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10-man Union overcome Red Bulls in penalty kicks to book spot in U.S. Open Cup semifinals

MLS: U.S. Open Cup-Rochester Rhinos at Philadelphia Union

Photo by Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports

By RYAN TOLMICH

HARRISON, N.J. – Despite being down a man for 80 minutes and dominated for large stretches of the game, the Philadelphia Union are on to the U.S. Open Cup semifinals.

Following a 1-1 deadlock through two periods of extra time, the Union topped the Red Bulls, 4-3, in a penalty kick shootout Tuesday night at Red Bull Arena to seal advancement in the U.S. Open Cup.

After seeing Bradley Wright-Phillips and Lloyd Sam hit the crossbar and stopped, respectively, Fernando Aristeguieta proved to be the hero for the Union, slamming a shot past Luis Robles to seal the Union victory.

For the Union, the victory originally looked to be wrapped up all the way into the 93rd minute before Sam’s leveler sent the game to extra time and, ultimately, penalties.

Sam’s finish, which came in the 94th minute, was a result of the Union’s inability to clear their lines late, something the visitors had done so well for the first 93 minutes. Following a mishit clearance, a header from Mike Grella fell right to the feet of Sam, who turned and fired from close range to push the game into extra time.

The Red Bulls winger’s finish was a deserved one, as the Red Bulls proved to be the dominant team by a considerable margin, aside from Eric Ayuk’s opener.

Dummying a pass in the midfield in the 56th minute, Vincent Noguiera broke past the Red Bulls defense and towards the endline. One-on-one with Luis Robles at a difficult angle, Noguiera slid a pass across the six-yard box and onto the feet of Ayuk, who slammed home on the back post to give the Union the 1-0 lead, one they would never relinquish.

At the time of the goal, the Red Bulls were outshooting the Union 15-3.

In a physical first half, the Red Bulls proved to be the much more efficient team on the ball, repeatedly working quick combinations in the 90 degree afternoon heat. Maintaining a majority of the possession, the hosts mustered 12 shots to the Union’s two, but were only able to put four of them on target.

With the Red Bulls already in control, the Union’s case was made even worse just five minutes before halftime when forward Conor Casey was sent-off for a frustration foul.

After losing the ball to Connor Lade, Casey chased down the Red Bulls fullback before bringing him down from behind, earning a straight red card from referee Chris Penso to see the Union reduced to 10 men.

That red card proved to equal tired legs for the Union in extra time, as the visitors were forced to play for penalties. Failing to muster much aside from one chance from Aristeguieta, the Union looked to hold on through the game’s final 30 minutes.

That plan was almost exposed in the 109th minute, as Manolo Sanchez’s shot struck the far post before the substitute’s close range effort was saved by John McCarthy just four minutes later. In the 115th, McCarthy came up huge again, kicking out a Mike Grella shot to maintain the deadlock.

Bradley Wright-Phillips appeared to have given the Red Bulls their winner in the 120th minute with a headed effort from close range, only to see the goal ruled offside just before the full time whistle.

Sent to penalty kicks, the Union would do just enough to claim victory, advancing to face the winner of Wednesday night’s quarterfinal between the Chicago Fire and Orlando City.

The Union return to MLS play on Sunday with a visit to the conference-leading D.C. United, while the Red Bulls are off from league play until an August 1 trip to PPL Park.

Comments

  1. Vincent Nogueira is extremely good and I think rather unrated in this league, and in his prime years. It was fun to watch him and Dax McCarty battle a little.

    Reply
  2. Some may recall that way back in April or May multiple posters on this site said RBNY’s team was so good they didn’t need any DP because they essentially couldn’t get any better. Where are those guys?

    Lowest payroll in MLS on a NY area team – in other words teams in markets like SLC or KC, with 1/20 the population, are paying more their team. The academy is doing well so supplement it with some DPs. Maybe then they wouldn’t struggle to score against a weak Union side playing with ten men for 80 minutes.

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  3. The Red Bulls have had three games this month where they went up a man in the first half due to red cards but have only score twice. That’s the telling stat that they lack something or someone else.

    As for the ridiculous start time, it was already brought up that the stadium was booked for an ICC game but the Union refused to change the date. Their alternative was to have the game at their stadium instead of RB Arena. Sissy little school kids.

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    • Because it’s the Union’s responsibility to cover for NYRB’s piss-poor planning and prioritization of meaningless cash-grab friendlies over the Open Cup? C’mon…..

      The Union refused to change the date for two reasons:
      1. Open Cup dates were on the books BEFORE the ICC dates were proposed, and NYRB decided to host games on BOTH proposed Open Cup dates anyway, knowing full well it could cause an issue should they make the Open Cup quarters.

      2. The suggested “alternative” provided by NYRB was to play the game on July 15, a date which they knew the Union had already scheduled for a friendly with Bournemouth. NYRB weren’t willing to move their cash-grabs, but they had no problem asking the Union to move theirs, even though the whole thing was only an issue because NYRB f’d up in the first place. Sorry, but that’s not much of an alternative.

      If you wanna be mad about the start time, be mad at the NYRB front office.

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    • Ask yourself why the stadium was booked. RB knew since Jan or Feb that the quarterfinal round of the Open Cup would be July 21 or 22 and that they would likely host. So they go ahead a schedule a meaningless tourney for those exact two dates. Were they not planning to make it that far? Was the Union supposed to agree to play this game the day after a friendly (July 15th) because RB can’t look at a calendar?

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    • I think the best solution would have been to play the game Thursday at 7 but apparently US Soccer demanded the games be played by the 22nd. RBNY doesn’t have a competitive game this weekend and Philly doesn’t play until Sunday night so that could have worked.

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  4. Did anyone watch whole game. I only caught last 25 minutes of regulation and couldn’t make myself go any further. What I saw was a completely dispirited display. The Open Cup is a wonderful competition. Any ideas to make it more valuable to MLS teams? I am at a loss.

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    • What you saw was the Union parking the bus (and several other vehicles) and fouling as and when necessary and shamelessly wasting time, abetted by a Red Bulls team that could not finish its chances, got frustrated and took to simply pumping balls into the box, and simply forgot that you have to shoot to score. RBNY just were not good enough today. Chances are pretty, but only goals count, and they were profligate today.

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    • First off, don’t play it at 4:00 on a summer Tuesday because the place is rented out later on. Games should be at seven, if you can’t host, the other teams gets to. Teams will care when fans care. And when fans care, there will be money for winners.

      The Open cup is a great competition, until the quarters. At this point, it is all MLS teams, who know each other and play each other multiple times a year. Without a Cinderella, it’s just not as interesting, unless you’re philly and have nothing else to play for.

      So…raise some money (or cmon, USSF, pony up a mil or two) MlS salaries are low enough that making this match worth $100k to the winner (50 for the club, 50 for all cap tied players to split) would make a difference to a lot of them, so the quarters are $100, the semis are $200 and the finals are $500. Throw in a hundred grand for the highest finishing lower division club and another 50 for the highest non-professional club. That’s 1.45 million. Operating expenses of what, $500k? You could sponsor this tournament for $2m/year and reach a passionate fan base across the country. That’s a rounding error in large company’s marketing budgets, and game changing money for a lot of mls players, and almost all NASL/USL players. (Consider the winning team, figure 18 guys split $400k, you play all three, and you’re looking at $22k, chump change to A Clint Dempsey, but nice change for a Connor Lade. And the winning club just paid for their front office for the year.

      Reply

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