By Mike Shute
Forward Julián Carranza’s second-half hat trick gave him five goals in seven CONCACAF Champions Cup appearances for the Philadelphia Union. Carranza’s explosive performance was more than enough for the Major League Soccer side to earn a win Tuesday night in Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá in San Juan de Tibás, Costa Rica.
The 23-year-old Argentinian scored three times in a span of 25 minutes in the second half to help the Philadelphia Union to a come-from-behind, 3-2 victory on the road over 2023 Ligo Promerica champion Deportivo Saprissa in the first leg of Round One of the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup. His five goals ties the franchise record (Kacper Przybylko) for the most by a Union player in Champions Cup competition.
Carranza’s three goals also moved him into fourth place in franchise history in goals scored in all competitions with 36. He passed C.J. Sapong (35) on the Union list Tuesday night and trails only Union Ring of Honor inductee Sebastian LeToux (56), teammate Daniel Gazdag (51) and Przybylko (40).
All three tallies came in the second half after the Union got behind 1-0 on a crazy own goal,
“It was unbelievable,” Carranza told Union reporter Sage Hurley in a video posted on the team’s website after the game. “I was thinking about it (earlier Tuesday) with Pauly (Paul Rushing, Union head athletic trainer), and I told him I was going to score a hat trick. It was just unbelievable that I did it. He was reminding me that after the game.
“But yeah, it was a bad first half for us. We went down a goal and then after, the talk in the halftime was perfect from Jim to get us going. And then as you can see in the second half we played much better than the first one and we got the goals and we got the win as well.”
Philadelphia heads home to Subaru Park in Chester, PA, to open its 2024 MLS regular season slate on Saturday (7:30 p.m.) against the visiting Chicago Fire. Three days later, the Union will host Saprissa (Feb. 27, 8:15 p.m.) in the second leg of their Round One match-up with the Costa Rican side.
The go-ahead goal, scored in the 75th minute, put the Union ahead 2-1 and was the first of two assisted by Union midfielder Daniel Gazdag. And the goal that proved to provide the difference in the 3-2 win came four minutes later, also assisted by the Hungarian. Carranza managed three excellent finishes, all of which left 23-year-old Saprissa keeper Kevin Chamorro. It marked the second time in Carranza’s Union career in which he scored three goals in a half, having done the same at DC United on August 20, 2022.
Union manager Jim Curtin was happy to celebrate Carranza’s big effort.
“It’s a special night for him. He’s a pure goal scorer in that all he wants to do. All he thinks about is hitting the back of the net,” Curtin said. “He does a lot of the dirty work for the team as well with his pressing and defensive work, but when you score goals in the big games, and this was a big game tonight, the world is watching.
“Julian Carranza was excellent on the night, not just the goals he scores but also the hold up play, combinations, passing and moving, doing a really good job. He’s a top striker and one that I don’t know how much longer we’ll have in Philadelphia, but a great performance from him.”
Despite holding that 1-0 halftime advantage, technically, Saprissa has not scored on the Union in three CONCACAF Champions Cup matches against Philadelphia. The Union gifted the home side the first goal of the game as a misplayed ball between center back Jacob Glesnes and goalkeeper Andre Blake wound up bouncing into the back of the goal for an own goal in the 28th minute as Glesnes was pressured into making a quick, tough pass by Saprissa striker Orlando Sinclair.
“Overall, all things considered, the atmosphere that the fans create here, it being our first match of the season of consequence against a good team, a good opponent, in a Champions Cup is something that is a very good for our players to experience,” said Curtin after the win.
“Could we have been better in the first half? Absolutely. We concede a strange goal, an own-goal from 40-50 yards. I’ve never seen that before. But I think at halftime, we stayed calm and we executed the transitions in the counter attack, and that’s where we scored three really good goals.”
Saprissa Stadium, also known as La Cueva del Monstruo which means, The Monster’s Cave, has a capacity of just more than 23,000 which makes it the second largest stadium in the country. The nickname for the facility is derived from the team’s nickname “The Purple Monster.” And the Cave was rocking in the first half as Saprissa grabbed the 1-0 lead and had some other good opportunities. However that crowd was quickly quieted as Philadelphia struck three times in a 25-minute span.
“The biggest thing with my group that we leaned on was the experience they’ve had in the formerly CONCACAF Champions League now Champions Cup,” Curtin said. “Our group has been through the difficult matches on the road and they have a way of really sticking together. They’re very resilient and it helps to have gone through these games.”
When asked if Tuesday night’s result basically was enough to push the Union into the Champions Cup Round of 16, Curtin was not making any assumptions.
“Three goals is good on the road. Anytime you can score three times when away goals matter in a competition like this is very important. But at the same time, Saprissa is too big of a club, a club that we respect a great deal, and nothing is ever finished until it’s the final whistle blows. We expect a very tough match in Philadelphia. We set ourselves up in a good position at 3-2. I would have preferred 3-1, you feel a little safer but that goal gives them hope and life in the second leg.”
Under rainy and windy conditions, it was a slow first half for the Union as Saprissa outshot Philly, 5-1, with no Union shots on target in the game’s first 45 minutes. Meanwhile, Saprissa had two solid chances in the first 20 minutes of play but came up empty.
The slow start and halftime deficit certainly was a concern for Union manager Jim Curtin heading into the match as he mentioned prior to the game shortly after the team arrived in Costa Rica over the weekend.
“There’s always concerns as a coach going into your first real game, right?” Curtin said in a press conference in advance of Tuesday night’s match “Saprissa has been in a good run of form in the league, has seven games under their belt, and is a little bit more fit than us. That’s natural. We’ve worked very hard in the preseason to try to get to a good fitness level. We had very good performances in our preseason games, but as we all know, coming to this stadium is something different than a preseason game where there are no fans.”
But the Union got the halftime wake-up call and looked like a different team. Philadelphia had just three shots on goal for the game, all in that second half, but all found the back of the net.
Carranza’s first of the game drew Philadelphia level at 1-1 in the 55th minute after left back Kai Wagner sent in a perfectly placed ball that Carranza nodded into the lower left back corner of the goal past a helpless Chamorro.
Saprissa pulled to within a goal in the 90th minute on a perfectly placed shot by Gerald Taylor then sailed by to Blake’s right but the Union keeper had no chance of stopping it. Blake, who had to be tended to by the Union training staff early in the second half, did finish the game and made three saves on four shots on target to help collect the win.
Quinn Sullivan put in a strong effort. He got a start in the midfield and twice made passes that led to the assist on each of Carranza’s last two tallies. And on Carranza’s first goal, the 19-year-old collected an errant Saprissa pass. The turnover created the scoring opportunity for Philadelphia.
The Union collected four yellow cards in the match (Carranza, Jose Martinez, Damion Lowe and Wagner) to just one for the home side (Sinclair) issued by referee Victor Caceres.