Red card helps clinch draw, second place vs. NYCFC

NEW YORK CITY » Jim Curtin did a poor job of concealing his smile Sunday evening. His Philadelphia Union voyaged to Yankee Stadium knowing that the best-case scenario on the final day of the MLS season would be for them to finish second.

Through a red card and a lead lost, with a little help, the Union got it done.

Goals by Kacper Przybylko and Valentine Castellanos cancelled each other out, and the Union made enough advantage of Gideon Zelalem’s 21st-minute red card to eke out a 1-1 draw with New York City FC.

The draw, coupled with Nashville SC’s 1-1 draw with the New York Red Bulls in simultaneous kickoffs around the East, means the Union (14-8-12, 54 points) finished second. Both Nashville (124-18, 54 points) and NYCFC (14-11-9, 51 points) entered Decision Day with a chance to pass the Union.

“Regardless of what the 90 minutes looked like, the guys stepped up in a big way,” Curtin said. “To finish second in our conference is something that I think our group is very proud of. It sets us up in a good spot where the next two games have go through Subaru Park if we’re fortunate enough to win in the first round.”

The Union’s reward is a home date with the only team it has ever beaten in the MLS Cup playoffs, the Red Bulls (13-12-9, 48 points). The Union beat RBNY, 4-3 in extra time, at then-Talen Energy Stadium in 2019. The Red Bulls have gone 7-1-4 over the last three months to resuscitate a flatlining season.

That situation, much as Curtin may have been reticent to admit it, was obvious to the participants at Yankee Stadium. With NYCFC owning the wins tiebreaker, it became clear early in the second half that, “a tie at a certain point helped both teams,” Curtin said, hence the somewhat diminished intensity of the second half.

The final standing is the Union’s third straight topthree finish in the East.

The game turned right about when Zelalem’s ankle did. There wasn’t much malice in the tackle, but the former Arsenal midfielder, deputizing after Keaton Parks picked up an injury late in the week, lunged at Leon Flach and got it all wrong. The result was a studs-first stomp, his foot almost perpendicular to the ground. Referee Guido Gonzales took the call slowly, first showing yellow. But when video assistant referee Chris Penso summoned him to the monitor, he had no choice but to upgrade it to a straight red.

“I was a bit lucky; I think

I lifted my leg a little bit so I didn’t put my whole weight on my feet,” Flach said. “It was a really hard tackle, and for me, it’s absolutely a red card.”

Flach got a modicum of revenge minutes later, setting up the Przybylko goal. Olivier Mbaizo sailed a cross that made it through the area and found Flach’s back-post run. With no angle, the midfielder dinked it back across the face of goal to Przybylko for a tap-in. It’s the forward’s 12th goal of the season and 17th in all competitions.

But the Union’s offense went frigid after that, despite lots of the ball. The next shot on target didn’t arrive until he 80th minute, when Sean Johnson caught a Jamiro Monteiro curler from inside the box. Johnson made just three saves on the night, none all that difficult. The best opportunity may have been a Flach whiff on a low cross from Kai Wagner near the penalty spot in the first half.

By the time Monteiro resumed testing Johnson, NYCFC had seized the advantage. The Cityzens came out quickly in the second half and cashed in after just eight minutes. Castellanos did the damage, drifting off the shoulder of center back Jakob Glesnes, then outjumping Mbaizo. That allowed him to track a drifting cross from Maxi

Moralez and plant a header back across the grain into the far-side netting.

With the goal, Castellanos finishes the regular season with 19 goals, tied by D.C. United’s Ola Kamara for the MLS Golden Boot.

“We give him one look on the day — literally one look at goal — and he scores it,” Curtin said. “That’s a top striker. That’s the reason he wins the Golden Boot in the league.”

The Union did well to hang onto the point, in a building where they are 0-4-2 all-time, plus an MLS Cup playoff loss in 2018. Alfredo Morales got a glancing connection on a corner kick in the 49th, but Andre Blake dove to get his gloves around it. Jesus Medina just got goal-side on Glesnes to poke a Castellanos knock down at Blake, but the Jamaican was equal to the task.

Curtin didn’t expect the final mile of the 2021 MLS marathon to go smoothly. But that the Union got across the line in the position they had long aimed for, that was reason for celebration.

“It’s a loveable group of players,” Curtin said. “They give everything. They’re excited in there in the locker room. … They’re humble, a really lovable group of guys that fight and put everything into it. I think they’re very representative of their city.”