For a good portion of Saturday’s tough road game against D.C. United, the Philadelphia Union were playing like the confident club that had won two straight coming into the contest.
But as they walked off the RFK Stadium field, the Union were once again left with the unlucky feeling that was so pervasive during the first two-and-a-half months of the season.
“It’s one of that games where you put in the effort,” captain Maurice Edu said following Philly’s frustrating 2-1 loss, “and come up a little bit short.”
Both Edu and head coach Jim Curtin made it known that they weren’t too pleased with a few of the refereeing decisions that went against them in the match.
The most critical call was the 84th-minute handball on Zach Pfeffer in the box that led to Chris Rolfe’s game-winning penalty kick. But Curtin was more upset that Rolfe was still in the game after kicking out at Vincent Nogueira 20 minutes earlier.
The Union coach also thought Chris Pontius could have been shown a red card for taking down Sebastien Le Toux moments later, preventing a clear scoring chance. He was given a yellow instead.
“It was a little unfortunate on the handball there,” Curtin said. “You’ve seen that let go, especially at that moment in the game. It’s not intentional but you understand it could be called. I was most disappointed, if you’re going to talk about [referee] decisions, that I thought we could have had a red card in our favor with Seba when he gets taken down on the breakaway.
"And the one on Chris Rolfe -- I’ve got a million texts already saying they’re gonna look at it and that it will probably be a suspension for him. So it’s difficult, he’s the one who winds up scoring the game-winning goal, but this is soccer.”
Curtin did admit that some of the team’s unluckiness was by its own doing, as Andrew Wenger failed to give the Union a 2-0 first-half lead when his shot ricocheted off the crossbar.
And D.C. United then capitalized when Pontius scored the game-tying goal in stoppage time of the first half, ending the Union’s shutout streak at 234 minutes.
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“Obviously this is a top team in the East,” Curtin said of D.C. “I thought in the first half, we came out very strong and we had a chance to get up 2-0 with Andrew’s look at goal. And if you let a team like D.C. hang around, they’ll take advantage.
"Giving up a goal before the half was difficult. But, at the same time, my message at halftime was that we played very well, we played a good half and I was happy with the group.”
Curtin had a similar message after the game, saying that his team had “a lot be proud of” despite the disappointing result. And, as they return home for two games this week, he believes Philly’s good form will continue as they continue to try to claw their way back into the playoff race after a dismal start to the year.
“Guys are confident right now,” Curtin said. “You can tell this team is much different than in previous weeks. There’s a lot of fight, we’re creating a lot of chances and there are positives to build on.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
