Union stay unbeaten on the road with scoreless draw in Charlotte

The Philadelphia Union remain the only unbeaten team on the road this season after playing Charlotte FC to a scoreless draw on Saturday night in their second straight road game playing on plastic in an NFL stadium.

In a game that saw the hosts with way more of the ball – 61.7 percent possession – the Union avoided the trap of falling behind early thanks to another solid outing from reserve keeper Oliver Semmle and kept the Charlotte attack mostly in check as they were for the most part the team that looked more likely to put the ball in the back of the net.

Semmle made four saves on the night to record his second straight clean sheet, including a save on a dangerous play that ended the game when Nathan Harriel turned the ball over in the box and the would be winner was fired safely into his waiting arms.

Semmle’s counterpart Kristijan Kahlina came up with the save of the night on the biggest chance for the Union in the 18th minute when Julian Carranza headed a long ball from Jack McGlynn into the path of Daniel Gazdag in front of the goal. Kahlina did well to block the challenge and preserve what ended up being the team’s fifth straight clean sheet.

Overall, Charlotte outshot the Union 15-11 and had a small advantage in xG with 1.2 to the Union’s 1 but neither team should feel hard done by the result, which was both a fair result given the play on the field and a solid road point for the Union ahead of a midweek match against Toronto they need to win to snap their unprecedented draught at Subaru Park.