Philadelphia Union
Philadelphia Union storm back from 3-0 down to beat Sporting Kansas City
The kind of form the Philadelphia Union are in, even a 3-0 deficit at halftime is no reason to panic.
Four goals in a 10-minute span after the hour mark erased a Sporting Kansas City lead and sent the Union into the international break with yet another win and stretched their unbeaten streak to 11 games.
A match that was truly a tale of two halves started with the hosts scoring three times in the first 16 minutes to the surprise of anyone who has followed MLS since the World Cup break. Recent club record signing André Luiz was cooking early for SKC, finding the back of the net twice in the first 10 minutes and Wyatt Meyer headed in a corner kick in the 16th minute to make it 3-0.
Playing with the three goal lead, the Union struggled to get anything going and looked a step behind on 50/50 balls as SKC cruised into the halftime break. Tempers flared over some chippy play but as the second half began it started to look like the teams had traded spaces in the locker room.
Interim head coach Ryan Richter, who has still not lost a match since taking over, went to his bench at the break, slotting Quinn Sullivan in for Indiana Vassilev and the move started to pay off early with Sullivan’s addition providing both a spark off the bench and the opportunity for Cavan Sullivan to find more of the ball. It took until the 64th minute for the breakthrough to finally come but once it dropped, it turned the game on its head.
Bruno Damiani got the final touch on a shot from outside the box from Frankie Westfield for his fifth goal in three games. It proved to be the trick as two minutes later Cavan Sullivan was able to hit home a pass from Danley Jean-Jacques and two minutes later Milan Iloski strolled through the defense and roofed a shot from a tight angle after collecting a rabona pass from Quinn.
From 3-0 down to 3-3 in 4 minutes to silence the crowd of 14,534 at Sporting Park.
Though Neil Pierre wouldn’t get credit for the game-winner, his presence in the box heading down a Kai Wagner cross created all kind of problems for Zorhan Bassong, who put the ball in on his own net shortly after coming on to make it 4-3 to the visitors.
While there was still time for SKC to try to salvage a point out of the match, the magic of first half Luiz was nowhere to be found – replaced instead by passive play and mental mistakes – and the resilience of the Union got the final say.
With the win, the Union have equaled their longest unbeaten streak in team history with 11 but will have the bigger challenge of keeping that streak going at home Saturday against Orlando City with five big absences to international duty – the homegrown trio of Cavan, Neil and Frankie along with Andre Blake and Danley.
