It was a snowy, sleety, and rainy Saturday, but that did not stop the Philadelphia Union fans from coming out. For the second straight week, the Union battled for three points. They defeated the New England Revolution 1-0 in front of 15,689 people at PPL Park on Saturday, March 16.
Both Conor Casey and Gabriel Farfan were not in the starting XI or on the bench for the Union due to injury.
In the early moments of the game, New England got a dangerous free kick right outside the box. On the kick, Danny Cruz took the ball to his face, and fell straight down, and was substituted out for Michael Lahoud at the discretion of the medical staff.
The Union would have their own free kick, but nothing would come of it. For most of the first half, the play would be contained between the 18 yard boxes as both teams tried to play in the slippery conditions.
As the second half kicked off, the pace started to pick up. The Union had some chances on forward played balls, but either the Union were offside or the ball was passed with too much speed.
“Supersub” Antoine Hoppenot came on in the 76th minute for Michael Farfan. For most of the game before this the Union were in a 4-4-2 formation, but switched to a 4-3-3 with Hoppenot, Jack McInerney, and Sebastien LeToux up front.
Philadelphia would have a few corner kicks back to back that didn’t perspire to anything, but they finally got a corner on the far side. Before this corner kick, the Union had Keon Daniel taking their corners on the near side.
On this corner kick, LeToux went to take the corner. Last week LeToux had an assist off a corner kick. The result would be the same tonight, and sent the home crowd into a dooping frenzy. For you non-Union fans or followers, dooping is synonymous with cheering.
Anyway, LeToux sent the corner into the box and found an unmarked McInerney. McInerney headed the ball and the keeper made the initial save, but McInerney found the rebound and drilled it home. The goal came in the 76th minute, and for the second straight game scored the game-winning goal for the Union.
The Union would hold on in the waning minutes of the game, as New England would have some good chances, but Philadelphia stood tough. With the win, Philadelphia moves to 2-1-0 and now has six points, while New England falls to 1-1-0.
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