The origin story of the Philadelphia Union includes some of the initial team branding using a roundish swirly font on merchandise that included “2010” markings for the Union’s inaugural season. The strange font caused a few humorous incidents where people mistook the “2010” logo for “Zolo”, so Zolo caught on as an unofficial nickname for the squad. Club Tijuana of Liga MX is nicknamed the “Xolos”. On a pleasant Saturday evening at Subaru Park in Chester for the Leagues Cup group stage opener for both teams, Zolo bested the Xolos by a score of 3-1. Julián Carranza led the Union with two goals and Carlos González had the goal for Tijuana.
The Union swarmed Tijuana on the offensive side for most of the match, racking up 27 shots with 17 on target. In the 18th minute, Julián Carranza was coming up the field into the box and was pulled down from behind by Nicolás Diaz. The officials checked with the Video Assisted Review (VAR) and determined that Diaz was not making a legitimate play on the ball since he tackled Carranza high, so Diaz was sent off with a red card for his efforts. Daniel Gazdag set up for the Penalty Kick in the 21st minute, and the Hungarian Hammer sent his kick into the center of the goal to strike first for Philadelphia. A few minutes later In the 26th minute, a scrum off a corner kick sent the ball back out to Kai Wagner outside the box. Wagner sent a pass into the middle of the box which went through a defender’s legs and found Carranza in front of the net to send it home. The goal was initially waved offside but the officials reviewed VAR and determined it was a good goal as the defender touched the ball to redirect Wagner’s pass putting the Union up 2-0. Tijuana had chances in the 37th minute when Diego Barbosa took a shot from the right side of the box tapped over the crossbar by a leaping Andre Blake, and again just before halftime when Carlos González took a right footed shot from the center of the box to the dead center of the goal where Blake made a diving stop to keep the score 2-0 going into the break.
Just after the start of the second half in the 46th minute, Francisco Contreras of Tijuana took advantage of a defensive miscue by the Union to send a cross from the left corner over to Carlos González in the center of the box. González sent a rocket past Andre Blake to close the gap to 2-1. Shortly afterwards in the 48th minute Olivier Mbaizo knocked down Alexis Canelo at the left corner of the penalty area. The officials checked with VAR and determined Mbaizo fouled Canelo just inside the corner of the penalty area, setting up González for a Penalty Kick to potentially tie the game in the 52nd minute. González tried to go low, sending a shot towards the bottom right corner which was saved by Andre Blake to preserve the Union lead. In the 56th minute Kevin Balanta of Tijuana slid low into Mikael Uhre shortly after he checked into the game. The officials checked with VAR and issued a red card to Balanta, putting Tijuana down two players for the remainder of the match. Uhre failed to convert the free kick so the score remained 2-1.
In the 65th minute, Tijuana goalie Jose Antonio Rodriguez injured his leg on a goal kick, delaying the match for several minutes as he received medical attention before he left the pitch. The 42 year old veteran goalie Jose Jesus “Chuy” Corona came in to replace Rodriguez. Philly broke the game open in the 71st minute when Jesus Bueno fielded a pass on the right side of the box and found Carranza in the center of the box to send a shot past Corona to put the Union up 3-1 to take off some pressure for the remainder of the match.
In the postgame press conference, Union coach Jim Curtin had mixed feelings, acknowledging the importance of the win but seeing much room for improvement:
“I think it’s important that when you’re in an elimination competition, your first game kind of sets the tone for how the tournament will go…I can’t get too angry. We had I think an expected goals of almost six, so it wasn’t a lack of chances, but I think we had a lot of immature moments on the field where we just went brain dead, and you get punished (for that) against good competition. Credit to Tijuana, even down a man they pushed and got themselves back in the game. The second red card happens, and we need to be a little bit smarter. We were turning the ball over in bad spots…and just making bad decisions in front of the goal. Overall we know we need to get better.”
Julián Carranza echoed his coach’s sentiments:
“Of course we’re disappointed, because there were too many chances that we gave up. We conceded one goal and one penalty, that shouldn’t happen when we’re up one man or two. We’re not happy with the 3-1. I mean we won of course, but it should have been 4-0 or 5-0 instead of 3-1.”
Carranza is very excited to see his fellow Argentinian Lionel Messi come to MLS making his debut for Inter Miami Friday night:
“I think it’s crazy for everyone, everyone is going to enjoy it. I enjoy it even more since he gave us (Argentina) the world cup several months ago, so I’m just happy to have him here…Just happy for this, happy for him that he’s here!”
News and notes:
- Tijuana is 1-1-1 so far in the 2023-24 Liga MX season. They finished 15th out of 18 in the league in both halves of the 2022-23 season.
- Union Captain Alejandro Bedoya and midfielder Leon Flach were held out of the match due to injury. Jack McGlynn and Jesus Bueno started in their place.
- The top two finishers in this group of three teams will advance to the knockout rounds starting August 2.
- Club Tijuana coach Miguel Herrera is a volatile character who has a checkered history in Philadelphia. He was infamously fired as coach of Mexico’s National Team after a 2015 incident where he punched an Azteca newspaper reporter while they were waiting in the TSA line at the Philadelphia International Airport over lingering hostilities from a Twitter flame war between the two a few weeks prior. Herrera was issued a yellow card in the 34th minute of this game for some choice words directed at the officials.
- Less than a minute later in the 35th, Philadelphia’s mercurial midfielder Jose Martinez earned himself a yellow card for a bad foul, so it was fitting that the two most explosive personalities in the building were issued yellow cards a few seconds apart.
- The Union’s next match is on Wednesday at 7:30 against Queretaro at Subaru Park. All Leagues Cup matches will be streamed on Apple TV+.