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CHESTER, PA– The loud noise heard Saturday on the banks of the Delaware River was a collective exhale turned into celebration.
The Philadelphia Union scored as many goals against D.C. United as they did in their first six games and disposed of the Black and Red 3-2 at Talen Energy Stadium.
The deep breath taken by fans, players and coaches didn’t occur until the final whistle given the fight of Ben Olsen’s D.C. United side.
“It was a relief for us because we’re fighting every game to score a goal,” Union midfielder Haris Medunjanin said.
The visitors struck first in the seventh minute, when Zoltán Stieber finished from the right side of the box after a defensive miscue by Union center back Jack Elliott.
D.C.’s goal ended a 451-minute scoreless drought in league play at Talen Energy Stadium.
Philadelphia broke its own scoreless run in the 37th minute, when an Ilsinho shot from the right wing deflected off a D.C. defender for the first Union strike in 243 minutes.
The Union appeared to be in control once C.J. Sapong nodded home an exquisite sequence of headed balls started by Medunjanin, but D.C. struck out of nowhere through Darren Mattocks’ 70th-minute equalizer.
“You see D.C. United who just defend and don’t want to play soccer. They score from nowhere,” Medunjanin said. “The first one is our mistake, but the second was a cross from nowhere, but this is football. If you don’t make another goal then the opponent is going to school.”
Before D.C. had time to realize the game was tied, Borek Dockal delivered his first-career Union goal in fantastic fashion, as he picked out the top-right corner of the goal from a tight angle.
“I think today Borek played amazing,” Medunjanin said. “He gave a lot of passes to CJ, Ilsinho, who played a good game today. You see if we play for each other, find other. I think we can find each other more and score much easier.”
“We put so much effort into because we all have problems first. We put so much energy into defending. That it started to ware on us,” D.C. United manager Ben Olsen said. “The guys not moving enough, our inability to regain possession when we won it wasn’t great on the night. We had bad decisions in transition.“
The Union closed the contest out in the final 15 minutes to create momentum heading into a three-game road swing that starts in Toronto on Friday.
D.C. has another week off in between games before visiting Real Salt Lake May 12 to start a four-game Western swing.