Takeaways from Philadelphia Union's 2-1 Win Over Colorado Rapids

The three-man back line was strong, the Union engineered a comeback and chaos took over at the end.

The Philadelphia Union have nine points from their last three Major League Soccer regular-season games.

That’s the most important big-picture item from Saturday’s chaotic 2-1 win over the Colorado Rapids.

Jim Curtin’s men are starting to find their stride in league play and Saturday’s performance gave us a look into the evolution of the team’s tactics.

The three-man back line of Damion Lowe, Jack Elliott and Jakob Glesnes was effective, and it quieted the Rapids attack for most of the contest.

The one massive error, Lowe’s first-half penalty concession, was erased before halftime thanks to the on-fire Kai Wagner.

Julian Carranza struck for the game-winner off a beautiful transition move that the Union would love to play on loop in film sessions over the next few weeks.

Time to dive into the takeaways! (I promise I’ll get to the refereeing nonsense at some point).

Three-At-The-Back Works

There was a euphoric cheer I could feel across Union Twitter at 8:40 p.m. ET when the lineup was released.

The three-at-the-back formation that Curtin teased for a while finally made its debut with Lowe, Elliott and Glesnes together.

It was the perfect time for Curtin to use the formation in terms of matchup with Colorado, but it was also a breath of fresh air for everyone after Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup loss to Minnesota United.

“We played a Colorado team that I think has shown how great they are on the counter in recent weeks,” Curtin said in his post-match press conference. “We wanted to sit in in a back five and let them come a little bit.”

“For as good as they are on the counter, maybe they don’t have a true No. 10 or a playmaker so we clogged the middle and made it hard on them, I thought, on the night,” Curtin said.

The overall functionality of the system worked, because well, the Union carried over some of the same principles from the 4-4-2 diamond in midfield.

“Tonight it worked out well because with Flach as the 6, McGlynn on the left, Bedoya on the right, it’s basically the diamond. Their responsibilities were exactly like the diamond and they knew where to be,” Curtin said.

“That was good and you even saw Dani, when we had the ball, come and make the top of the diamond. The problem with that is you only have one attacker up top and Julian is not a speed guy. He’s not going to get in behind, so it depends on what personnel you have, but there’s some ideas there and there’s a window into, if your wing backs attack in a smart way, it can be a really successful formation, especially on the counter attack against the top teams on the road, which by the way, when I mean top, when you look at the table that’s LAFC, maybe New England and Cincy look good right now and the rest is a crapshoot. Everybody’s pretty average. It is something I think we can use in the future,” Curtin said.

Philadelphia took away the middle of the park from Colorado, as you can see below. The Rapids were disjointed in their passing network and there’s a big white space on their successful passes chalkboard (via MLSSoccer.com).

Kevin Cabral (91) had 20 touches in 70 minutes, Jonathan Lewis (7) had 33 touches, one shot on target and one key pass in 90 minutes and Diego Rubio (11) had two shots on target as part of his 39 touches, per WhoScored.

It’s obviously not a complete and total shut down of Colorado’s attack, but the formation slowed down the home side’s advances into the final third, and it limited the Rapids’ ability to come back.

Elliott, Glesnes and Lowe had 17 clearances, most of which came inside their own penalty area, and there were few moments in which the Union really struggled (I’ll get to the penalty in a second).

Curtin illuminated on how the formation could evolve once Jose Martinez and Mikael Uhre are back in the starting lineup. The goal for Martinez is to be involved in some capacity on Wednesday against D.C. United. Uhre had fluid drained from his knee recently and Curtin does not think it will cause a long-term absence.

“Yeah, I think we can use it on the road in particular against teams that are really good with the ball and we can counter attack,” Curtin said. “If you can imagine, in a perfect world, maybe it’s Mikael and Julian up top so a little more speed. Dani to the 10 and now you insert Jose, Ale, Leon, McGlynn whoever you want to do as the two that kind of hold and it looks a little more like a 3-4-1-2. However you want to word it.”

The Bad

Lowe’s penalty concession in a 50-50 challenge with Rubio on the top line of the penalty area went against the Union.

“It was a penalty, and on the road, you have to try to avoid those mistakes. Damion knows that and he had a pretty solid game for us,” Curtin said.

The good news is that mistake was erased by halftime, but Curtin makes a good point, whether you think it was a penalty or not (I personally thought it was soft), you have to be measured with the tackles you make in case a situation like that comes to fruition.

