If the transitive property was applied to soccer, LAFC would beat Vancouver Whitecaps 8-1.
Thankfully that nonsensical math theorem is not applicable to soccer, but was used here to highlight the vast discrepancy between the Union’s 4-0 win last match against Vancouver and its 4-1 loss to LAFC on Saturday evening.
Something went horribly wrong for the Union in its first ever match at Banc of California Stadium. Perhaps it was the unfamiliar environment, or maybe it was the six-hour flight that made the difference – all signs that point to a difficulty playing on the road. Maybe LAFC is just a superior team, or maybe things just didn’t go the Unions way.
Whatever way the loss is portrayed, playing on the road in MLS is always an incredibly difficult task, and it certainly played some role in the Union’s loss, though perhaps a smaller one than a surface look reveals.
The Union are now 1-1-6 on the road, and have scored only four goals while conceding 16 times away from Talen Energy Park. One of those four were scored by Fafa Picault this Saturday, and two came from the Union’s sole road victory in a 2-0 win in Montreal.
“In football you just play, a field is a field, it doesn’t matter being home or away” goalscorer Fafa Picault said after the match. “We got our chances. (We’re) not going to win every game every week so its time to regroup.”
Even Union coach Jim Curtin didn’t want to acknowledge that playing on the road had an impact on the loss, instead mentioning how quick a rise in form can be nullified.
“This is what MLS is, from week to week things can change very fast,” Curtin said. “The team that we scored four against last week was coming in as the hottest team in the league.”
To be fair to Curtin, he came out with every intent to get three points, and also thought his team did enough to get a win on the day.
“We didn’t come into Los Angeles to put 10 men behind the ball and defend,” Curtin said. “But we went for it, we had chances early, but we had youthful mistakes which we signed up for and are on board with. We see a lot of progress with our young center backs.”
So, was it just the matter of “our rookies will make mistakes and this was one such day?” It’s reasonable to think a pair of teenage center backs would concede goals solely due to inexperience.
But it goes deeper than a loss of possession out of the back.
The team had begun to find winning form before a truly odd moment where both Union midfielders Alejandro Bedoya and Haris Medunjanin were sent off in a matter of seconds against Atlanta United.
Before that match, the Union had won three and drew one as it seemed the team was turning its fortunes around after a rocky start. The loss to Atlanta was followed by another loss to Toronto before the big victory against Vancouver as the Union fell to 1-0-3 in its last four. Quite the swing in momentum, as noticed by Curtin.
The noticeable difference between the Union’s 4-0 win last game and the 4-1 loss was also the absence of attacking midfielder Borek Dockal, who took home MLS player of the week honors after scoring two goals against Vancouver. Meanwhile, Haris Medunjanin served the final of game of his three match ban in Los Angeles due to his red card in Atlanta. How big of an impact was the lack of veteran leadership in the Union’s downfall to LAFC?
“Haris [Medunjanin] and Borek [Dockal] are two of our best players, thats no secret,” Curtin said of the missing midfield duo. “But (we) have a full roster of 30 players and have to call on the next guy to step up. Certainly missing Borek, our number 10 who’s playing at a very high level right now hurt.”
Stats don’t show the whole image, but looking at how Medunjanin’s replacement, Warren Creavalle, performed showed he filled in quite well. Creavalle completed 53 passes, the most of any Union player, while also making a pair of tackles (though nowhere near as many as the astounding 11 that Keegan Rosenberry completed). There’s so many intangibles that this stat cannot convey, but Creavalle does offer more than Medunjanin defensively in terms of distance covered and overall speed, as well as tackling ability and 1v1 defending. Its fair to say Creavalle isn’t displacing Medunjanin after this run of matches, as Medunjanin is a leader of the field, but he surely wasn’t the reason the Union had such a change of fortune. Creavalle is a journeyman in MLS, and is one of the most reliable players around. That doesn’t mean he should be a surefire starter, but his ability to fill in for Medunjanin shouldn’t be ignored (you can ignore the fact Derrick Jones didn’t see any time, if you happen to be a big Jones fan.)
Put plainly, the Union’s transition from a big win to a big loss can potentially be put down to playing on the road, even if no one wants to admit it. It’s incredibly difficult playing on the road in MLS.
A total of 10 MLS teams have one or fewer wins on the road, having played a minimum of seven games away from home – the Union being one of them.
The finishing wasn’t sublime against LAFC, and there were youthful errors from the defenders, and it hurt not having a full squad. But the fact that so few teams manage to pull out wins as the visiting team points to a separate mental factor that no coach has yet to really figure out.
The best teams in MLS get results on the road, but not that many. Even juggernauts NYCFC are just 2-3-3 away from Yankee Stadium. The New York Red Bulls are 3-1-3.
No one is asking Philadelphia to suddenly become as strong as Atlanta (5-2-1) on the road. But the little, controllable aspects need to be fixed on the road, or else just admit that it’s damn hard to be a winning team while not in the comfort of our own home.
Philadelphia Union
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