The third-place Philadelphia Union took on the seventh-place New England Revolution in an absolute thriller for Saturday night MLS soccer. A game that tested the Union’s bench and their homegrown talent. Even with no fans allowed in the stadium, there were fans right outside cheering them onto victory.
The first half the Union kept pushing against the Revs’ defense creating several unsuccessful chances. The Union would end the half with 7 shots on goal and 1 on target compared to the Revs who would only get 4 shots and 0 that were on goal. Alejandro Bedoya was the Union’s only player who made his shot on goal.
Meanwhile, Jose Martinez and Raymon Gaddis would both receive yellow cards in the first half for sloppy tackles. The Revs’ Matt Polster would also get a yellow card as it would prove costly later on in the game. Even with 54% of the possession in the first half, the Union would have to settle with a 0-0 score at halftime.
The second half was certainly a different beast compared to the first half. In the 56th minute, the Revs’ Polster would be shown a yellow card for unsporting behavior. This would be his second yellow card of the match which means he was shown a red card and had to leave the pitch. The result was the Revs would have only 10 men on the field and the Union took an advantage of that.
But the hero of the match wouldn’t enter the game until the 65th minute. Anthony Fontana would come in for Andrew Wooten. But things didn’t start so great for Fontana as he would pick up a yellow card within moments of being subbed into the game. But his first absolute moment in the game was when he scored a goal that was set up by Kacper Przybylko for a nice chip in.
The Revs would get one back in which Jim Curtain said “a sloppy goal given up.” Tajon Buchanan would score in the 81st minute with a set up by Gustavo Bou pushing past Union’s keeper Andre Blake. With the Revs’ goal, the game would now be tied up at 1-1.
The Union would keep pushing to get their game-winning goal. Much like throughout the match, they tested the Revs’ defense time and time again. But their biggest moment of the match wouldn’t come until the 95th minute, the last minute of the 5 minute stoppage time the refs would give both teams. During this point, Fontana, the homegrown talent, would get the ball 20 yards out and drill it in the back of the net giving the Union a 2-1 lead and winning the game.
This win means a lot now. Along with moving up to be tied for second place in the Eastern Conference, the Union are also undefeated at Subaru Park since games have started back up in local stadiums. The Union are also undefeated against the Revs this season winning all three games they played against them.
The Union’s next game will be next Sunday as they will take on the Montreal Impact. But instead of playing in Montreal, they will be playing at the Red Bulls Arena in Harrison, NJ as that is the temporarily new home for the Impact during COVID-19.
Eric Williamson is the host of the Union podcast Full Time Philly and also contrinutes to many of the Union coverage. He is a huge fan of all the 4 major Philly teams on top of music too.
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