Union come-from-behind to salvage a road point in Austin
Courtesy of Philadelphia Union
Coming off a 6-0 shellacking at the hands of Pachuca in Mexico midweek, the Philadelphia Union headed out west (or perhaps just traveled back north) to play Austin FC for the first time in MLS soccer history. Both teams were looking for their first win of the young MLS campaign, Philadelphia entering at 0-2-0 while Austin stood at 0-2-1. This may have led to some of the chippy play for two teams that had never met, the game producing 9 yellow cards overall.
Eager to get the taste of Wednesday’s embarrassing loss out of their mouth, Jim Curtin‘s 4-3-3 lineup came out pressing up the pitch and forcing the issue on the Verde and Black defense. Daniel Gazdag won an early free-kick along the right sideline and Kai Wagner‘s subsequent left-footed in-swinger somehow managed to elude Damion Lowe on the back post for what would have been an easy tap-in goal.
An early goal was not far off, however. Following an Austin turnover, another foul committed on Gazdag led to a free kick a few yards outside the box. Following what I assume was a training ground play, Kai Wagner’s shot hit an onrushing Alexander Ring on the hand right on the line of the box. Fortune favored the Boys in Blue in this game.
Before Wagner could take the corner VAR called referee Wesley Costa and, after a brief check, in what is seeming to become a tradition in Union games, we had an early penalty given. Daniel Gazdag stepped up to finish what he had helped to start. When Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver guessed wrong and dove left, Gazdag had his second goal of the year.
In the 55th minute defender Zan Kolmanic, who had replaced Guilherme Biro at halftime, went down for Austin with an apparent hamstring injury. Hector Jimenez came on and apparently brought the Austin offense with him. His second touch led him to cross a tantalizing ball that got past Damion Lowe’s foot and bounced at the six-yard box. Diego Rubio beat Jack Elliott to the back post and headed the skipping ball over the raised arms of Andre Blake.
Less than three minutes later, Owen Wolff, another second-half substitute, crossed from the right side of the attacking third. The ball found its way through everyone to Jon Gallagher, who had moved from the right to the left side due to the earlier injury. The ball fell perfectly for Gallagher to come straight onto and his right-footed blast beat a stretched-out Blake.
The Union were suddenly behind and the urgency showed. In the 65th minute, they were able to get back level. Like their first of the game, the second Union goal came off another turnover from their pressure up front. Despite his boot being up high, Jose Martinez got to the ball a step quicker than everybody else and laid off to an overlapping Nathan Harriel. Harriel’s cross was partially deflected by a diving Stuber right to the foot of Mikael Uhre, who calmly disposed of it past two sliding Austin defenders.
For viewers, it was another exciting contest to watch. For the Union, it was another missed opportunity to get three points despite having to come from behind just to get one point. The Philadelphia Union will visit the Portland Timbers next Saturday at 10:30 PM EST still searching for their first MLS win of the year.
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