Philadelphia Union Fall Short Against LAFC in CCL Semifinals

The Union were left frustrated throughout the 90 minutes of their second leg defeat in Los Angeles.

The Philadelphia Union’s loss to LAFC on Wednesday night had a sense of hopelessness attached to it.

The Union once again came up short in a big game.

Name the competition in the Union’s club history and you’ll find the same feeling attached to it.

The most frustrating part about Wednesday’s result is we knew what the Union’s issues were going into the contest and they weren’t addressed in the proper manner.

Union head coach Jim Curtin once again was not aggressive with his man management and the glaring hole on the forward depth chart came back to bit them.

There are so many thoughts from the 3-0 loss to unravel, so I’ll just post them all below in order in which they come to mind.

Jim Curtin Wasn’t Aggressive Enough Down 1-0

I’ll start with the CCL obituary here because most of the frustration lies with this aspect of the game.

Curtin, as we know, is loyal to a fault with his starting core and he is reluctant to go away from a defensive structure. The inability to sacrifice some defensive tenants to chase a result, even when down a man, hurt the Union in the final 30 minutes.

I have no problem with Curtin bringing on Nathan Harriel for Mikael Uhre right after Olivier Mbaizo’s sending off, but there needed to be a complementary move to go with it.

The Union remained stale in the final third with Harriel on, which was no fault of the right back’s, but there needed to be a pursuit of an equalizer at that point.

The Philadelphia back line, who I’ll get to in more detail in a bit, did a good enough job against Carlos Vela and Denis Bouanga to allow Curtin to add in Quinn Sullivan, Andres Perea, Joaquin Torres or really anybody to the mix to unsettle the back line.

Instead, Curtin opted to bring in Sullivan in the 77th for Jack McGlynn. That felt like a substitution that kept the Union in neutral.

Again this goes back to Curtin not wanting the defensive integrity to go away, which it eventually did anyway. Flach should have been taken off so that McGlynn could remain in the game to spray balls into the box.

The only way the Union were scoring was off a long ball that caused chaos in the box and that barely achieved anything.

The Torres-for-Carranza change in the 88th minute just felt hollow and subbing just to sub while raising the white flag.

Curtin must use Wednesday as a teachable moment in man management. He can apply that throughout MLS play, the U.S. Open Cup and Leagues Cup.

There are still plenty of competitions to implement fixes, and even if that happens, it will be met with criticism of how come Curtin did not do that sooner.

Olivier Mbaizo’s Silly Bookings

Mbaizo had the biggest swing in individual player performances from the first to second leg.

The right-back turned in one of, if not the, best performances of his Union career in the first leg.

But then he reverted back to his old mistake-prone self in southern California on Tuesday night.

He picked up a needless yellow card for shoving a player to the ground late in the first half, which put him in danger of committing a second yellow-card worthy foul in the second half.

Mbaizo was a tick late on the challenge that led to his second yellow, and referee Drew Fischer had a decision to make to send him off.

The Cameroonian should not have put himself in the vulnerable spot in the first place. The effort going into the second yellow-card foul is understandable because he is going for the ball, but he gave himself no margin of error to work with because of the first-half shove.

I have less of a problem with Curtin leaving on Mbaizo to start the second half because he had some decent moments outside of the yellow. Hindsight is 20/20 on that decision, but if Curtin was to make a halftime sub, I’d prefer it be in attack.

LAFC’s Midfield Strategy Worked And The Union Didn’t Respond Properly

LAFC smothered Gazdag in the final third.

LAFC manager Steve Cherundolo made that adjustment from the first leg, when the Union dominated the possession and scoring chances.

The Black-and-Gold were more than happy to force Flach to generate offense in the same vein of Jose Martinez.

The majority of the Union’s passes occurred at the center circle, or behind the midway point.

The first thing that comes to mind with Martinez’s absence is his defensive value, but on Tuesday, the Union missed the Venezuelan’s ability to start attacks and win balls further up the field.

Flach had a solid game in the defensive roles of the No. 6, but he lacked the ability to push the Union forward, and that allowed LAFC to set up its structure and take Gazdag out of the contest.

Defense Held Up Well

I’ll give credit where it’s due.

Jack Elliott and Jakob Glesnes played a strong two legs against Vela and Co.

Elliott made one mistake on the first LAFC goal in which Timothy Tillman snuck around to the back post and fired past Andre Blake.

Tillman got free on the set play because McGlynn didn’t initially track his run. Elliott was stuck looking at Blake, and by the time he saw Tillman, the LAFC midfielder was already celebrating his goal.

The center-back duo responded well to the mistake and did not allow many significant chances to go in LAFC’s favor.

There’s a different world where we heap praise on Elliott and Glesnes for getting the Union to the point of having a chance to equalize.

That didn’t happen because everything fell apart in the final 10 minutes and the Union lacked a punch in the final third.

Set Pieces Leave A Lot to Be Desired

The set-piece play over both legs against LAFC was not good enough.

The Union needed to take advantage of those moments, especially in the second leg, to put the reigning MLS Cup winner under additional pressure.

Kai Wagner turned in some decent deliveries into the box, but those chances were wasted when they came about.

I think there has to be some more variety in set-piece taking. I’m not saying Wagner should be stripped of those duties, but adding McGlynn’s left foot to the set-piece structure allows more evolution in set plays, and maybe more significant chances because defenses are guarding against multiple dimensions.

It’s a tweak that can be added throughout the season, but one that would have been welcome on Tuesday night.

Union Miss Cory Burke

The lack of a bruising, menacing center forward off the bench was apparent in both legs against LAFC.

We knew losing Cory Burke would hurt the Union at some point in the season, and it did against LAFC.

There’s no guarantee Burke, or a Burke-like striker, would have scored and made the difference, but at least that player would have shaken up the game a bit.

Sullivan has done well in MLS play with the minutes he’s received, but he isn’t a towering figure in the air that Burke was.

That has to be the biggest need in the summer transfer window for Ernst Tanner and his backroom staff. An in-league trade might benefit the Union most because it is hard to draw a third striker away from Europe without the guarantee of consistent minutes.

No Rest For the Wicked

The Union can’t feel bad for themselves for too long.

They head up to Red Bull Arena on Saturday and then embark on a two-game swing to Minnesota and Colorado for the U.S. Open Cup round of 32 and another MLS regular-season game.

The travel sucks, but that’s the nature of the beast sometimes. A result in Harrison is a necessity to create some momentum before the team dives head first into another knockout competition.

Photo Courtesy of Philadelphia Union.