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If We’re Going by the Universal Rule of Draws, then it’s Negadelphia After Union Settle for 2-2 Against Crew
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There’s a saying in the soccer world that road draws are good and home draws are bad.
The reasoning is simple enough.
If you hop on a plane or bus and slog out to wherever, be it Dallas or Montreal or Portland, and you bring a point back with you, then it’s a successful trip. You’ve taken a point from the road. But if you draw at home, you’ve settled for one instead of three, and “dropped” points in your own house.
So if we’re going by that logic, Saturday’s 2-2 draw between the Union and Columbus Crew is a Negadelphia result, especially because they had it in the bag and fell asleep on a stoppage time set piece:
This was a frustrating game because the Union played well enough. They conceded possession to the Crew, as expected, but mustered 16 shots and scored a couple of great goals, both with their own highlight-reel moments. On the opener, it was Quinn Sullivan’s outside-of-the-boot dime of an assist, then on the second it was Frankie Westfield smashing home his first Union goal following a bit of brilliant back-to-goal play from Tai Baribo. It looked like Gregg Popovich drawing up a really nice play on the clipboard and Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili combining with Tim Duncan for a clean look.
Then you come down on the other end and the Spurs fall asleep and someone loses Shaquille O’Neal and he gets an easy dunk. That’s what the Crew goals felt like on Saturday night. On the first one, the Union lost the back post on a wide overload, and on the second they allowed a near-post flick from a corner kick and the second guy wriggled free, also on the back post.
You work so hard to score a couple of great goals, both direct and in transition, and then you snooze a bit and do some ball watching and now you’re settling for one point instead of three. This was another one of those early-season tests against a top contender in the Eastern Conference and you feel a little less than enthused with the end result.
From a macro standpoint, for the most part, this Union team looks the way we thought they would look when Bradley Carnell took over. They gave up about two-thirds of the possession on Saturday night. Their progression numbers are bottom eight in MLS because the volume of on-ball work just isn’t there. But they have the third-most shots on target and xG and total goals are both top 10 because they are direct in attack and often carve out good chances from both high press turnovers and quick balls over the top and into the channels. The main concern is whether or not these Red Bull-type teams tire out in the later stages. For what it’s worth, the Union have only conceded three goals after the 75th minute through 12 MLS games. That’s something to keep an eye on as the season progresses and legs get a little heavier, especially with the busyness of the May schedule coming up here.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com