Anatomy of a Goal: Breaking down the goal that finished off the Union last week

Entering the 90’, the Philadelphia Union were just down by a goal in Frisco. Jim Curtin made a change in the lineup, bringing Jack Eliott on for Matt Real. You may be asking yourself why I bring this up. It’s a simple one, the formation changed to what appears to be a 3-5-2.

After the sub, the U are on their side of the field and throw the ball back into play. From there the ball gets passed back to goalkeeper, Andre Blake to reset the play. Black sends the ball upfield, where Dallas gets on the end of it. 

Dallas’ Paxton Pomykal is on the end of a short pass and starts to go full steam ahead towards the Union’s goal.

As you watch the replay of the goal, you can see just how open Pomykal was for Dallas. You can see Alejandro Bedoya and Mark McKenzie are both way off of Pomykal. Which Philadelphia Union color analyst perfectly calls out how the fact the Union look tired.

As he gets closer to the 18 yard box, the Union’s defense continues to back pedal. Pomykal enters the penalty area drops the pass off to a teammate, and continues to run to the other edge of the box. 

As he runs behind his teammate, Pomykal gets feed the ball again. Jakob Glesnes misreads the play thinking it was a pass to Dallas’ Zdenek Ondrasek.

However, Pomykal keeps the ball and dribbles around Ondrasek, where he also beats Ray Gaddis and finds an opening for a cross-body shot. Putting the ball to the left side of an outstretching Blake. Where the ball just touches the goalpost and goes into the upper corner of the net. Handing the boys in blue their first loss of the season. Dallas wins the game 2-0.