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Hey, a win!
The Philadelphia Union did what any respectable (or even semi-respectable) team should do and beat up on lowly Chivas USA Saturday night, posting a 3-0 win in Southern California.
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Sure, Chivas is maybe the only team more disappointing than the Union this season, and is a perennial laughing stock in MLS, but still, three points is three points.
The highlight of the night was an absolutely beautiful team goal that started with Maurice Edu near the center circle. Edu sprayed a really nice pass wide to the left to Cristian Maidana. For an instant, Maidana, who had struggled up until that point after missing last week's game due to suspension, seemed to lose his touch near the top of the penalty area, but recovered with a perfectly placed left-footed cross. Conor Casey, who got the start over Andrew Wenger, left no doubt, with a sorta-diving header past goalie Dan Kennedy (usually the only Chivas player worth noticing).
Conor Casey's early penalty kick and Maidana's second-half goal that absolutely should not have counted due to offsides capped the scoring for the Union.
I went to bed with two thoughts on the match:
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1) Philadelphia is now 3-1 this season in games where Amobi Okugo is the captain. And you know when Okugo gets the armband? When Brian Carroll doesn't play.
As someone pointed out when I tweeted that during the game:
@Smoore1117 It's shocking how that works isn't it?
— Shawn Wunder (@ShawnWunder) June 1, 2014
2) In my totally-devoid-of-inside-information opinion, the win all but guarantees manager John Hackworth will be here through the end of the season. Considering he's still here even after multiple embarrassing losses, it's clear the team doesn't want to pull the trigger. And I figured the only thing that would've forced ownership's hand was two more bad losses before the World Cup break.
Barring a complete meltdown Saturday night at home against Vancouver (i.e. losing 6-0 or 14-2), I think Hack will get to see the season out.