Shivered the Timbers — Carranza’s brace leads Union to first MLS victory of season

Jim Curtin‘s Philadelphia Union traveled to Portland, Oregon seeking their first MLS win of the season at 0-3-0. Down six starters on international duty (*list below*), the short-handed squad knew they’d be in for a battle. In the end, the scoreboard didn’t necessarily appear like one.

Phil Neville‘s starting eleven began strong in front of their fired-up Providence Park crowd, especially Evander. The Brazilian number ten missed wide in the 11th minute and called backup goalkeeper Oliver Semmle into action for the first time in the 17th minute. The Pacific Northwest side kept applying pressure as Juan Mosquera twice missed high and Jonathan Rodriguez hit the post in the 22nd minute.

The game’s first goal came in the 28th minute and, despite play up to that point, went to the Union. Man of the match Julian Carranza opened his MLS goal-scoring account with a wonderful header off of a Kai Wagner corner kick. Surrounded and practically facing his own goal, the Argentine number nine barely got off the ground but was able to redirect the ball off his left temple into the bottom right corner past James Pantemis. Voila! The Union had been outplayed and out-chanced yet owned a one-nil lead. Semmle remained strong, making two more saves before the break to keep the Union out front going into halftime.

Carranza’s opening goal seemed to help get Philadelphia into the game and they built off that coming out of the break for the second half. The Union were suddenly playing on the front foot as Mikael Uhre and Jakob Glesnes both forced saves from Pantemis and Alejandro Bedoya headed wide in the 54th minute. After a brief injury delay to check on Kai Wagner, the Union finally provided themselves some breathing room with a little help from Pantemis and defender Eric Miller.

Homegrown youngster Jeremy Rafanello found himself with the ball at his feet some 25 yards out over on the left side. When no Timbers defender stepped up to challenge him, he took a couple of touches forward and had a go at goal. Pantemis, who made some big saves of his own, probably wishes he had this one back. He parried the long-range effort away to his left but a flat-footed Miller was beaten to the rebound by Quinn Sullivan for a simple tap in goal.

Phil Neville tried to gain back the momentum for his squad by bringing on two attack-minded substitutes minutes later. That is when the Boys in Blue busted out their hammers and put the nail in the Portland coffin.

After Quinn Sullivan was fouled at midfield, Jakob Glesnes caught the Portland team with their guard down. As Sullivan still lay on the ground, Glesnes ran up and rolled his free kick down the right side to a charging Mikael Uhre. Uhre ran onto the ball with two steps on his man, his first touch a cross right onto the waiting left foot of Julian Carranza. With a simple touch, Carranza had his brace and the Union had their first victory of the young campaign.

Portland grabbed late life when an 80th-minute header from Jonathan Rodriguez broke Oliver Semmle’s clean sheet. Semmle kept the comeback a fictional thought though, making two more saves to see his team across the finish line and bring home their first victory of the year.

Traveling to Portland down six starters and coming away with their first victory of the season will give a team some momentum. The Union will look to build on that wave a week from Saturday when they host Minnesota United FC at 2 pm EST from Subaru Park.