Oh brother, Union let one slip away
If the Philadelphia Union were left feeling anything brotherly Saturday, it wasn’t love.
Goals by the brothers Higuain — Gonzalo in the 73rd, set up by Federico, then Federico in the 83rd — erased an early Union lead and left them with a 2-1 defeat to Inter Miami, their first regular season setback at Subaru Park since Oct. 6, 2019.
Gonzalo Higuain headed home off a Federico free kick on the first goal. Then the sub Federico got his 36-year-old legs churning to tip the numbers in the box on a counterattack. With no one to pick up the late runner, he got his head to a perfect cross by defender Nicolas Figal.
It squandered what manager Jim Curtin called an overall good performance, especially in the way the Union pressed Inter Miami to make them uncomfortable. All the pressure and possession resulted only in Jamiro Monteiro’s opener in the 54th minute.
“At 1-0, I thought the group pushed and was comfortable and I thought was counter-pressing well and was defending well as a team,” Curtin said. “It’s the small plays and the little margins that make a difference. It’s been a while since one has gotten away from us like this.”
Miami’s opener came when Leon Flach committed a foul in a rare misstep 24 yards from goal. Federico Higuain’s ball into the box was excellent, and Gonzalo met it with a powerful header, shrugging off his defender to get the sliver of space a world-class striker like him needs to pounce.
Curtin called the restart “the killer” to his team’s momentum, with the Union dominating play up to that point. It caused a shift in the ebb and flow of the game that led to mistakes like the one creating the second goal. The Union turned the ball over as part of a throw-in in the attacking half that quickly turned into an Inter Miami chance. Figal bombed down the right flank and Higuain motored into the box to shift the man-power balance and plant a header that proved to be the game-winner.
“Credit to Figal, he cuts two guys and in that situation, defenders are likely to kind of be desperate and trying to put out a fire,” Curtin said. “They had three guys running hard in the box. Credit to them, they made a play in the box.”
“I think we had a very good start into the game,” Flach said. “We pressed high, won the important duels and also really good chances, but that’s soccer. I think you have to score one of them. In the end, we lose 2-1 and nobody really knows why. Two high balls into our box and two goals, I think a really disappointing result for us.”
Those goals are the first surrendered by the Union this season in their fourth game in all competitions. It also wiped out the opening goal from Monteiro, who Curtin said was excellent again. Monteiro got his foot to a loose ball in the box that was rolling free near the penalty spot off Kacper Przybylko’s touch off. Monteiro’s shot left goalie John McCarthy no chance.
The first half had plenty of hustle and grit but not much else, the teams spending so much energy thwarting each other with their presses that they could do little once they had the ball.
As it was, the best chance was a gift from the Union.
Jakob Glesnes didn’t see a pressing Robbie Robinson and sent a pass right to his feet in the 19th minute. Robinson then evaded Glesnes’ swiping attempt at a tackle and shaped a shot that rattled the crossbar.
The Union’s best chance in the first 45 typified the game, a shot by Sergio Santos, making his first start of the season, that deflected off Figal’s face and into the hands of Philly native John McCarthy.
Przybylko got a look in the 50th minute, played in behind and firing a shot from a tight angle that McCarthy got a piece of, though the former Union goalie argued it had passed through the goal mouth. Przybylko headed a picturesque Kai Wagner cross wayward of the frame in the 65th. Flach missed a chance in the 77th minute, the midfielder running onto an Olivier Mbaizo cross and volleying it wide.
The best save of the night was supplied by Andre Blake, who dove to his left to paddle away a Gonzalo Higuain header back across the grain, a world-class denial on a superbly placed shot. It was the only save Blake made; McCarthy was credited with two.
It’s been a while since the Union, who unveiled the permanent banner for the 2020 Supporters’ Shield, have dropped points like this at home, against an opponent it was largely outplayed. But Curtin didn’t sound perturbed about the loss in game two of 34, emphasizing instead that more performances like Saturday’s will yield more results in their favor than not.
“We have to improve,” Curtin said. “It’s early in the year. We recognize that we dropped points and we apologize to our fans. But if we look like ourselves, if we look like that, more times than not, we’ll come out on the right end and the finishing part of things will come.”