Smallwood: With the Union, anything can happen in the playoffs
For those who have followed the Philadelphia Union, the irony of this franchise sneaking into the Major League Soccer playoffs via a tiebreaker of goal differential should not be lost.
From its birth in the 2010 season, the consistent issue with this team has been its inability to score goals no matter the makeup of the roster or management.
In its seventh season, the Union netted a team record 52 MLS goals and had a goals per game average of 1.529 – only the second time it has eclipsed the 50-goal barrier and averaged 1 ½ goals a game.
Pushed to the second tiebreaker with the New England Revolution because it could not earn a point in its final two games – both at Talen Energy Stadium – the Union earned the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference by having a seven-goal advantage in goal differential.
Going into Sunday’s season finales, the Union was in the playoffs unless the Revolution outscored them by an aggregate of 12 goals.
Philadelphia did not need all of that cushion, but its 2-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls coupled with New England’s 3-2 win over Montreal made it good that its backdoor into the playoffs was wide open and blocked from closing by a city bus.
Had the Union earned a draw in either of its final two matches, it would have been a point clear of New England and earned a playoff spot instead of being gifted one.
The Union, however, lost 2-0 to Orlando City and then to the Red Bulls, ending the regular season on a seven-match winless streak.
“It’s pro sports so there’s no celebrating when you lose,” Union manager Jim Curtin said. “The guys are competitive, they’re hard on themselves. It’s no secret we’ve had a drop in form, but we still have a good group and I’m self-critical. I look at myself in terms of a million different things.”
Frankly, all of that doom and gloom and self-evaluating can wait until the season is over. Right now, the Union has at least one game left and maybe more if it can get its act together.
The Union will travel to No. 3 seed Toronto FC on Wednesday for a one-game playoff. If it wins, it will meet the No. 1 seed Red Bulls in the conference semifinals in a home-and-home aggregate score format.
The first match would be at Talen Energy.
Okay, so it was not an ideal or even impressive way to earn a playoff ticket and, yes, the Union has zero momentum. Still, Philadelphia is in the postseason for just the second time in its history.
As disgusted as the team should be about the lack of intestinal fortitude it has shown in the last two weeks, the Union players went through a 34-game schedule just like every other MLS team.
It may have ended up being the minimum, but they did what they had to do to qualify for one of the six playoff spots in the East. Four other teams had the same opportunity and did not.
That counts for something and should not be dismissed.
The Union is not a finished product under the direction of first-year sporting director Earnie Stewart, but the goal from the first day was to make the playoffs and get into that “you never know” situation concerning the MLS Cup.
That’s what the Union has done and if it can figure out again how to score goals, it might do something surprising.
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