The first thing that came to mind after the VAR check was Curtin’s comments from this year and previous seasons about penalty luck, and other calls and bounces, balancing out over a 34-game season.

Carranza got away with a soft penalty in his favor at Red Bull Arena last week and the Union had one against them on Saturday. That’s a wash on penalty luck for now.

The Good

The Union’s new offensive strategy should be to let Wagner take every shot attempt within the final few minutes of a half.

The left-back unleashed a lethal strike into the back of the net in the second of seven first-half stoppage-time minutes. That followed his tallies at the end of the second half and extra time against Minnesota.

The attacking move started on the right, where most Union attacks begin, and it took a savvy move by Alejandro Bedoya to cut in from the right to find Carranza, who then rolled the ball over to Wagner, who wound up and fired past William Yarbrough.

Wagner’s equalizer occurred at the ideal time, as it allowed the Union to reset at halftime.

The Winner

A trademark Union transition move made the final difference on the scoreboard.

McGlynn took one touch off his chest, rounded the ball and sprayed a perfect pass to Mbaizo in stride.

The Cameroonian rushed on to the ball and hit a lovely cut-back pass to Carranza, who fired home for the game-winning goal.

“A really good ball by Jack McGlynn, who I thought was excellent tonight, one of his best games,” Curtin said. “The ball he plays to Mbaizo breaks the pressure and then Mbaizo makes a good hard cut back to Julian, who finished it off.”

Carranza failed to score in an open position on the left side of the box early in the first half, and if one or two other chances, like Chris Donovan’s breakaway at the end where Gazdag was in support, are finished, the Union would have cruised to the victory.

“When you’re on the road, the margins are small,” Curtin said. “Julian, he had that empty net, I think he wants that back. Chris Donovan had a play at the end where he had to square it to Daniel and the game’s over, but these are the things we gotta get right. Good win, still things to work on.”

The Melee

Now on to the fun stuff!

Two red cards and three yellows were handed out for the fracas at the end of the game, which was started by Michael Barrios’ two-handed push of Andre Blake.

Elliott and Lowe jumped in right away to defend Blake, and then it escalated with Braian Galvan taking down Glesnes. Galvan and Jesus Bueno were shown reds.

Curtin believed the incident was a flowing over of emotions from a few minutes earlier.

“I give Jesus a lot of credit for sticking up for the guys. I haven’t seen the tape yet. It starts from when Andre throws the ball out of bounds and the kid Galvan doesn’t give us the ball back. I don’t believe in much, but karma wise, I believe things got sorted out there. He won’t play again next week,” Curtin said.

“This stuff is silly, but I think once that happened, (the referee) lost a little bit of control and there’s yellow cards everywhere, pushing and soccer fighting, which no one ever gets punched in the face, at least well. It’s silly, but I think it all stems from that play.”

It did not sound like Curtin was a huge fan of referee Victor Rivas, who gave out some questionable yellows on both ends.

“If you want to rewind too, Leon Flach’s yellow card is a great tackle,” Curtin said. “Clean as can be, not a yellow card. Ale Bedoya’s the one right in front of me. Maybe a foul, but certainly not a yellow card. Once that starts, everybody gets excited and next thing you know you have 17 yellow cards, red cards and chaos. It’s the way it is.”

I would have preferred Rivas to be more assertive in the first half with his decisions. There were a few instances off Union set pieces in which the whistle was blown and the players stood around for a few seconds to figure out what was going on.

Bedoya’s yellow was officially awarded for dissent, and it came only a few minutes after Rapids manager Robin Fraser got in the fourth official’s ear about Bedoya’s tackles.

Flach won the ball, but clipped the Rapids player on the follow through, so I can at least understand the logic behind the yellow, but I would have liked if that was called a foul more than anything.

And then there’s the decision to keep Barrios on the pitch despite the clear push on Blake. That should have been the first move by the referees because he was the instigator and could have put Blake in some danger with an unexpected fall.

Bueno and Galvan went at it as the group of players got larger, and I’m not exactly sure why Bueno got the red. Galvan clearly took down Glesnes and was involved far more than Bueno.

I’m sure the MLS disciplinary committee, who Union supporters are dear fans of, will take a long look at the incident.

Moving Forward

The Union have a quick turnaround (again) to play D.C. United at home on Wednesday night.

D.C. comes into Chester off a 1-1 home draw with Nashville SC.

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Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.