CHESTER, Pa. – A look of relief swept across Andrew Wenger’s face. Then, so did a smile.
Only minutes earlier, the Philadelphia Union had put the finishing touches on Saturday’s 3-0 victory over the visiting Portland Timbers, with Wenger’s first goal in nine months accounting for the game-winner.
“There’s been good days,” the forward said, “and there’s been bad days.”
Wenger’s statement embodied not only his season, but his club’s, too.
The Union (6-10-4) climbed to within one point of the Eastern Conference’s final playoff berth, a notion that as recently as mid-May would have seemed unthinkable. Philadelphia won just once in the first 11 MLS matches of their season. Across all competitions, the Union are now 7-3-1 over their last 11 matches, which includes their three-match unbeaten streak in MLS.
“You see teams come out flying high, and then they crash a little bit. We want to be peaking at the right time,” Union defender Ray Gaddis said.
Against Portland on a steamy night at PPL Park, everything seemed to go right for Philadelphia.
The Union, despite 11 shots, including two that hit the crossbar, weathered a scoreless first half. Then, Wenger’s goal changed the course of the match. He took a series of touches from the right side before ripping a curling shot into the back of the net. His 69th-minute tally – Wenger’s first since Oct. 11, 2014 – set the stage for Vincent Nogueira’s brace. The French midfielder scored in the 71st and 82nd minutes to help the Union put away the Timbers (9-7-4).
Goalkeeper Brian Sylvestre, on loan from the NASL’s Carolina RailHawks, made four saves to log his fifth shutout in 10 appearances.
“Our most complete performance of the year,” Philadelphia manager Jim Curtin said of the victory. “People will go home happy for one week, but we know it’s one game. We have to do this over and over and over … to grab points. It’s getting tighter and tighter in the East.”
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“It’s probably our best game of the season,” Nogueira added, “and for sure you have to keep going like that if you want to play the playoffs.”
The only sour note from the win was Maurice Edu’s 35th-minute booking. On yellow-card accumulation, Philadelphia’s captain will have to miss next Saturday’s match at Toronto FC.
Considering the Union’s upward-trending season, Curtin can live with that.
“I’ve been around this league long enough to know that the second you feel good or comfortable is when you get kicked in the teeth,” Curtin said. “Just like in preseason – never too high, never too low. It was difficult early on because we had a lot of lows. We went through things together, things you don’t want to go through early on, but we went through them. Right now, you can see a confident team. … You’re starting to see a group that believes in each other.”
