When you take a look at the individual and team attacking statistics across Major League Soccer, the Philadelphia Union aren’t in bad shape in terms of their play in the final third.
The Union rank sixth in MLS with 14.7 shots per game. Two players, Borek Dockal and Haris Medunjanin, are in the top 20 for key passes per game, and Alejandro Bedoya has the best pass success rate (90.8 percent) of players featuring in more than 700 minutes.
Throughout their first 18 games, the Union showed spurts of attacking brilliance. But with the praise comes criticism due to their lack of finishing. With one win in the last five games, the Union need to find a way to capitalize on the pressure they create in order to hang in the Eastern Conference playoff race — starting with their road trip to Chicago Wednesday night.
The Union have a blueprint for beating the Fire, and they’ve put plenty of pressure on opponents during their last five games, but the one missing component is a functional forward.
Of the 72 shots the Union have taken during that stretch, 21 have gone on goal, which means just under 30 percent of the Union’s attempts are challenging opposing goalkeepers.
Forward C.J. Sapong, who scored 16 goals in 2017, has put three shots on target since the start of May. The only two goals the American striker scored came in the season opener against New England and in a 3-2 win over D.C. United April 28.
Fans have been clamoring for an extended appearance by Cory Burke, who scored in his last start against the Chicago Fire on May 30. He hasn’t played more than 29 minutes in a league game since.
Unlike past years, the creativity in the final third isn’t lacking. Dockal has settled into the No. 10 role that Roland Alberg failed to lock down during his time with the club. Combined with Medunjanin and Bedoya, Dockal forms a midfield spine that should be able to challenge most opposing defenses over the course of 90 minutes.
On the right wing, Keegan Rosenberry and Ilsinho formed a nice partnership, one that continues to grow as Rosenberry returns to, and in some instances exceeds, his rookie campaign form that earned him a call-up to the United States men’s national team January camp.
The overlapping combination between Rosenberry and Ilsinho adds more fruits to the Union attack, which leans to the right side of the field because of the tendencies of Bedoya and Dockal.
The four-pronged look on the right wing opens up space for Medunjanin to spray passes from his central position, and it allows either for the switch of play to Fafa Picault on the left wing, or it lets Dockal and Ilsinho storm into the box from the wing, with Medunjanin occupying space 18-25 yards from goal.
At times during Saturday’s loss to Atlanta United, Picault took advantage of his speed to fly past Franco Escobar on the left wing, but the final touch into the back of the net continued to escape the Union.
If the issues up top aren’t fixed and more of the same continues, the Union will remain in a similar position — languishing just beneath the red line while the potential of a playoff spot dangles out of reach until the final few weeks of the season.