adminPHILADELPHIA. – Teenage Hadebe was missing in action as his MLS club Houston Dynamos suffered a 0-6 thrashing at the hands of Philadelphia Union on Saturday night.
The hosts extended their winning streak to five games with the massacre at Subaru Park, matching the longest such run in team history.
Dániel Gazdag, Jack McGlynn, Mikael Uhre (twice), Julián Carranza, and Quinn Sullivan scored the goals. It’s the first time that the Union’s star attacking trio of Gazdag, Uhre, and Carranza have scored in the same game.
Gazdag looked set to score from the penalty spot after a Houston (7-12-4, 25 points) handball in the 19th minute, but the call was overturned after a replay review.
Fortunately for the Union (12-2-9, 45 points), it didn’t take the playmaker much longer to score his 11th goal of the season.
It was a textbook Union goal.
Kai Wagner to Gazdag to Jack McGlynn, all on the left side, then a terrific chipped pass by McGlynn over Houston’s back line that Mikael Uhre ran on to. He hit a low centering pass to Alejandro Bedoya, who sent a cushioned through ball for Gazdag – who had sprinted over half the field to the edge of the 6-yard box. Gazdag then slotted the ball to Steve Clark’s far post.
A free-kick, awarded about 25 yards from goal, meant it was Jakob Glesnes’ range.
But, instead, Wagner and McGlynn stood over it.
Wagner’s presence wasn’t surprising, since he’s the Union’s main set-piece taker, but it was a surprise when he stepped back to let McGlynn have it.
Well, McGlynn sure had it.
The 19-year-old hit a dazzling left-footed strike into the net for the Union’s second tally of the night and his first goal with the Union’s first team.
It helped that Clark, Houston’s starting goalkeeper, had to leave the game injured in the 26th minute.
His back-up Michael Nelson replaced him and was powerless against the Union attack.
If you had to pick one goal from the night to be the most important, it would be Gazdag’s because it came so soon after the overturned handball.
That could have been a momentum-changer.
But Uhre’s two goals are big deals, too, and they were pretty: a first-time hit at the start of first-half stoppage time, and a breakaway finish of a brilliant Bedoya through ball in the 48th minute.
The most expensive player in Union history now has eight goals and two assists this season.
Carranza also has eight goals and three assists, and Gazdag has 11 goals and three assists.
That’s 27 goals and eight assists combined for the Union’s top attacking trio. It hasn’t been often in Union history that the stars have delivered like this. – Philadelphia Inquirer
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter