Brazilian lucky not to see a second yellow card. Sacha Kljestan fired a side-footed cross that Blake punched, but not to safety. The ball fell to Wright-Phillips on the doorstep, but Blake splayed out a leg for a spectacular kick save, allowing Chris Pontius to clear and the Union to avert danger.
“I knew that was going to be a very tough play,” Blake said. “I knew (Kljestan) was going to try to hit it as hard as he could, so I tried to just tell myself that I have to be ready for whatever. I tried to get as much as I can on the first ball. I wasn’t able to get it out of the danger zone, but thankfully I was able to make a second save.”
“His play speaks for itself,” Curtin said. “He’s a great goalkeeper. He’s the goalkeeper of the year from last year and he’s done a good job in key moments.”
The draw leaves the Union (8-12-9, 33 points) mired in 10th place in the Eastern Conference and marooned in a six-game winless streak (0-2-4). They’ve scored five goals in that stretch and conceded 11. The club has been outshot, 8366, including 36-20 in shots on target.
This marks the second time in franchise history that the Union have two separate winless streaks of six or more games in a season, joining the 2012 campaign. With five games to play, the Union are nine points behind the Red Bulls (12-106, 42 points) for the East’s sixth and final playoff spot.
The Red Bulls commanded the first half, outshooting the Union 12-1 (7-1 on target). Blake’s best save came in the 26th, when Derrick Etienne lashed a dipping volley from outside the box that Blake leapt to parry around the post. Blake stuffed Gonzalo Veron in a dangerous area in the 32nd, then got down quickly to paw away a low Veron shot in the 40th.
Curtin adjusted at halftime, inserting Warren Creavalle for an ineffectual Ilsinho to calm the choppy midfield waters. The tactic worked, allowing the Union to keep a better handle on the Red Bulls attack. Creavalle, who has played sparingly after impressing last season, performed well in a spot start in Minnesota last week, so Curtin didn’t hesitate deploying him Sunday.
“We were quick to pull the trigger at half when we didn’t like what we saw from the group,” Curtin said. “Credit to Warren, he steps in to what is a fast game to step into in a hot day, and he did a good job for us. That’s what a professional does.”
“The game was a bit stretched and I just try to come in and calm it down, connect and break up plays and connect the back to the front,” Creavalle said.
Pontius supplied both of the Union’s shots on target, though neither seriously trifled Luis Robles. A drive from distance in firsthalf stoppage time was deflected before dribbling into Robles’ hands. In the 76th minute, Pontius got a step around his marker on the left wing, but his chipped attempt hung up for Robles to easily pluck out of the air. CJ Sapong fired four shots, all off target, the best a side volley from the right channel in the 88th.
Curtin’s best diagnosis Sunday captured an inescapable fact of the Union’s inglorious slide into playoff oblivion. The club has navigated a stretch of four out of five on the road with just one loss and three draws; in isolation, a point gleaned in Harrison or San Jose or Minnesota is an unqualified positive.
But given the uphill climb fostered by the eight-match winless streak with which the Union opened the season, they were always left playing catchup. And in that position, draws just won’t cut it.
“These are results now, in recent weeks on the road, that if we did our work early on in the season, they’d be positive results,” Curtin said. “But right now as we chase from behind, it’s difficult. But a positive is that a point on the road at Red Bulls is a good point.”