The Philadelphia Union II faced a top of the table clash against FC Cincinnati 2 at Subaru Park on Friday after being on the road for that last 2 regular season games. Cincy 2 sat in the top spot coming into the matchup on regulation wins but both teams were locked on 38 points.
Marlon LeBlanc had a boost going into the game via his squad selection as both CJ Olney and Frankie Westfield returned to the starting XI, after missing out against Columbus Crew last game due to being with the senior team for their Leagues Cup campaign.
Andrew Rick Jr was still missing from the team, so Mike Sheridan kept his place in goal, whilst David Vazquez was also missing from the squad after just returning back from international duty. Cavan Sullivan was one of 9 players who kept their starting places in the team.
Union II vs Cincinnati II: First half
The game was fairly quiet and lackluster for the first 15 minutes or so. Cincinnati 2 enjoyed a little more of the ball throughout the game but Union II looked the more threatening of the two sides, taking shots on but nothing really of note. That was until the 18th minute when Eddy Davis found himself on the ball around 20 yards out, after a ball from Cavan Sullivan, and Union’s top goalscorer tried his luck, but the ball cannoned off the right-hand post and just stayed out.
27 minutes in and the Union was forced into an early change after Markus Anderson seemed to go down with an injury. He was replaced by Sal Olivas but 4 minutes later, more disaster struck for Philly.
Just after the half hour mark, Cincy 2 was pushing down the right wing. The ball was played into Ben Stitz, who was about 25 yards out, took a touch and then hit a beautiful shot into the bottom right corner of Sheridan’s net, nothing the Philly goalkeeper could do about that, and Cincinnati 2 found themselves 1-0 up.
Union II tried to put the pressure on during the last 15 minutes of the 1st half but couldn’t muster something up until the 42nd minute, when CJ Olney played a beautifully chipped ball over the top for Frankie Westfield, who had just the keeper to beat but his shot was fired off the bar and Cincinnati lead 1-0 going into the 2nd half.
Union II vs Cincinnati II: Second half
The 2nd half was really quiet. Cincinnati 2 seemed very comfortable on the ball but also really good at soaking up the pressure that Union II was trying to put them under. Philly was getting shots off but none of them really troubling the keeper for Cincy.
Nick Pariano replaced Sanders Ngabo at halftime, but that never really changed anything, so Marlon LeBlanc tried another change near the 60th minute, with Kyle Tucker leaving the field for Jamir Berdecio.
Union II ended up with 16 shots in total during the game, but only 1 ended up on target. They looked really good in their build up play but the quality just completely disappeared in the final third and the stats show it too.
Marlon LeBlanc tried a final roll of the dice 80 minutes in when Eddy Davis and Cavan Sullivan were taken off for Kellan LeBlanc and Leandro Soria but as the game approached the 7 minutes added on after the 90, the game was put into a weather delay as a massive storm broke out around Subaru Park.
After around 1 hour and 15 minutes of weather delay time, the match was resumed and Cincy managed to see out the remaining 6 minutes to win the game 1-0 and take sole position of 1st place in the Eastern Conference standings whilst completing a regular season 3-game sweep of LeBlanc’s side.
The loss now puts Union II into 2nd place and with the weekend’s action still to come, Union II could see themselves joined in 2nd place by Chicago Fire II, whilst NYCFC II has a chance to go 2 points behind them with 3 games in hand. A massive last 9 games of the season lie ahead for Union II before entering the post season, with a home game against top spot rivals Chicago Fire II coming up next weekend.
Image Credit: Philadelphia Union II
