CHESTER, Pa. — The Philadelphia Union produced their best all-around performance of the season in a 4-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday.
Here are three things we learned from the victory that pushed the Union into the Eastern Conference playoff places.
1. We Were Officially Wrong About Borek Dockal
We have a need to judge players based off one or two games instead of in the long-term perspective.
When Borek Dockal entered the fray at the end of the preseason, the Union were desperate for a creative playmaker in the No. 10 role of the 4-2-3-1 formation.
In his first few performances, the Czech midfielder disappointed, as the Union’s attacking cohesion was off and the offensive-minded players leaned too far right and lacked chemistry.
While blistering criticism of the Union’s lack of creativity came in, manager Jim Curtin stuck with Dockal and the February signing has rewarded the club with four goals and four assists in the last six games.
The Union are still more a right-sided team with Alejandro Bedoya, Ilsinho and Keegan Rosenberry joining Dockal, but they’ve figured out a way to overwhelm defenses.
“Look we are a right-sided dominant team,” Curtin said. “Ale’s tendency is to drift over there. We have talked about it with you guys a bunch now and it is a case of if it is not broke, don’t try and fix it and overthink things.”
“We had tons of crosses there, we did not get on the end of any of them but got our goal, which made Vancouver have to open up,” Curtin said. “Brek [Shea] has played some at left back and has played a lot as a number nine this year so it is not an easy task to switch. I thought we had a good joy and success on that side.”
The Union’s strength exploited Vancouver’s biggest weakness, which is what Dockal and Co. noticed immediately.
“You try to find the weakness of the opponent,” Dockal said. “Today, we could clearly see from the first minute there was a lot of space on our right hand side to create the chances. We had already in the first 20 minutes like two to three good chances from that spot. We just kept going to make them busy on the left side and I think we deserved to score even more goals today.”
Philadelphia’s reliance on the right side could be thwarted by LAFC and Atlanta United in the next two weeks, which means Dockal has to either find more holes in the opposing defenses, or bring the attack back to the center in an attempt to open up the back four.
No matter what he does, Dockal is one of the top in-form players in the league at the moment, and he’s proven he was more than worth the wait.
2. No Controversy Surrounding Penalty Kick Takers
Ever since Sebastien Le Toux, who was honored as the first member of the Union Ring of Honor on Saturday, left the Union, the club’s been searching for a consistent penalty-kick taker.
Last season, the decision by Roland Alberg to take a penalty kick away from C.J. Sapong, and although there could have been another bit of controversy on Saturday, it was avoided.
When Cory Burke earned the first of two penalties in the 74th minute, Ilsinho took the ball to the spot instead of Dockal, who was in the hunt for a hat-trick.
“(Ilsinho) just wanted to take the penalty,’ Dockal said. “I was okay with that. I’m not here to make my numbers, I’m here to win the games and we won so it was absolutely okay to me.”
A similar situation reared its head in second-half stoppage time, as Burke tried to step to the spot, but the Union bench wanted to reward Fafa Picault for his efforts with a goal.
“It is a situation where Cory is a striker and he wants to step up,” Curtin said. “He drew a penalty himself prior so he wants to step up and take the PK. I overruled that and said that Fafa, for the 94 minutes sprinting all over the field deserved it in that moment.”
While it remains to be seen if there’s a consistent penalty taker by the end of the season, Curtin appreciates the hunger possessed by all of his attack-minded players.
“I want guys that want to score; I like that Cory took that thing as quick as he could,” Curtin said.
3. Rare Total Dominance From Union
The Union have controlled matches for long stretches this season, but they haven’t been able to put together a complete 90-minute performance.
Usually at some point the Union give up a needless goal that puts more pressure on them, or fail to finish a significant amount of scoring opportunities.
We didn’t see any of that on Saturday, as the Union were in full control, as they completed 90 percent of their 607 passes, put 11 of their 25 shots on target and held the Whitecaps without an attempt on goal.
If the Union are able to bank off the confidence created by Saturday’s win, they should end up in the top six by the end of the regular season.