Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Fabian, Union get first playoff win
CHESTER >> The trajectory of the ball off Marco Fabian’s foot was the perfect distillation of the Union’s game Sunday.
It changed direction, it fluttered unpredictably, its last touch was of questionable origin and it definitely left a lot of people speechless at Talen Energy Stadium.
Fabian scored in the 105thplus-1 minute, a ball from a tight angle that may have glanced off a New York Red Bulls defender before caroming in off the post and in, magically granting the Union their first playoff win in franchise history, 4-3 over the Red Bulls after extra time. It was an unlikely result considering the Union trailed 2-0 after 25 minutes and 3-1 at halftime Sunday, but rallied thanks to goals by Jack Elliott and Fafa Picault in the second half of the first playoff game in Chester since 2011.
“I think it means a lot for everybody,” captain Alejandro Bedoya said. “We’re happy, we talked about it that we had a situation where we can cement our place in Union history getting the first playoff win for the club. We’re all excited about that.”
That achieved, the thirdseeded Union will travel to meet No. 2 Atlanta Thursday night (8 o’clock) for an Eastern Conference semifinal clash.
Much of the late Union surge came down to the leadership of players like Bedoya and the boost provided off the substitutes’ bench, from Fabian and Picault in particular.
Bedoya was one of the factors waking the Union from their stupor in the first half, his 30th-minute tally getting them within 2-1. It was a simple ball in by Haris Medunjanin, but the captain struck it firmly and into the side netting.
“Obviously it’s a huge goal,” manager Jim Curtin said. “… The goal that Ale scored kind of comes from nothing, it’s a free kick from nothing, but that goals changes the game.”
It was merely the first installment from him, as he battled a quad strain and cramping that eventually made him leave the game after 112 minutes, having limped heavily for his last 40 minutes and having literally left it all out there.
The Union dug themselves a deep hole, thanks to Andre Blake’s horror show of a first half. Josh Sims scored his first goal – not just with Red Bulls but as a professional – in the sixth, the 22-year-old converting a giveaway by Jack Elliott. Marc Rzatkowski made the interception, dished to Kaku who found the Englishman, and Sims’ shot beat Blake short side as the Jamaican could only get a piece of it.
It was a harbinger of disasters to come, and for fans that saw the Union concede in the fifth minute against Houston in the 2011 playoff game, it triggered an avalanche of dread.
He was much more culpable in the 24th, rushing out to flap at a corner kick but missing by a huge margin. That left defender Tim Parker, as he was falling, to redirect it in. Then in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time, Blake again charged out to punch a cross, but he knocked out a defender and the ball fell to Tom Barlow, who made no mistake, making it 3-1 at the half.
It had seemed to cancel out the boost that the Union fans provided – including an expletive-enhanced exhortation to “wake up” – but the Union didn’t crumble.
“Everyone felt the momentum, even that goal just before the half, I think they didn’t put a nail in our coffin,” Elliott said. “No one came in thinking we were going to lose the game, and no one went out thinking we were going to lose the game. I think everyone thought we were going to win the game, that was our belief. We had the momentum right from the start, and we used it, we used the crowd and we came out and just gave everything.”
The Union rose to the challenge by putting the game on their terms. Elliott atoned in the 52nd, when Sergio Santos, in his first start since late June in place of the injured Kacper Przybylko, struck a Medunjanin free kick off the bar and Elliott headed home the ricochet to make it 3-2.
Missed chances threatened to pile up, with Red Bulls goalie Luis Robles making a handful of sensational saves, including one off a Jamiro Monteiro header in the 33rd minute and a Santos header in the 54th. Rece Buckmaster also deflected a corner off the line in the first half.
Picault came to the rescue in the 78th, rising above Parker to thump home Santos’s cross.
“Sergio cut back, and I had a feeling he would clip it nice to that back area where I have enough area to jump on to it,” said Picault, who scored just one goal this year after 10 in 2018. “Once it’s like that, I usually win the header, and it was a perfect ball. I did a good job to get my head on it and get it past the keeper.”
Picault could’ve won the game in the 88th if not for a Robles stop. But even as the game shifted, as big names – Bradley Wright-Phillips for the Red Bulls, Ilsinho and Fabian for the Union – came off the bench, the Union still had the upper hand, with 61.8 percent possession and 31 shots to New York’s 12.
Fabian finally made it pay off, collecting a switch of fields over the six-yard box by Picault, taking a couple of touches and firing a ball that slithered through the box and into the net, making history for the Union.
“Everybody’s going to remember this game,” Curtin said. “There’s a lot of reasons to remember it. They’re certainly going to remember Marco scored the goal. Our club needs that. They need whatever that game is, the Fabian game. We had the Ilsinho game the last time against Red Bull. People are going to remember this game for a long time.”