Through their first five years of existence, the Philadelphia Union had never won a game at Red Bull Arena.
Few would have expected that to change with captain Maurice Edu, leading scorer Fernando Aristeguieta and ironman defender Ray Gaddis among Philly’s absences for Sunday’s road tilt against the Red Bulls.
But for the second straight week, the once-floundering Union managed to pull off a big upset over a conference rival, this time getting some huge contributions from an unlikely cast of characters for a stunning 2-0 victory at their house of horrors.
“First and foremost, it’s a big accomplishment,” Union coach Jim Curtin said of finally winning at Red Bull Arena, where the Union improved to 1-6-1 in all competitions. “To come here into a tough place, against a very well-coached team, a top team in the East that high presses all over the field -- I think we did a good job of getting through that first 15 minutes and put a play or two together in the second half to get a goal.”
After indeed treading water against the Red Bulls in the first half, the Union broke a scoreless deadlock in the 57th minute on a nice combination play from crafty midfielders Cristian Maidana and Vincent Nogueira -- an important pairing that Curtin lauded after the contest.
Five minutes later, the Union made it 2-0 when Fabinho, who got the nod in place of the injured Gaddis, had a big assist for his second straight game, setting up C.J. Sapong for a tap-in goal. Last week, it was Fabinho’s gorgeous cross that set up Zach Pfeffer for the stoppage-time winner in a 1-0 victory over D.C. United.
“That was Fabinho’s best game in a Union uniform,” Curtin said. “I thought he was excellent on the night - not only getting forward but most importantly, defensively, getting a couple of clearances that were very big.”
If Fabinho was an unlikely star for Philly, so too was Sapong, who was only cleared to play a couple of days ago after missing three games following his DUI arrest. But the striker didn’t look rusty at all after coming on to replace Conor Casey early in the second half.
“It was a lot of minutes for C.J. to jump into after some time off,” Curtin said. “But he was a man out there. Conor had a quad issue all week and it tightened up on him. C.J. came in and I think he bloodied a nose, knocked a few guys around and does a good job to get on the end of that cross.
From there, the Union’s makeshift backline that included the inexperienced center back pairing of Ethan White and Richie Marquez, as well as rookie goalkeeper Brian Sylvestre, managed to keep the Red Bulls off the scoreboard.
Sylvestre, who was making just his third MLS start, even came up with a huge save on Bradley Wright-Phillips to preserve his second straight shutout and send the Union to their third win of the season.
“I talked all week to my guys about how our season can go one of two ways,” Curtin said. “We can either have one win less than [the Red Bulls] or we’re really getting separated and left in the dust. I think our guys took that to heart. They put in a great effort.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
