Vancouver By A Touchdown: Philadelphia Union suffer worst loss in club history

In a season where so much has gone right for the Philadelphia Union, nearly everything that could go wrong went wrong Saturday night in British Columbia, Canada as the Vancouver Whitecaps scored a touchdown and converted the extra point to beat the Supporters’ Shield leaders 7-0.

Living Germany legend Thomas Müller scored a hat trick on his 36th birthday and added an assist to lead the Whitecaps, which also got a pair of goals from Emmanuel Sabbi, a first career goal from 17-year-old Rayan Elloumi and an opening goal from Mathías Laborda on of Sebastian Berhalter’s three assists on the night.

With a quick turn around to Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup semifinal in Nashville, Union head coach Bradley Carnell patched together a back line that included Alejandro Bedoya at right back, Nathan Harriel at center back for the suspended Olwethu Makhanya and Frankie Westfield at left back. Vancouver was all too happy to use their width, attacking with Canadian international Ali Ahmed and left back Laborda on the one side and Sabbi and right back Édier Ocampo on the other.

From the opening whistle, the hosts were on the front foot and created a couple of good chances to take an early lead before Sebastian Berhalter connected with Laborda in the box off a corner kick in the 18th minute. The corner was awarded after the first of more than one questionable call on the night by referee Allen Chapman, who allowed a shove on Harriel in the box and ruled it had gone out of bounds off him. Laborda beat Harriel to the header and put it in near post to give the hosts the 1-0 lead.

Milan Iloski, who had four goals for San Diego at BC Place in June, had a good opportunity to tie the game after being taken down just outside the D but with Kai Wagner on the bench Iloski took the free kick and fired it over the bar. Minutes later, Vancouver doubled their lead when Ahmed blew past Bedoya and Jakob Glesnes on the left flank and then crossed the ball to Sabbi streaking through the box and the 27-year-old buried his chance.

Chapman inserted himself into the game when he whistled for a handball against Jesus Bueno and Müller was able to beat Andrew Rick on the penalty shot in the 30th minute to make it 3-0.

The Union thought they had pulled a goal back when Glesnes found Bedoya in the box and the veteran squared it to Mikael Uhre, who finished cleanly to briefly make it 3-1. After video review, however, Chapman waved the goal off.

Chapman would be involved again just before halftime when he pointed to the spot after contact between Bedoya and Ahmed in the box. Müller beat Rick again to his right in the sixth minute of stoppage time to make it 4-0 Whitecaps. Carnell responded with a triple substitution bringing on Wagner, Danley Jean Jacques and Tai Baribo.

The reinforcements off the bench helped to slow Vancouver for a time. But the scoring began again at the hour mark when Müller set up Sabbi and Sabbi curled in a lovely shot from just inside the 18 to make it 5-0.

Carnell went to his bench in the 62nd minute to bring in Bruno Damiani and also gave Neil Pierre his MLS debut off the bench in the 70th minute but it was Vancouver’s teenager Rayan Elloumi who had his name in lights as he put in the sixth of the night with his first MLS goal in the 80th minute off a cross from Berhalter.

Still, Vancouver wasn’t done and Müller completed the hat trick with a header at close range to make it 7-0 and top the Union’s 6-0 loss to Pachuca in Champions League play as the worst defeat in team history.

Despite all of the bad news inside the 90 minutes, the Union maintained their top spot in the overall league standings thanks to a 3-1 win for Minnesota United at San Diego FC. San Diego maintained the advantage in the second tiebreaker with +18 to goal differential to the Union’s +16.

The Union will look to regroup as they head to Nashville SC for Tuesday night’s semifinal.