Brujo's Banger Saves Point for Philadelphia Union In Orlando

The Venezuelan midfielder's 90th-minute equalizer handed the Union a point on the road.

Well I guess that’s why they call Jose Martinez “El Brujo”

The wizardly strike from the Philadelphia Union’s Venezuelan midfielder provided a lifeline in the form of a point on Wednesday in Orlando.

The otherworldly banger of a golazo will dominate any highlight-reel show you watch and your favorite social media channels for the next 24 hours.

It’s all anyone outside of our Philadelphia Union soccer bubble will talk about, but the hard reality is it was a glamorous moment that spackled over the cracks of an otherwise underwhelming night.

There were too many defensive mistakes to count and some of the depth concerns we’ve had for quite some time were apparent in key moments.

A point is a point, and the Union should use the draw as a catalyst for three points at home on Saturday, but the overall performance could’ve been a lot better.

TO THE TAKEAWAYS!!!

Holy Brujo!

He finally did it!

He finally fucking did it!

After countless tries, some of which were further away from the goal than others, Martinez FINALLY scored his first goal for the Union.

The defensive midfielder was never going to score your average, run-of-the-mill, boring type goal.

That’s what the 20-goal scorers do for most of the season.

Brujo’s on-field personality is anything but boring, and it would have been anticlimactic if it happened any other way.

The only way that moment would have been more perfect is if it was a game-winning goal, or it happened inside Subaru Park. Parts of the stadium would have fallen on to the pitch with how loud that roar would have been.

The Union needed a goal of any sort to leave central Florida with any type of positive because most of the match was U-G-L-Y.

The Bad and The Ugly

Ok now time to talk about the ugly moments that put the Union in a bad spot.

The defending and goalkeeping on the two Orlando goals, and the one that was disallowed, were not up to the Union’s standard.

Duncan McGuire’s opener was preventable from a few different angles.

Let’s start with Jack Elliott’s anticipation. You can see in the first screenshot below that he and Jakob Glesnes have all sorts of space between them as the approach pass is played in.

Elliott broke to Martin Ojeda the second the ball was played to the Orlando City midfielder, and that opened up the channel for him to play a quick ball into McGuire, who was then isolated with Glesnes 1v1.

Usually, Glesnes cleans up a mistake from an opposing striker, like the slip from McGuire, once he received the ball.

Instead, McGuire got back up and fired the ball past Joe Bendik, which is where the other concern comes into play.

Bendik looked like he was in a decent position to save McGuire’s shot when he got back up from the slip.

When you see this screenshot, you would think the goalkeeper has a good angle to the ball and could at least put a hand on the shot, but McGuire easily rolled the ball past Bendik, who barely stretched his arm out in his diving effort.

No one is expecting Bendik to morph into the second coming of Andre Blake, who is away on international duty with Jamaica, but the expectation is to not drop the standard of play so far.

Bendik is expected to bail out Glesnes on this play, and instead, he did not make contact with the shot. Sure, it’s a good effort, but it wasn’t the cleanest finish from McGuire.

I’m not sure what it is about the goals opponents have scored against the Union with Bendik in net this year, but it seems like all of them have had rare defensive errors occur in them.

For example, the wild equalizer in Montreal in which Elliott, Glesnes and Bendik were caught in no man’s land started the run of odd errors.

Glesnes could’ve stopped McGuire in his tracks, Bendik could’ve done better, and if it was just one mistake, it would be forgivable.

HOWEVER

The second goal, scored by Ojeda, looks preventable upon review.

Forget Bendik’s positioning right away, or if the shot took a deflection, look at where Kai Wagner ended up when the shot was taken.

Wagner is positioned at the top of the box.

He crossed the play with his run and did not make an effort to intervene. He just ran behind Elliott to try and cover the runner from the right wing.

The timing is unfortunate, and maybe I’m a bit harsh on Wagner here, but it seems that in the moment, he could have at least gotten a body in front of the attempt and not made it look as easy as Ojeda made it look.

Bendik’s positioning was okay, but again, the lack of a reach and contact with the shot hurt him on a savable shot.

The disallowed goal was even more frustrating since Ercan Kara bodied Glesnes throughout his run into the left side of the penalty area. Bendik then raced out to his right to try and stop Kara’s run, and instead, it produced a wide-open net.

Kara was ruled to have fouled Martinez in the buildup to the goal, which was a fortuitous call in favor of the Union, and they will gladly take it.

Here’s the problem with the Union’s 90-minute defensive performance.

They only conceded four shots on target, and two of them went in.

If both goals are prevented, or at least one, we are talking about a decent showing on the road, but instead we’re let frustrated with the errors.

Orlando did not overwhelm the Union with attempts on target, but it took advantage of its opportunities, and when Jim Curtin is preaching that one goal and one point could be the difference in the standings, those events stand out even more.

The Lucky

Let’s call the Union’s first goal what it was.

Lucky.

Jack McGlynn’s cross was intended for Mikael Uhre, but instead, it bounced into the box and eluded Mason Stajduhar.

Uhre drew the attention of two defenders, as well as Stajduhar, and that allowed the wonky goal to happen, and it handed the Union just enough of a lifeline that they needed to equalize.

The Union’s attack did not produce much in the quality chance department before or after the equalizer, but sometimes you just luck out on plays, and that’s what we got here.

The Replacement

Joaquin Torres wasn’t great in his starting role in place of Daniel Gazdag.

The Argentinian was active at the start of the match, but then his impact in the final third dwindled.

Torres’ lone shot on target came in the first five minutes, he did not record a key pass and there was a lack of successful passes, as you can see below.

Torres’ heat map, per WhoScored, shows a gaping hole in the middle, which is where you want the No. 10 to be.

For comparison, here is Gazdag’s heat map from last Saturday’s road game against San Jose. He was far more active in all parts of the field, including the middle.

Torres may have done the required defensive work in the No. 10 role, which will get him more playing time, but the lack of offensive production is worrying.

The former CF Montreal player has not done much in his reserve role since he scored his first goal for the Union early in the campaign.

The good news is Gazdag will be back for Saturday’s home clash against Inter Miami, and the regular production should be there.

Up Next

Saturday’s match with Inter Miami should be pretty straightforward.

The Herons are a team in transition waiting for Lionel Messi and a new manager. Three points is required, and so is a strong performance without the errors from the Orlando draw.

Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.