Philadelphia Union rallies to beat Revs 2-1 for third straight win

The Philadelphia Union capitalized on a couple New England mistakes to score twice in a four-minute span and win their third straight match.

Starting out in a 4-2-3-1 for the first time since last season, head coach Jim Curtin rotated again inserting Julian Carranza, Jack McGlynn and Paxten Aaronson for Mikael Uhre, Alejandro Bedoya and Cory Burke. The change led to some bright moments in the first half but they were unable to find the final ball and saw themselves down 1-0 when Gustavo Bou hammered home a cross from Brandon Bye in the 61st minute.

Bou had a chance to double the lead when he was played in on a chipped ball by Andre Blake but his attempt went right to the chest of Blake. The miss from Bou would be the start of a Revs meltdown. Instead of cruising to a 2-0 win, the Revs conceded the equalizer to Mikael Uhre in the 75th minute when he headed a Kai Wagner corner into an empty net.

Revs’ keeper Djordje Petrović had played well up to that point — he made four saves on the night — but came off his line in the corner and collided with a teammate en route to the ball, leaving the net wide open.

Four minutes later, Alejandro Bedoya headed down a floated ball from McGlynn into the path of Gazdag who was taken down by Henry Kessler. Kessler appeared to be in position to play the ball but threw Gazdag down instead for an easy penalty call. Gazdag stepped up to score his 9th goal of the season.

Playing with a 2-1 lead, the Union turned to its defense to close the game out and it was Jakob Glesnes twice stepping up in stoppage time with a headed clearance off the line from a Bou shot and another clearance on a chance in the box.

The Union stayed unbeaten at home with the win and remain in first place in the Eastern Conference and two points off Supporters’ Shield leaders Austin FC. After picking up nine points from three games in nine days, the Union return to Florida to play Orlando City on Saturday.