Philadelphia Union's 2023 Season Ends on Controversial Call In Loss to FC Cincinnati

The Union conceded the only goal of the Eastern Conference semifinal match in second-half stoppage time.

The Philadelphia Union suffered another heartbreaking defeat in an elimination game on Saturday night.

The 1-0 loss to FC Cincinnati carried a different feeling than the previous exits because of its bizarre ending.

FC Cincinnati’s Yerson Mosquera finished from a wide-open space in the center of the penalty area to win the game in the 94th minute.

Ian Murphy appeared to be offside when he delivered the ball over to Mosquera off a free kick.

“It hurts, but at the same time, the group fought hard and put a ton into this season. It’s never easy when decisions like that affect the finality of a lot of hard work,” Union manager Jim Curtin said.

Murphy appeared to be offside and behind Union forward Julian Carranza on the replay.

The only angle we received from the MLS Season Pass broadcast was shown in the minutes after the goal.

The official word from the referees on the decision was “because he was judged to be even with the second-to-last defender,” per pool reporter Pat Brennan of the Cincinnati Enquirer.

“We have an iPad on the bench. Every player and coach that saw it said don’t worry it’s offsides it’s coming back,” Curtin said. “It’s also why we didn’t have a change up immediately because it was so clear to everybody that was telling me.”

You have already debated the call multiple times in a few different group chats by the time you are reading this.

The initial, and what turned out to be only, look from the broadcast looked to show Murphy in an offside position.

Maybe Carranza’s right foot or arm kept Murphy onside, but the point here is that we should not have to Zapruder film one replay angle to get the call right.

This was a conference semifinal match in the postseason and the only Major League Soccer game going on at the time.

MLS or Apple should have provided more conclusive angles from inside TQL Stadium so that we are not sitting here having the exact debate we are having.

The more I look at it, the more I think Carranza may have kept him onside, but that’s just guesswork.

Say what you want about the English Premier League VAR system, which has its flaws, you at least get to see decisions down to the millimeter and have proof of the decision.

A better angle or two to confirm the call would have put all of this to rest.

From a soccer perspective, the Union admittedly should not have been in the position to concede a wide-open shot in the 94th minute in the first place.

The sequence started with Luciano Acosta playing the ball quick from right to left to Alvaro Barreal, who then flung his cross in diagonally toward Murphy.

As Barreal prepared to send the ball in, Carranza and Olivier Mbaizo each did not have a mark and let Mosquera occupy the space in the center.

“It hurts when you lose a game like that. We still did lose assignments on that last free kick, whether it is offside or not, so there’s always things you can improve on or do better,” Curtin said.

Carranza rightfully moved out to cover Murphy, but Mbaizo and Nathan Harriel both stood still and that allowed Mosquera to find himself in space.

So yeah while the offside call will dominate the post-match conversation there was also a defensive breakdown that allowed the shot to go in, and ultimately, end the Union’s season.

Up until that point, the Union played a decent game.

They did not allow many major chances in front of Andre Blake, who had two massive interactions, one in each half, to keep the home side off the scoreboard.

Damion Lowe and Jack Elliott did a good job of controlling their battle with Aaron Boupendza and Brandon Vazquez. Jose Martinez limited Acosta’s impact and Alejandro Bedoya played well in his matchup with Barreal.

The defensive performance was not the reason why the Union were stuck at 0-0 with two minutes left in stoppage time.

The missed chances, most notably from Mikael Uhre in the first half, will come back to haunt the Union.

You can play the what-if game for hours if you see Uhre’s shot go in in your alternate universe. That would have changed the entire complexion of the game because the Union started to gain some momentum late in the first half.

“We had chances,” Curtin said. “In the first half, if you look at the one Olivier drives to the end line, Mikael has a really good chance that he could put away. We had some scrambles in the second half and Nathan had a decent shot. We had a couple restarts we could have got our head, or even put a shot on goal.”

“I think we created enough on the road in the playoffs to get a result,” Curtin said. “I thought it was going to be a situation where 0-0 got you to extra time and we go from there. I thought we had a little bit of momentum toward the end of the game, but obviously, the restart changes things and it hurts.”

There’s plenty of time over the next week or two to discuss the season-long flaws of the front three, but they had a chance to erase those open-play struggles on Saturday with one big chance conversion and it never came to fruition.

Instead, the Union will watch another team hoist MLS Cup again in 2023, and this time they will do it two games removed from the championship match.

Photo Courtesy of Philadelphia Union.