Union Playoff Post: Part Deux

Robertson Stadium - Future home of Union Domination

Most of us do know what happened  on Sunday for the Philadelphia Union. If you don’t, to put it quite simply, the Union outplayed the Dynamo for most of the game and came up short 2-1. In the first playoff game at PPL Park, the field seemed to be tilted in favor of the Union though. The Union outshot their opponents 16 to 11 and 12 of the Union’s shots were on net opposed to the Dynamo’s  5 shots on net. A reason for the lopsided shots may have been the corner kick advantage that the Union also held, 7 to 4. As we have stated on here previously, we are no soccer experts, but here are a couple tidbits to look for on Thursday night in Houston at 8:30 PM EST.

Le Toux looks like less of a girl. Translation? Union are primed for the win.

The first thing is… How do the Union even win in a two game series if they have already lost Game One? Good question, the MLS playoff guidelines decide the winner in three parts. First, if the Union lose or tie, they automatically lose the series no ifs ands or buts about it. The second way is AG or aggregate goal, which simply means that if each team wins a game in the playoffs, but the Dynamo win by one goal and the Union win by 2 goals, the Union would win the series. So, since the Dynamo won the first game 2-1, that gives them a +1 goal differential. If the Union win Thursday night in Houston by a score of 2-0 or 3-1 then the Union would win because they had scored more goals. However, the last outcome would be if the Union won on Thursday by a +1 goal differential. Whether it was 2-1, 3-2, 4-3, or just 1-0, if the Union win by one goal, then we have an aggregate goal tie and must then move onto the tiebreaker. The tiebreaker would mean that at the end of Thursdays game, if all goals are even, there would then be two 15 minutes halves played to determine the winner. It is not a ‘golden goal’ format like in a hockey OT, so the two full 15 minute halves would be played no matter what. If no one scores ibn them, then we would go to the “greatest spectacle in sports”, as some may call it, the shootout. Of course, we all know how shootouts go. Obviously of these three choices, we definitely don’t want the first option, either of the other two is winable for our highly talented side.

The second thing to watch out for is the offensive pace of the Union. The Union did have good ball possession throughout most of the game, but it seemed like in the final third, they forgot what to do with it. They either tried a highly risky, unsuccessful pass into the box or one man tried to do too much with it until it was taken by the opposition. The build up was never enough to get solid scoring chances. Some of the solid chances that came in this game were off of corners. The boys in blue possessed the ball for a good amount of time, but it is time to make smarter passes in the final third and generate good passes into scoring opportunities. One place the Union might be able to get this is from is the veteran, Sebastien Le Toux. He is an electric scorer, but he is also a smart player, look for him to do the little things to help the team succeed tomorrow night. If this can't happen, second half fire plug Roger Torres may be able to come on and spark the boys for a couple late goals anyway.  We need these things to happen or the second game should turn out the exact same way as the first, except this time it will be the end of the season.

The one expectation that we have of this game is that some of the veteran leaders will have everyone in the locker room ready to play. Mondragon, Le Toux, and Califf are not playing in their first important game so they will have some of the lesser experienced Union players poised to play. The boys in blue have to win the possession battle and pick their spots on offense and we can still see the Union, led by Peter Nowak, in the next round of the playoffs.

Jungite aut Perite

"Join, or Die!" What Philadelphia fan wouldn't love that?

We know what some of you are thinking, wait what are these guys talking about? Is the city really looking forward to an MLS playoff game? Our answer to you few is, “Shut up.” Although we have not written anything about this team all season, it’s not because we don’t follow them closely. It is more of a… how do we say this? We know absolutely zilch about the game of soccer. We know the rules and things like that, but as far as tactical or strategic moves in the game… Our most profound thought is try to put the ball in the net and we enjoy good crosses into the box. We learned this from our many, many hours and late nights playing FIFA World Cup 2010 for Xbox (Hint: Didier Drogba and the Ivory Coast or Cote d’Ivoire are disgusting in this game. Just send one into the box in the air and soccers’ version of Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain, better known as Didier Drogba, will put it in the back of the net every time.) . Needless to say, with this being our extensive knowledge of the game, we have been hesitant to write about soccer, but we do watch almost every game and go to many of them as well. Here a couple things to get excited about with the upcoming MLS playoffs.

