Philadelphia Union Execute Clear Road Game Plan to Earn Point Against Sporting Kansas City

The Union managed their tired squad well and came away with a late equalizer from their Saturday match with Sporting Kansas City.

The Philadelphia Union entered Children’s Mercy Park with a clear goal.

Union manager Jim Curtin needed to rotate parts of his squad, but he also wanted to pick up a point on the road against Sporting Kansas City.

The plan came to fruition when Alejandro Bedoya placed an equalizer into the back of the net in the 95th minute.

“Nothing better on the road than making 18,000, or however many this place holds, go quiet,” Curtin said after the 1-1 draw.

The direct path to get to that point included a controversial call in which Sporting KC should’ve been awarded a throw-in.

Daniel Gazdag played a pass off Mikael Uhre’s leg, but instead of SKC getting a throw, the Union were awarded possession and then went down the field and earned a corner kick.

“Certainly it was their throw-in,” Curtin said. “There’s no question about that. But soccer gods, whatever you believe in, I think tonight was a fair result in the end.”

“It was their throw-in, but even on that sequence, there was a handball on them too,” Curtin said. “We can talk about a lot of different things. If you re-referee the game, it becomes a real challenge. There’s things that went for us and against us, as well.”

“We could talk about the Jesus Bueno foul call that leads to Quinn’s goal that’s not a foul. We could talk about Jesus getting elbowed on a corner kick, that maybe if you take a closer look could be a red card. We could talk about Dani’s possible PK,” Curtin continued.

“There’s always talking points in every game of the season. I believe a draw tonight was a fair result. Both teams had minimal chances.”

That corner kick led to Bedoya’s 95th-minute equalizer off a composed finish from the right side of the box.

“He did a great job for us tonight. He gave us a real calming presence in the second half. He connected his passes,” Curtin said of Bedoya.

“In the biggest moment, when we’re throwing guys forward on basically the last kick of the game, for him to have the composure there,” Curtin continued. “You see so many guys try to full swing that one and hit it a ton and it winds up in the 30th row. To just guide it into the top corner speaks to the composure and talent. It’s not an easy finish because there’s a lot of traffic in front of him, but it’s a big play from him.”

Of course, the No. 1 takeaway from the Union’s draw is that, in reality, it probably should not have been a draw because of the missed throw-in call.

But there was a broader takeaway from the 1-1 contest, and that is we finally got a look into what rotation and load management actually looks like with the 2024 version of the Union.

Jeremy Rafanello, Chris Donovan and others certainly did not create a ton of chances, but their fresh legs allowed the Union to execute on some pressing cues and help with the defensive effort.

Rafanello only lasted 45 minutes, but he garnered praise from Curtin for his efforts.

“(Rafanello) did a great job. He had a role to do and he did it well,” Curtin said. “We knew we were going to suffer in the first half. You’re in a team’s home opener, a little bit short-handed, a little bit undermanned and Jeremy was a guy we needed to give us minutes and work tirelessly defensively and take away their No. 6 and also give us an outlet on the counterattack. He did his job and I told him that at halftime.”

Curtin had a few players on minutes counts, including Olivier Mbaizo, and he provided some insight into how the soccer load management works.

“Forty-five minutes is about workload wise and data wise about the equivalent of a training session,” Curtin said. “Even when these guys are playing at their max, they can handle 45 minutes. When you get into 60-plus, and close to 90, is when you get fatigued. Obviously we went 120 minutes (on Tuesday), so there were a lot of variables that went into it. We decided to be proactive and go for it.”

“I basically told Mbaizo he was coming out at halftime,” Curtin said. “I hate having planned subs, but that was one that was there.”

The Union manager also opted to be more aggressive once Jose Martinez could not continue with a leg injury. Curtin said he believes Martinez is okay and the midfield was pulled for precautionary reasons.

“Once Jose has to come out at halftime, we were a little bit more proactive and aggressive,” Curtin said. “I still thought there were chances in the game and I said let’s go for it. We made the three aggressive subs at halftime. I thought we changed the game on our terms in the second half, which is never easy, and also preserved legs.”

No one will say the soccer was anywhere remotely close to beautiful, but the Union executed a plan, came away with a point and set a blueprint for how the load management can actually work in 2024.

“We’re a very difficult team to play against. I think everybody contributed. We had a plan in place to try to keep guys fresh, but to go for points on the road and try to bring points back to Philly,” Curtin said.

“Credit to the players for executing. I think we hit all of our objectives in all five subs and keeping legs fresh. We had some good performances to build on early in the season where we’re learning a lot about ourselves,” Curtin said.

Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.