Chivas USA entered Saturday’s away clash with the Philadelphia Union coming off of a thrilling finish in a close loss to FC Dallas AT THE home Depot Center. The Union were trying to get back on track after falling at Vancouver last weekend and drawing with Sporting KC at home midweek.
Chivas USA Setup:
Chivas USA set up in a 4-4-2. At center back they started with Pearce and the Costa Rican Umana. Umana struggled mightily in the first half and was subbed out at halftime in favor of Boyens, who did not fare much better in the second half. The struggled to employ the offside trap that Chivas used, mostly with a ton of success in this game, and much to the dismay of Carlos Ruiz (more on that later). Pearce was the calming influence on the back four, as at right back the promising rookie Valentin started. He got forward in the first half and was able to feed the ball to the two strikers with some success. He also had the tough match up of defending both Mapp and Le Toux and did an extremely admirable job in doing so. At left back Jazic started and was not much of a factor.
Chivas employed two central midfielders, Labrocca and Nagamura. They held firm the center of the pitch well for Chivas, as the majority of the dangerous Union attacks were from wide positions. Labrocca showed some nifty skill with the ball and Nagamura played a very effective game with his aggressive interceptions being turning points to lead the Chivas counter attacks. Wide to the right Zemanski played, and he seemed somewhat out of position as he frequently drifted inside. It was evident that that was where he was more comfortable. Flores played wide to the left and made quite a few nice through balls to the two strikers, especially Braun.
Up top promising young USA International Justin Braun partnered with Mondaini. Braun showed off his impressive physical gifts often in this match, however he still needs to continue to develop his foot skills and vision as he too often tried to take on several defenders by himself instead of looking to pass. However, his second half goal showed off his class, as it was an impressive finish that tied the game for Chivas.
Philadelphia Union Setup:
The Union started out in a 4-4-2 as well. The back four played a very efficient game. Valdes and Califf held down the center of defense. Valdes showed off his nose for the ball and was even willing to bring the ball forward on a few occasions. At right back Williams got up the field into the final third regularly and provided service for Ruiz and Mwanga. At left back Harvey was substituted out at halftime in favor of Daniel, who provided much more energy running up and down the left flank.
Carroll and Paunovic patrolled the middle of midfield for Philadelphia. Their positioning was open to question as they were often too far forward to provide adequate cover for the back four, and yet they also failed to support the attack on numerous occasions as well. Despite that, they did spray a few wide balls to the two wingers Le Toux and Mapp. They switched sides early in the game and were by far the two most dangerous players in attack for the Union. Well, at least in the first half before Mwanga came on. Mapp especially put in a rather impressive performance and may have been the man of the match, even despite missing an absolute sitter in the second half.
Carlos Ruiz started up top for the Union with Mcinerney. Danny Mwanga came on at halftime for Mcinerney and proved to be much more impactful on the match. It has to be said that Ruiz put in one of the most frustrating games in recent memory in terms of his positioning. He was offside so many times it was impossible to count. The stats do not truly capture the number either as he was so frequently offside that his teammates were not able to pass him the ball numerous times. Even when they did he was not even able to track it down because the play would have been blown dead for his being in an offside position. With that out of the way Mwanga’s second half entrance into the team was one of the main reasons for the Union’s victory. His supreme effort and hustle was undeniable, as was his attacking prowess. His goal in the 82’ minute was the game winner. It would have been wonderful to see him start the match, as Philadelphia may have put the game out of reach earlier.
28’ Minute:
Chivas put in a corner and it appeared as though Mondragon should’ve punched the ball out, but he failed to and Chivas was able to keep the ball alive with three successive headers, with the third one putting the ball into the net to give them a 1-0 lead. The game was very up and down, at a slightly frenetic pace, but seemed to slow down some after this goal until half time. Philadelphia brought on Mwanga and Daniel at halftime, which spiced up their attack dramatically.
2nd Half:
Right out of the gate to start the second half Philadelphia was aggressive and was rewarded in just the 48’ minute when Le Toux was able to switch the field from left to right to an unmarked Mapp who played a cross in to Paunovic. He chested the ball down and delivered a low shot that beat Kennedy. The aggressive start to the second half was rewarded early and sent Chivas on their heels some as the game was now nodded at 1.
Play began to get frenetic again not too muchg after the Union goal. Both teams were able to get up and down and take advantage of the space between the central midfielders and the back four. This made for an extremely exciting final 35 minutes to the match that featured three goals. Philadelphia may have scored even more had the Chivas offside trap not been as effective as it was in denying Carlos Ruiz many of his usual dangerous runs.
Finally Ruiz’s patience, or lack thereof was rewarded in the 69’ minute when he was played a long ball by Paunovic that he was able to control with his chest and fire past Kennedy. Based on the way the game had been going to this point it seemed as though the Union would take control of the game here and settle it, but they were not able to hold off the Chivas attack.
In the 77’ minute Braun, who had not been involved as much as he has been in the first half, was given a wonderful chip pass by Flores that he was able to just flick by the charging Mondragon to tie the match at 2.
Up until this time, Philadelphia was the more dangerous team in attack and it seemed like only a matter of time before they would score the go ahead goal. Despite their wonderful team build up play that they had been displaying the entire match, the game winner came in the 82’ minute in the form of a ridiculously impressive show of individual skill from the 2010 #1 overall pick Danny Mwanga. He turned hard into his right foot after receiving a pass and violently struck the ball into the left side of the goal past Kennedy that sent the Sons of Ben into an absolute frenzy and gave the Union the match.
Conclusion:
The Union were able to keep their unbeaten streak at home alive in rather dramatic fashion and keep their place atop the Eastern Conference ahead of New York. The Union were also able to finally put some goals on the score sheet, as coming into Saturday night they had been struggling to put up goals on the scoreboard. It would seem that the obvious solution to this problem would be to play Danny Mwanga from the start, but we will have top see what Peter Nowak decides to do going forward.
Despite the loss, Chivas played a fluid game that showed good positioning and off the ball runs. Here at Keeping a Clean Sheet, we would like to see Zemanksi move into the middle and Gavin start on the right now that he has returned from his injury. It would give Chivas a little more defensive minded central midfielder to pair with Labrocca or Nagamura and give them more speed on the wing in Gavin. It would make them more dangerous and less predictable going forward.
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