Sometimes When We Touch

Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Qwest Field, Seattle
Attendance: 36.241

…The honesty’s too much, And I have to close my eyes and hide.

Well Zolo Nation, First Kick is in the books and the Philadelphia Union have moved from figment of our collective imagination, to reality. Our great city, with sport’s best fans, now has a club to play the world’s most beautiful game.

If only the play on the pitch mirrored our sentiments…

Califf’s booking in the first minute set the tone for physical, if not reckless, play that came to a head with Stahl getting sent off 40 mins later. Being forced to play a man down, down a goal, in front of 36,000 rabid fans, basically sealed the deal. The first game in Union history seemed in keeping with the rest of Philadelphia sports history; loosing, haha.

But hey, we finally have a team, and there were a lot of positives to take from the game:

1. Physical Play: Nowak’s gotten a bit of press for criticizing the Seattle players, (especially former pantie model and Arsenal pretty boy Ljungburg), for diving. Honestly, I’m not sure if there was a lot of that going on. My impressions from the game were that the Union players looked a little wild and probably deserved most of the fouls. I don’t think Stahl should of gotten the first card, but the second was warranted.

I think the style of play is encouraging for two reasons. One, it fits into the Philly sport ethic. That might seem like a stupid reason but I have a feeling Nowak knows that for some Philly fans soccer is a hard sell. Those that criticize the sport say its not a man’s game. Well, if the Union keep playing the way they do I don’t think anyone will be saying that. Heck, I’m cool with us being the Bad News Bears of the MLS for a year if we do it Philly style; hard nosed and mean.

Second, our attack is going to take a while to get it’s act together. Everyone is so young and there’s no chemistry. If the Sounders of last year are our model, then we’re going to have to focus on defense and wait for the front to develop. We can create chances by strong, aggressive holds and counters. They’ll make mistakes, for sure, but a tenacious D will increase confidence faster.

2. Young Guns: Roger Torres really impressed me. He seems like he could develop into a Columbian, MLS version of Palermo’s Javier Pastore. Good vision down field and touch that at times flashed magic. I know Fred is coming back for us next week, (which should help to anchor things in the middle), and that means Torres might be back on the bench. I really hope Nowak gives him playing time, though, because the kid very well could be gold. I thought one of the strongest parts of our game was the movement through the middle of the field.

Problems came when things got to the box, however. I thought Moreno didn’t hustle and his passes were lazy and inaccurate. Mwanga was a non factor and looked pretty crummy, but that had a lot to do with Nowak playing him out of position. I’m not sure what the rationale was behind that move but hopefully it will get sorted out shortly. Sébastien Le Toux played well, though I thought he suffered from some of the same brain farts that Moreno and Mwanga did when there seemed to be scoring possibilities. The guy definitely hustled and had a sense of urgency and appeared composed on a team that was all over the place for most of the night.

Besides Torres, I’d have to say our brightest star might be Jack McInerney. Dude is barely 5′8 and played all of ten minutes, but I though some of our best chances game during that time. Maybe the pressure was lifted off the 18 year old’s shoulder’s because they were down by two with such little time to play but he was cool enough to go for the bicycle on a ball he was called offsides for. He seems to have one thing in mind and that’s putting the ball into the back of the net.

3. Seitz: The first goal was tough considering the traffic and the break down in defense that allowed Zakuani to make the pass to Evans. The second was mostly Harvey’s fault for not stepping up. So, all that considered, our keeper didn’t have a bad game. He came out a few times we he needed to and kept the mistakes to a minimum. When you think about it, he didn’t have a lot of work to do, though, since the Sounders packed it in after HT, but all in all he seems smart and ready for the starting job. Time will tell.

The things we have to work on are straight forward. The defense looked pretty bad. Myrie was getting burned left and right and looked lost. They didn’t set the trap and made some bad challenges. The physical play was good, it just needs to be in control.

On the attack we need to move the ball around better near the box. Too often they gave the ball back unnecessarily. With more time together, hopefully, they’ll calm down and let things develop a little more. Movement off the ball definitely could be amped up a few notches.

We’ll have a whole season to pick the team apart. After one game I don’t think we still have any idea what this team is really about. In the mean time, celebrate Philadelphia! Our soccer tradition has started.

Category: Union News