Baribo hat trick leads Philadelphia Union to home opening win

CHESTER, Pa. — Tai Baribo had a hat trick and has five goals in his first two games to pace a Philadelphia Union attack that is flying high and has a newly minted designated player who added a goal of his own in his debut to cap a dominant 4-1 win over FC Cincinnati on Saturday night.

Baribo picked up right where he left off in the 4-2 season opening win in Orlando, giving the home crowd in a wind-chilled Subaru Park an early lift when he tapped home a great cross from Kai Wagner in the 6th minute. The Israeli international doubled the lead in the 30th minute, tapping in an unselfish ball from Daniel Gazdag, who was gifted a bad pass back by Brian Anunga near the top of the box. The play was initially called offside but stood after video review clearly showed the pass coming from a Cincinnati player.

Baribo found the back of the net again inside 40 minutes but this time an earlier offside on Mikael Uhre was correctly called. While Baribo and co. were cruising, the Union pressure and defensive shape stifled FC Cincinnati and denied service to Cincinnati’s target striker Kévin Denkey, who was limited to 1 shot and a .62 xG, thanks in part to a confident performance from 20-year-old Olwethu Makhanya. As they did against Orlando City, the high press created problems for Cincinnati, which wasn’t able to muster much of an answer until the final minutes of halftime.

Following the halftime talk from head coach Pat Noonan, a big response from the visitors would normally be expected but it was the much fresher Union (not dealing with Champions Cup fixture congestion) again with all of the answers. Baribo completed the hat trick on a return pass from Gazdag for another tap-in after his ball to the back post trying to set up Gazdag was deflected.

Cincinnati finally was able to find some footing and a moment of individual brilliance from Evander cut the lead to 3-1 in the 58th minute. Twenty minutes later they were ever so close to cutting the lead to 3-2 when Andre Blake made things harder for himself dropping a routine shot but the crossbar, heads up defending and a misfired header from Corey Baird kept the 3-1 lead intact and paved the way for Bruno Damiani’s debut and exclamation point on another lovely cross, this time from Quinn Sullivan in second half stoppage time.

Though there’s a ton of season to go, the Union have successfully silenced some doubters in the first two weeks and are riding the new coach bump with eight goals in two games and a scorching hot once neglected striker who is on pace to score 85. They’ll have the turf of Gillette Stadium to contend with next weekend as they pay the New England Revolution a visit. The Revs have not scored in either of their first two games, playing Nashville SC to a scoreless draw on the road and losing 1-0 to Columbus Crew at home.