Match Thoughts: Inter Miami 2, Philadelphia Union 1

A few mistakes hurt the Union in an overall okay road performance.

I like to call a game like Saturday’s as a choose-your-own-adventure narrative type game.

On one hand, the Philadelphia Union were competitive and not played off the field by Inter Miami in their 2-1 loss.

The other argument is that the Union weren’t good enough, and if they cleaned up a few moments on each side of the ball, they could’ve won the game.

The latter point comes with the territory of being wildly successful over the last few years.

The standard is still incredibly high, despite the struggles of last year and a new coach in charge, so I get it, more should’ve come from Saturday.

However, it’s not even April yet and the Union have the look of a contender in the Eastern Conference and are just a few factors away from competing with the likes of Miami later on in the season.

“We give away two big moments and concede two goals. On another day, I think we walk away with at least a point, or even three points,” Union head coach Bradley Carnell said.

“It’s a little bit frustrating because I think the guys knew there was a little bit more here tonight.”

Match Thoughts

Miami’s Few Killer Moments

You simply can’t let off against a team of Miami’s caliber at any point of the 90 minutes.

The Herons pounced twice to put the Union at a disadvantage that they couldn’t come back from.

The first half, as a whole, wasn’t terrible. I’m not going to heap praise on anyone either, but it was enough to get the Union to halftime.

With the exception of the concession to Robert Taylor in the 23rd minute.

All it took was a slight step forward by Jakob Glesnes to allow Miami to break with numbers toward Andre Blake’s goal.

After Glesnes’ misstep, Miami was on the front foot and the Union defense was left chasing.

Robert Taylor, the goal scorer, is off picture to the far left from this viewpoint.

The entire defense was strewn apart, which led to Taylor in space left wide open by Frankie Westfield pinching in.

The easy thing to do is just blame Glesnes for the misstep and move on with your day.

However, I think this is a product of the system Carnell’s employed.

There’s a chance the other center backs also make the misstep and let Miami waltz in for a goal.

It’s a product of the system.

Should an older Glesnes be aggressive in that spot? Probably not, but taking risks on pressing cues is what the system requires.

There’s an entirely other conversation that Olwethu Makhanya should’ve started over Glesnes and next to Ian Glavinovich, but I don’t know how differently that play goes because, again, the system demands some aggression.

“The way they overload the back line, there’s moments to step or stand or drop,” Carnell said. “We were just caught in the moment. The guys have been so brave the last few weeks with stepping forward and forward defending and being on the front foot.”

“There’s a moment of pause and delay and that’s all they need. A half-yard, half-inch, half-moment to make a difference. Unfortunately, that was the turning point that gave them the momentum,” Carnell said.

The second goal, is well, Lionel Messi.

Messi produced a strong finish from right to left on a tight angle that was going to be hard for Blake to stop regardless of how the defense approached the situation.

Fafa Picault did a nice job of opening up the play with his supporting run down the left wing. That allowed Luis Suarez to play a pass to Picault and back before the final ball was delivered to Messi.

If you watch it back, the Union didn’t make any egregious errors in the buildup.

The Union actually had an extra man in the box when Messi struck his shot, but Messi is Messi.

The first concession is where more complaints should come from because of the decision to step.

Halftime Adjustments

Carnell brought on Indiana Vassilev for Jovan Lukic at halftime.

“We corrected a couple of things through video and we needed a little bit through the middle of the field when we had the ball,” Carnell said. “It was very tactical to bring Indy on so we could try and progress through the layers a little bit more.”

“I thought we started tightening the screw. I thought we started to get more turnover. I thought, with the change we made at halftime, there was a little more directness and proactive press.

“I thought what we did do, we did it much better in the second half.”

Lukic has played well in his early MLS career, but Carnell needed a bit more play-making through the middle with Vassilev.

It didn’t make the difference on the final result, because, well, Messi came off the bench for Miami.

Carnell identified a weakness, fixed it and the Union did look better as the second half went on.

The Lineup Decision That Has to Be Made

Mikael Uhre needs to sit for at least a few games behind Bruno Damiani.

Uhre had two opportunities to make an impact on the game in the first half, but couldn’t convert, or help convert, those chances into goals, or in the first instance, a significant scoring opportunity.

Damiani is the club-record signing and needs to be on the field.

I understand the whole weekly merit talking point that Carnell has used. It’s refreshing, but now we’re going into April, form has to take over the lineup selection a bit and not just who impressed in training in the days leading up to the game.

Uhre’s had multiple chances to prove he is at least close to Tai Baribo’s finishing level, and it just hasn’t clicked yet.

Uhre does a ton of hard work, and while that’s been enough to keep him in the XI in the past, it’s not good enough now with Damiani waiting in the wings.

Damiani has to receive the chance to prove what he can do next to Baribo over the course of a few starts.

If it doesn’t work, then you can go back to who played best in training each week, but right now, the sample size is big enough where the switch up top needs to be made.

Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.