It appears the Phildelphia Union have gotten over their scoring issues and their habit of ties, at least for one night. No this was not Eagles over Commanders, or even Phillies over Nationals. This was indeed a soccer game and the Union won by a ‘touchdown’ to set a franchise record with seven goals in a game. The Union were shut out in their previous two matchups on the road and had yet to score more than two goals in a match this season, but the scoring drought was shattered with a vengeance Friday night.
Union Captain Alejandro Bedoya started off the barrage in the 9th minute on a pass from Jose Martinez. Julian Carranza found the back of the net in the 22nd minute on a beautiful bicycle kick from the center of the box; the first of his three goals for the night. He followed up shortly afterward with his second goal in the 25th minute from directly in front of the net on a pass from Leon Flach.
In the 36th minute, a yellow card on Steven Birnbaum of DC set up a free kick from Kai Wagner, which Bedoya headed into the net for his second goal of the night. Mikael Uhre scored just before halftime to put the Union up 5-0 at the half.
The goals continued to rain down in the second half with Uhre scoring his second goal off a deflection from a defender in the 59th minute, and Carranza completing his hat trick in the 72nd minute on a left footer from the center of the box for the final tally of 7-0. Carranza could have easily had two more goals, missing a penalty kick in the 70th minute and narrowly missing from the front of the net in the 76th minute.
After the game, Union coach Jim Curtin said “This is a message to the league that we are a good defensive team but we can also score goals.” Additionally, he went out of his way to note that in his halftime chat with the team he emphasized the point for the team to “Keep a clean sheet because we owe it to Andre Blake. Andre has bailed us out so many times…he’s a guy that’s made so many big saves for us, so let’s do it for him.” The team rewarded Blake with his second straight shutout. Julian Carranza said regarding his first MLS hat trick, “Not going to lie, I feel a little bit mad since I could have scored two more goals easily tonight, but I’m happy too at the same time because I was waiting a long time for this. I was waiting to show the player I could be in this league.”
Other news and notes:
– Prior to the game the Union announced that locker room favorite Sergio Santos was traded to FC Cincinnati for $300,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM) with a condition for up to $625,000 in future GAM.
– With his assist on Bedoya’s first goal, Jose Martinez became the third player in franchise history to rack up 20 goals and 20 assists for the Union.
– This was only the fifth time in MLS history that a team scored five goals in a half, and the first time the Union accomplished the feat.
– Next up for the Union is a match on the road against Inter Miami on Wednesday at 8pm before returning home for the New England Revolution on July 16.
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