Escaped Kansas, now back to Chester to face Pachuca
The Union steal a point on the road with a heavily rotated squad
Hi all!
If you had told me that Jeremy Rafanello would start, Holden Trent would be missing, and that Carranza would not even be part of the game-day roster, I would not have believed you.
However, that is exactly what was in store for the away trip to Kansas, and boy, did it have lots of controversy.
Here is the roster that the Union put on the field:
Before the match even started, we learned about the short-term signing of Andrew Rick, Union 2 goalkeeper, standing in for Holden Trent.
The heavily rotated Union were able to steal a goal and a point in the dying moments of the match, mainly due to an obvious mistake by the stand-in referees that MLS has in place.
Peter Vermes, the longest-tenured coach in MLS, was not happy. After the match, he chased down the officials to share his thoughts. During his press time, he shared the following when asked about the stand-in referees:
"That has nothing to do with it for me. I truly mean this. I watch a majority of the games in the league and I think that the referees that are doing the games have done a good job, I really do... Did you see last year at the end of the year when we played Houston? We had referees (PSRA-issued) and there were two handballs there and neither of them got called. One should have been a red card. They did not get called."
The reporter continues to ask about the referees of the match. Vermes closes by saying:
"I am not sure what else you are trying to bait me to get to, but it is starting to piss me off. Where you are going is the wrong way; the replacement referees have nothing to do with it. The referees are the referees. I said, I watched almost all these games in the league that have transpired so far and the referees have done a really good job...I don't know what else you want me to say."
However, he also shared some updates on José Martínez and what was really going on with Holden Trent.
On José:
"I think José will be okay. Hopefully, he can recover quickly for Tuesday. Just a little precautionary, didn't feel great; he said he was in pain at halftime, so we made an adjustment. Just an awkward tackle. You can see where, I don't want to say MCL, but where the ball, his foot lands a certain way and his knee gives out a bit. Those are scary. Hopefully, he is okay and can recover quickly."
On Trent:
"Holden, even last season had a fracture on his finger that he, to his credit, played through the injury for the team. That same injury has now resurfaced. He was willing to tough it out. But, the more we thought about it… we kind of took the ball out of his court and made a decision to have him get the surgery. Get taken care of and get fully healthy."
Finally, he shared more about the man who scored the goal, Alejandro Bedoya. He played his role to perfection against Sporting Kansas City, being the player that would calm the game down and ultimately be the difference in the second half. When Curtin was asked about his role this season, he shared the following:
"He gave us a calming presence in the second half. Connected his passes, and then in the biggest moment, when we are throwing guys forward. On basically the last kick of the game, to have the composure there... you see so many guys try and full swing that one, hit it a ton, winds up in the 30th row. To him, to just guide it to the upper corner, speaks to the composure, to the talent. It is not an easy finish. There is a lot of traffic in front of him. A big play from him... For Ale to have the composure there and hit the back of the net was very rewarding."
The Union will need much of that to cope with a STRONG Pachuca team on Tuesday. Philadelphia will have a makeshift backline due to card accumulation by Damián Lowe and a red card by Jack Elliott. Meanwhile, Pachuca come to Subaru Park in great form, have not lost a game since the 10th of February.
The game kicks off at 7:00 P.M.
Bonus:
Value of a Fabrizio Romano Tweet:
The Italian transfer guru is in a bit of hot water due to a small scandal ongoing in Norway.
Within the reporting, some interesting bits of information are shared, including the cost for agents to pay to have information disseminated by the social media personality.
You may be wondering why this story is relevant. Well, one must not forget about the news that came from Fabrizio Romano on December 16, announcing the new extension that Chris Donovan signed.
So, based on this report, the Chris Donovan announcement by Fabrizio Romano was only $1,100?
Per Chris' comments on a podcast, his agent from Prodigy Players Agency was going to "try to get Fabrizio Romano to announce it."
That feels pretty cheap for the 2.3 million views on Twitter/X.
Video Courtesy: MLS, Philadelphia Union, Chris Donovan, State of Soccer TV