CHESTER, Pa. – The Philadelphia Union were moments away from celebrating their second victory in four days, an offensive revival in front of their home crowd and a result that could have propelled them back into the Eastern Conference playoff hunt.
Instead, the players and coaches were as angry as they’ve been all year after blowing two leads Sunday at PPL Park, including one in stoppage time, to settle for a 3-3 draw against the Chicago Fire that head coach Jim Curtin said “really does nothing for us.”
“We invent different ways to blow leads,” Curtin said. “It’s unacceptable. You score three goals at home, you should win no matter what. I’m upset because neither team really benefits from a tie tonight.”
The Union and Fire, who occupy the ninth and 10th spots in the Eastern Conference, respectively, were certainly desperate for three points Sunday. But after a grueling US Open Cup semifinal match between them on Wednesday – in which the Union prevailed – both teams also chose to keep some key players out of the starting lineup.
One of those was Sebastien Le Toux, who entered the game in the 73rd minute and looked to have scored his second game-winning goal vs. Chicago this week when his dramatic 90th-minute tally put the Union up 3-2.
But the Fire struck right back on a play that Curtin would later call “just a complete debacle.”
First, the Union thought Jason Johnson should have been whistled for a handball to keep the play alive. Then, they argued that the ball crossed the end line before Harry Shipp played it across goal, where Mike Magee managed to also barely keep it in bounds and set up Kennedy Igboananike for the last-gasp equalizer.
“We didn’t do a good enough job to close out the game,” midfielder Brian Carroll said. “It’s annoying, it’s frustrating. We shouldn’t have even let them score the second goal. We need to clean it up as an entire group, have a defense-first mentality once we have the lead, and we should give up nothing else.”
Carroll was adamant that the Union should have been able to hold on to their 2-1 second-half lead and not allow Patrick Nyarko to tie the game in the 54th minute and set off the final-minute dramatics on both ends, which included Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson making a flurry of huge saves.
Of course, the Union also felt they should have possibly held a two-goal lead at that point after Joevin Jones was called for a 23rd-minute handball just outside the box when replays showed it probably happened inside the box, where it would have naturally warranted a penalty kick.
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“Everyone on TV said it was a handball in the box,” Curtin said. “It’s the way it’s gone. Is there favoritism because we don’t have a superstar? I don’t know. The ref missed two calls. They make mistakes and it’s part of the game, but at the same time, it’s two critical ones. First one, in the box, penalty kick, you’d like to think we score there. And the last ball, a diagonal, it’s clearly right in front of the linesman where he traps the ball with his hand.
“That’s the way it’s gone for us this year. We don’t get breaks, we don’t get calls.”
While he was certainly upset with the refereeing, Curtin didn’t really use that as an excuse. And when it came to answering why his team continues to blow leads this year, the head coach admitted he was probably “grasping at straws” when he said he didn’t understand why some of his players ran “an extra 100 yards” to celebrate Le Toux’s goal instead of trying to conserve energy for stoppage time.
Either way, the frustrated coach made sure to call Sunday’s result “a devastating one” – a label that his players won’t argue.
“We tied it, but for us it’s a loss,” said Fernando Aristeguieta, who scored one of the team’s three goals. “It feels very bad.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
