On March 20th, the Union went up against the New England Revolution in their home opener in newly named Talen Energy Stadium (formerly PPL Park). After winning away against the Columbus Crew, a huge momentum shift came into the Unions favor. Before the game, it was worth noting that the team only has a winning record against three active MLS teams. The first being Toronto FC 5W-5D-4L, second being Orlando City 1W-1D-0L and New England Revolution 8W-4D-5L. With the Revs notoriously never doing well in Philadelphia coped with the Unions momentum from beating the eastern conference champions, it looked to be the Unions game to lose. And that’s what it turned out to be. Here’s what the line up looked like and the changes Jim Curtin made from the Columbus game.
Union-Revolution Game Review and Statistical Look In
GK: Andre Blake
RB: Keegan Rosenberry
CB: Richie Marquez
CB: Ken Tribbett
LB: Fabinho
CDM: Warren Creavalle
CDM: Brian Carroll
LM: Chris Pontius
CAM: Roland Alberg- replaced Leo Fernandes in the starting XII
RM: Illsinho- Moved from CAM to RM with Alberg starting
ST: C.J. Sapong
The Union ended up blowing out the Revolution 3-0 in front of the home crowd. C.J. Sapong netted a brace with Sebastien Le Toux scoring the third to keep his “scoring in the home opener” tradition alive. The game could’ve been 5-0 but Revolution goalkeeper Bobby Shuttlesworth saved penalty’s from both Ilsinho and Sebastien Le Toux. That performance awarded him MLS best XII honors for Matchweek 3. Along with Shuttlesworth, Sapong also was selected to the team for his brace and rookie standout Keegan Rosenberry also made the selection based off his defensive and flashy play with Ilsinho on the right side. Warren Creavalle also stood out among the rest and has proved to be a solid rock in the middle of the field. He and Fabinho assisted Sapong on the second goal of the game. Fabinho assisted twice in the game and his performance somewhat made up for his lackluster games against Columbus and Dallas.
Since the team is three games in, it’s time to look a few statistics so far this season. First let’s take a look at possession. The team has only one game out of three so far that they had majority of possession. That game was against Dallas and they maintained possession 51.4%. Against Columbus, they had 41.2% and against the Revolution they had 43%. In the games they had less possession, they’ve won both. This could be attributed to Jim Curtins new philosophy on counter attacking. Against Dallas, the Union sat back and tried to maintain possession which in turn lessened chances created. The team had 0 missed chances in that game and you could say that having 0 is a good thing, but having 0 missed chances with 0 goals scored is not a statistical line to be had. Against the Revolution, they had 7 missed chances along with 3 goals. This counter attacking philosophy is working in part of the speedy fullbacks in Fabinho and Rosenberry and the midfield workings of Alberg and Ilsinho.
Next let’s look at the statistics of Andre Blake. Blake so far has been arguably the best goalkeeper in the MLS so far. With the team having a week off due to international games, the Union were lucky. This is because Blake was called up to the Jamaican National Team for World Cup Qualifiers. Blake has had to make at least two difficult saves each game to keep the team in it. In total, Blake has 16 saves over three games, which is enough to be second in the league behind Houstons Joe Willis, who has played in four games to Blake’s three. Right now, he is on pace to have 192 saves this season if he were to play in every game.
Finally let’s review passing. The team has about 73% pass completion percentage. In the final third, they have around 62% completed. Which in a counter attacking style of play, is “good enough” to get by. When Tranquillo Barnetta comes back and Vincent Nogueira returns to the starting XII, expect the passing number to increase.
Main Photo:
