Aerial cam shines bright light on attack
ESPN’s coverage of the MLS Is Back tournament has drawn particular plaudits for its aerial cam. No team’s tactics have made more attractive use of that eagle-eyed view than the Philadelphia Union. When the spaces are vast, it offers a unique viewpoint as to how plays develop, perfectly designed to capture the Union galloping out on the counter.
The perspective has shone light on all the things the Union are doing well. In Thursday night’s quarterfinal, that included three goals perfectly illustrated by the overhead cam, on the way to a 3-1 steamrolling of Sporting Kansas City and a spot in the tournament semifinals.
“Our commitment to get out on the break and run is there,” manager Jim Curtin said. “It would be great to see from that nice blimp view that ESPN has, to see the commitment from guys off of two of their (set pieces), that was some of our most dangerous attacks, going 120 yards from their corner kick to our goal. The commitment is something that’s ingrained in our players. They all have the tank and the engines to do it which is impressive and they deserve all the credit for that.”
The numbers present the anomaly that the Union’s counter-attack has created. The Union have allowed two goals on set pieces this year, both in the March 8 draw at Los Angeles FC. They’ve scored three goals off opponents’ set pieces, including two Thursday night and the rampaging counter for the winner against Inter Miami in the group stage. They were inches away from another when Brenden Aaronson turned a defender and fizzled a shot just wide in the 33rd minute, again off an SKC corner.
It isn’t just the ground that the Union cover on those goals. It’s how many players are involved in each that offer the distillation of what Curtin calls their penchant for good team goals.
“With (Santos’s) movement in the box, we preach that if we do things the right way, we’ll get tapins,” Curtin said. “We want to score the easy goals. We had a couple of really difficult ones and pretty ones tonight, but we also had a couple easy ones that just happened.”
The first goal, a tap-in by Jamiro Monteiro in the 24th minute, came from consistent buildup rather than a counter, but it involved more than half of the players on the pitch. Alejandro Bedoya started it near the halfway line, getting the ball to Aaronson. He found Ray Gaddis, who slotted a square ball to Sergio Santos 20 yards from goal. Santos tucked a ball between the lines to Bedoya, who picked out his cross along the ground. Kacper Przybylko occupied the gap between the left center back and left back, leaving Monteiro all by his lonesome at the far post for an easy finish (and leaving Graham Zusi to hope in vain for an offside flag to bail out the SKC defense). That’s six players with direct hands in the marker.
Santos’s goal in the 39th minute was just as participatory. The headline went to Aaronson’s blind crossfield pass that stupefied the SKC defense. But the move started with Przybylko clearing the SKC corner kick in his own sixyard box. The ball cycled through Jose Martinez, then Bedoya bounded up the right flank. After a beat, he found Aaronson, who feinted Zusi and cleaved the space created when Przybylko’s near-post run drew out center back Graham Smith. Monteiro’s central run occupied retreating midfielder Gianluca Busio, which left Santos, making the back-post run, all alone to one-time his shot home, a tidy finish set up by an outstanding team move.
The quality of those goals, Union players streaming forward in platoons, show how connected this team is right now.
“If you look at our offense, we’ve got unbelievable players everywhere,” Aaronson said. “… Everybody’s been amazing this tournament. The interchange has been amazing. The recognition – if I go up, Jamiro stays back, if Jamiro goes up, I take his position – it’s just been very good communicating wise, and everybody’s been confident on the ball playing forward. Credit to our strikers: They’re generating goals every game and making runs and just being pests for the defense. I think that we keep going with every single game like this, I don’t think many teams are going to beat us.”
No one has beaten the Union in their last six outings (4-0-2) in all competitions. When the MLS regular season restarts – reminder that the knockout stage doesn’t count toward the standings – the Union will be fourth in the Eastern Conference with eight points from five games despite not having played at home yet.
But first, the club is two wins away from its first trophy. Through all the oddity of 2020, claiming the MLS Is Back championship would be a tremendous accolade, a validation of the multi-year growth that Curtin has overseen.
And it would be the latest testament to not just the talent but the collective team identity that Curtin and Ernst Tanner have assembled.
“I think right now, the team is very high confidently,” Aaronson said. “As a team, we’re playing at a high level and we’re grinding out results. Like Jim says, we haven’t hit our 90 minutes of playing great soccer, but in the conditions we’re playing in, it’s pretty tough. We’ve been really, really good as a team. The trainings have been amazing, everyone’s getting pushed. It’s just been a really good experience for the team. We want to keep going with it and win this tournament.”
“We set out to try to win this competition,” Curtin said. “You can tell that by the effort the players put in, from the defensive side to the attacking side, getting transition plays right. Overall, really happy with the performance. Everybody left everything on the field for us tonight.”