1.     This team is only a second year expansion team and they are already in the playoffs. Think about how hard it is in any professional sport to accomplish something like this. Ask the Bob McNair and the Houston Texans how good they are doing with the playoffs 10 years later. Pretty well actually, they are undefeated BECAUSE THEY’VE NEVER BEEN TO THE PLAYOFFS. This is a pretty big task for a young expansion team. The team has done well with Peter Nowak as the manager and drafted well to get to this point. They have done a good job of mixing young talent (Danny Mwanga) with solid veterans (Faryd Mondragon, Sebastien Le Toux) which has created solid chemistry with this team.

"Oooooooh... you suck @$$HOLE!"

2.     The Sons of Ben will be rocking. If you are unfamiliar with the Sons of Ben, it is the supporter section for the Union at the Rivers’ end of the stadium. On any normal regular season game, the side is loaded (not only are there a lot of people but the people in the section are loaded also), the SOB are always rowdy and loud, and they are everything a Philadelphia fan should be. They are loud and abusive to the opponent, they never sit down during any point of the game and most of them dress up in ridiculous attire to support the squad. The SOB will be loud and proud on Sunday night and we can’t wait to see their excitement after the first Union playoff goal.

You the fans... you're what drives me. I am a man of the people

3.     There is one man that encompasses all of Philadelphia Sports: Sebastien Le Toux. Yes, yes, yes you read correctly, we did say that all that encompasses Philadelphia sports is a French guy. He does not put up the white flag as many of his kind do, instead he continues to fight on. Sebastien has been with the team since its inception and he is everything that a Philadelphia fan enjoys seeing on a daily basis. Both of his years with the team he has been in MVP talks (which is important because if you’re not a winner here then go to Chicago, they’ll accept a loser). These talks were mostly spurned by a second half onslaught that saw him record 10 goals in the last 12 games including 2 goal performances versus DC United, New England, and Dallas. He does nothing but hustle up and down the field on offense and defense. As a striker it is easy to get lazy on defense and focus all of your energy on the offensive side of the ball, but true to form, Sebastien does play both ways (haha) very well. He realizes that defense generates an offensive counter-attack and he wants to be involved. The last thing you can say about this guy is that he loves the fans. After every home game he will walk around the stadium signing as many autographs as his fingers can bear. He wants every kid to leave with an autograph or a picture of their hero so that they can go home happy. Mind you, this is after he just gets done playing a full 90+ minute game of soccer in which he is sprinting up and down the field. Not even a lot of baseball players do this after they stand in the outfield on and off for 3 hours. He is loyal to his team, this city, and most importantly the fans that pretty much help pay his salary. Le Toux really does not get enough credit in this city for his all around great play and respect for this city so be excited for him to do big things for the Union in their first ever playoff run.

4.     DOOP. There are a lot of neat traditions with a lot of Philadelphia sports. All of Philadelphia and the sports world in general loves the Phillie Phanatic and he has become a staple of fan spirit at Phillies games. With the Eagles, we have our Eagles fight song which we sing after every touchdown. The Flyers have their amazing goal songs, and now there is something else… The stadium gets transformed by the Union’s goal song: DOOP. It is a song that brings about passion and excitement when there is a goal scored at PPL stadium. The manager, one of the architects of this young team, Peter Nowak, picked this song because he thought it was something the city could get behind. The stadium loves it and it is something that has taken on a life of its own. There are bumper stickers and tshirts with just DOOP on it and you may have even heard it somewhere else. It has found its way into the Flyers goal song at home as well. It gives the city of Philadelphia its own celebration and is something that, with backing, will continue to be known as one of the better sports traditions in the city.

This team is good enough to win an MLS cup for the city and for the franchise. We love a winner in Philadelphia and trust us this is a winning team. We don’t guarantee a championship this year, but this young team is going to be winning for years to come with all the talent we have so jump on the bandwagon now and get excited for the playoffs.

If you have never gone to a Union game before now is the perfect time to do it. Get in on the action and strike while the iron is still hot. The stadium is beautiful and the atmosphere is going to be electric. Even if you can’t go, support our boys by watching on ESPN2. If you don’t understand a lot that is going on, don’t worry, just do what we do and get extremely loud when the ball goes in the net behind their goalie.

 DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP DOOP