In the Union’s first game of the 2013 season they suffered a 3-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City. The team played an outstanding first half, the Union being the prominent team.
The squad got the game going early on with a huge scoring opportunity in the fourth minute when Michael Farfan dribbled the ball down the right side of the field, then crossed the it over into the box finding the feet of Sebastien Le Toux. Le Toux swiftly passed the ball to his right to Gabriel Farfan who took a low, hard shot directly at K.C. goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen. The ball rebounded off Nielsen back to Farfan who lobbed the ball right over the net, and the chance was over. The next big chance for the Union came in the 17th minute when Keon Daniel took the ball up the right side of the field and crossed it perfectly to Le Toux who was dead center in the box. Le Toux controlled the ball then volleyed it right past Sporting KC goalkeeper Neilson into the net, bringing the Union up 1-0. Another near-score came in the 22nd minute when defender Sheanon Williams rapidly dribbled the ball and passed to Le Toux just in front of the box, but Le Toux’s shot went just wide of the net to the left. This chance could have easily given the team their second goal. It was then in the 41st minute when the Union’s energy seemed to die down, and they allowed Sporting Kansas City to score the equalizer. The goal was thanks to a faulty defensive gap that allowed Bobby Convey to slip past Amobi Okugo and Brian Carroll and get a cross into the box. Claudio Bieler then headed the ball right to the feet of Feilhaber who then took a shot on MacMath. MacMath stopped the ball but was it rebounded off to Graham Zusi into the net. Then in the 66th minute, it was Sporting KC’s Rosell who scored off a ball played in by Zusi on a free kick. The game completely fell apart when Sporting KC were able to score their third goal in the 83rd minute. Bieler, wide open in the box, was passed the ball and drove it to the back of the net, giving the Union no hope of a win or even a tie.
The only questioning I had for the starting line up was Jack Hackworth's choice to start Sebastien Le Toux, and Keon Daniel up top. Choosing Daniel was an odd decision on Hackworth’s behalf as Daniel is a midfielder. It was also weird to me that Conor Casey and Jack McInerney were both on the bench. Le Toux showed excellent play, as he always has for the Union. He put a lot of pressure on the ball and opened up several opportunities throughout. Daniel on the other hand, didn't show the same skill as Le Toux, but overall wasn't terrible. He was a large aspect of Le Toux’s goal. In the 84th minute Daniel was subbed for Casey,who only got six minutes of play. I can’t criticize on him because he wasn’t given the ball a lot. As for midfield the starting line-up consisted of captain, Brian Carroll, Michael Lahoud, and the Farfan brothers, Michael and Gabriel. The midfield did an acceptable job of taking the ball down the field and creating chances. The Farfan brothers were standouts throughout the game working seamlessly with one another and their hard work and effort showed. Defensively the team was solid. Starters were Amobi Okugo, Sheanon Williams, Raymon Gaddis, and the new face Jeff Parke. Parke fit into the team smoothly. There were few defensive errors towards the end of the game. One of the biggest struggles for the Union is marking people in the net, which repetitively was a problem for the defense.
Fan favorite Le Toux tried keeping fans in a positive mindset moving forward in the season. Although the Union didn’t get the result they were hoping for, Le Toux was determined to not let this one game characterize the rest of the season. The team needed to focus on playing the same way they did the first half of the match. The only thing the group could do, is concentrate on getting 3 points on the road against the Colorado Rapids. In fact, on March 5th the Union reviewed their game play of the March 2nd game in hope of improving for the upcoming game.
Reviewing their play, and improving upon it seemed to work because the Union pulled out a 2-1 road win in their second regular season game against the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Now how the Union managed to get at his win is a mystery to me because the team didn't play to its full potential. The Rapids were coming off a loss from their home opener as well so going into the game it was hard to predict who would come out on top as the better team. The Union got the game going in the 34th minute when defender Amobi Okugo scored his first professional goal. Okugo, positioned at back post, headed the a corner kick from Sebastien Le Toux into goal. Then in the 68th minute we saw a repeat of last weeks game when Colorado forward Jamie Smith tied the game up thanks to a huge defensive gap created just like last week by Jeff Parke who then found himself sprinting back to goal, Gaddis also tripped on his feet causing Smith to get a crack at net and MacMath just couldn’t save this one. Shortly after Colorado’s goal, the Union seized hope of a win for the Rapids because in the 79th minute Jack Mclnerny scored a goal just from inside the box. It was luck for the Union that they managed to score a second time, while preventing Colorado goal. The defense throughout the entirety of the second half showed an unorganized form of play. All in all, the union achieved 3 points, which eased to upset of the home opener last week.
(image courtesy of Greg Carroccio)
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