Written By: Mike Shute
CHESTER, Pa. — Fans of the Philadelphia Union saw a team that more closely resembled its 2022 edition on Saturday night at Subaru Park, especially in the first half as the team built a three-goal advantage en route to a 4-2 victory in Major League Soccer.
The win snapped a five-game winless streak (two ties, three losses) in MLS play for the Union. The team’s last victory in league play was a 1-0 decision over Chicago at home on March 11.
Mikael Uhre highlighted the night with his first MLS hat trick, including two in the first half as Philly went ahead 3-0 before intermission on a soggy, swampy, rain-soaked night on the banks of the Delaware River.
The Union improved their MLS season record to 3-2-4 with 11 points, good for seventh place in the Eastern Conference, one point behind sixth-place Nashville, and nine back of Eastern Conference leaders New England and Cincinnati (20 points each).
Jim Curtin’s team was dominant at both ends of the field in building a 4-0 lead.
“The way we started the game, the mentality that we had — we counter-pressed really relentlessly and didn’t let Toronto out of their own half,” Curtin said. “If we turned it into a track meet… it becomes hard. I thought we were very compact, all 11 guys defended well, all 11 guys attacked well, and that looked like us. Happy with that performance there.
“This is the kind of win that builds some confidence, and we needed three points, no matter how it came tonight, it was important that we got three points and the guys really stepped up in that regard.”
The Union scored first Saturday, which was a consistent pattern in the Eastern Conference title-winning season last year but has not happened much in 2023. In fact, Saturday marked just the second time in 2023 MLS play in which Philly drew first blood, doing so just 16 minutes into the game with an own goal by Toronto’s Lukas MacNaughton. The Union has won both games in which they’ve scored first this year. Six times this season, the Union’s opponents have scored first and the Union is 1-4-1 in those matches.
Uhre connected for two goals in a span of 23 minutes — the first occurred when the Union capitalized on a mistake by TFC keeper Shawn Johnson who kept the ball in play along the end line but couldn’t control it. Julian Carranza collected it and fired the ball toward the center of the box where Uhre was able to collect the ball and knock it home, deflecting off of McNaughton and past Sean Johnson. Then in the 43rd minute, Uhre got loose to collect a perfectly weighted through ball from Daniel Gazdag and tucked it past Johnson for the 3-0 halftime lead.
“I thought we played our best 45 minutes of the season in that first half,” Curtin said. “We looked like us, we were proactive. The challenge for the guys is playing a complete 90. I thought this was our closest to a complete 90 but I still see a lot of room for improvement. It’s always disappointing to concede goals. But I think the first half really set a good tone… and to get that front three (Gazdag, Carranza, Uhre) going and clicking and putting the (opposing) back line under pressure was important as well.”
The 28-year-old Danish forward reached his hat trick roughly 13 minutes after scoring his second of the game, doing so off of a great pass from Julian Carranza. Uhre’s sliding finish of Carranza’s fast-paced low-centering ball gave the Union a 4-0 lead in the 57th minute. Shortly after, Uhre was subbed out and was replaced by Quinn Sullivan in the 62nd minute. He is now one of three players in Union history with four or more goals against Toronto joining Sergio Santos (6) and tying Gazdag (4).
Uhre’s hat trick was the ninth in Union history and the first of the current MLS campaign for Philly. It was also the fifth hat trick by a Philly player since the start of the 2022 season, two more than any other MLS team has recorded over that time period. Uhre was a perfect 3-for-3 in shot accuracy in his 61 minutes of play and raised his season goal count to five. He now has 18 goals in 36 career games played with the Union.
“For Mikael to get three goals, I don’t care how they go in, they can bounce off people, they can deflect, it’s important for any striker to have that killer instinct in front of goal and I thought he was great tonight,” Curtain said of Uhre.
It marked the second straight game against Toronto in Subaru Park in which a Union player recorded a hat trick as Daniel Gazdag had a three-goal outing vs. TFC in the 2022 season finale — a 4-0 Union win. It also marked the fourth straight win over Toronto in Chester and Philly has outscored its Canadian foe 16-2 in that span. That stretch started in 2020 with a 5-0 Union win and Sergio Santos (now with Cincinnati) recorded a hat trick in that match.
According to OptaJack soccer statistics service, the Union’s four-goal outing was their 10th since July 2022. No other team in MLS has more than three, four-goal games in that time frame.
Union goalkeeper Andre Blake, who was credited with three saves in the win — highlighted by a dazzling stop four minutes into stoppage time of the first half and another diving stop to his left in the second half, both of which turned aside attempts by Lorenzo Insigne — set a Union franchise record by making his 212th regular-season start for the club. He broke the mark set by defender Ray Gaddis, now with FC Cincinnati. With 10 more games played, Blake will break Gaddis’s record for career appearances in a Union uniform (221). Barring any missed time, Blake could surpass Gaddis as early as Saturday, June 24, at home against Inter Miami CF.
Blake, however, was not able to post the clean sheet as Insigne connected in the 66th minute on what was just TFC’s second shot on goal. It was the first goal of the year for the Italian forward.
For Toronto (1-2-6, 9 points), Insigne was more dangerous and more active in the second half after TFC moved the Italian striker to the left side before he left the pitch for a sub in the final 10 minutes. The Union also seemed to take the foot off the accelerator over the final 15-20 minutes of play.
Defender Richie Laryea halved the Union’s lead in the second minute of second-half stoppage time (90+2’) but it was merely cosmetic as Philadelphia won comfortably to move the all-time series with Toronto to 11-12-7, 8-4-3 at home.
Toronto saw its seven-game unbeaten streak (1 win, 6 ties) come to an end. TFC had four consecutive draws entering Saturday.
“Obviously, Insigne is a guy who can make a play and he scored a pretty special goal but the one at the end irritates me,” Curtin said after the game.
With left-back Kai Wagner returning to full strength, he got the start and had a solid outing. Nathan Harriel got the nod at right back with Olivier Mbaizo was not listed on the active match-day roster. He apparently had a hamstring issue. Jack McGlynn also got the start Saturday with Leon Flach coming off the bench. And although he did not play, good news on Damion Lowe who was listed on the active match day roster.
Curtin described Mbaizo’s injury as a “minor, minor hamstring,” and went on to say, “I think he’s OK. I think he’ll be available for selection for the LAFC game. That’s my hope.”
Philly will be back in action on Wednesday night in an odd, 9 p.m. start at Subaru Park in Chester as the Union will host LAFC in the first leg of the two MLS teams’ CONCACAF Champions League semifinal. Both Philadelphia and Los Angeles have byes in MLS play next weekend (Matchday 10) and the two will meet again on May 2 at 10 p.m. in BMO Stadium to see which team will advance to face a Liga MX opponent in the CCL Final.
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