Match Recap: Deflated Union draw Chicago Fire

Philadelphia Union were on the road tonight in Chicago looking for 3 points against the Fire coming off of a 3-1 victory Wednesday against their I-95 rivals, the New York Red Bulls. The Union line-up was almost identical to the team put out Wednesday with the exception of Cristian Maidana who left the game late in the first half due to injury. While the Union have been playing a 4-2-3-1 formation as of late, interim coach Jim Curtin switched things up a bit and went with the traditional 4-4-2.

The result of the formation change and absence of Cristian Maidana led to a unambitious Union team. Offensively the team struggled to connect passes while the defense looked unorganized many times throughout the match. Along with an unorganized backline,  bad marking defensively lead to a Chicago Fire goal in the 60th minute off of a corner kick. The rest of the match was back and forth by both teams with chances that were ultimately cleared away by the defense. While the game appeared to end with Chicago earning 3 points at home, a stoppage time handball in the Fire’s box led the ref to call a penalty with less than 3 minutes to go in the game. Sebastian Le Toux, who has never missed a penalty kick for the Union stepped up and buried his 12th penalty kick for the club all-time.

While the match lacked creativity and organization for the Union side, fans got to see Brian Brown, the Union’s newest player from Jamaica make an appearance in the 81st minute. While it is tough to evaluate his play with such little time, he showed promise and it will be great to see how Jim Curtin and his staff develop Brown.

The Union return home for an international friendly against Crystal Palace July 25th with a long break from MLS action. This will be a much needed break for the Union who have played 3 games in 8 days.

 

Starting XI’s:

Philadelphia Union (4-4-2)

Macmath

Gaddis – Edu (c) – White – Williams

Nogueira – Lahoud – Okugo – Cruz

LeToux – Casey

 

Chicago Fire (4-4-2)

Johnson

Palmer – Hurtado – Soumare – Segares

Alex – Larentowickz – Watson – Shipp

Amarikwa – Magee

 

GOALS:

Fire: Jeff Larentowicz (Harrison Shipp) 60′

Union: Sebastian LeToux (PK) 90+1′

 

Disciplinary:

Union: Amobi Okugo (Yellow) 22′

Fire: Alex (Yellow) 26′

 

Substitutions:

Union: Andrew Wenger (Danny Cruz) 61′

Union: Fred (Amobi Okugo) 69′

Fire: Grant Ward (Harrison Shipp) 75′

Fire: Matthew Fondy (Quincy Amerikwa) 79′

Union: Brian Brown (Ray Gaddis) 81′