For Whom Does the Ball Not Lie?

The Union clearly steal a point in Columbus.  The USMNT U-20s win the CONCACAF Championships with Union players contributing mightily.

Rasheed Wallace, as far as we know, was the first to use the expression "ball don't lie" in response to a missed free throw for what the person believes was an unjustified foul call.  The original use is seen here.  The phrase works well in other settings, perhaps no more so than for, ahem, soft PK calls in soccer.  For our money, the call against Gazdag in the 18th minute of the Union's contest with Columbus falls into that category.  You can see the play here.  Santos' effort wasn't great but Blake's save was still pretty good.  Ball don't lie.  

Interference?  Was the shot unsavable anyway?

That was but one piece of the Union's lucky escape from Columbus with a 0-0 draw.  I don't need the stats to tell me who had the run of play but they do paint the picture well.  Possession was 35/65, shots were 4/16, shots on target 2/5 and xG .3 to 1.5.  The U's passing accuracy continued to be abysmal at 70.5%.  Columbus also had a goal pulled back after VAR review for offside.  You can see the play here. No doubt that Hurtado was in an offside position.  My first thought was that there was no interference.  Clearly Blake's reaction suggests there was not.  The picture provides some support for the decision; when the shot was taken, Hurtado was on the "shot side" of Blake.  But did it matter?  As in, even properly sighted, would Blake have gotten to the ball?  Columbus not happy but that's their problem.

Playing spin doctor here, remember this was the third match in 8 days and the "kids" were still in Central America playing in the CONCACAF U-20 Championships.  Martinez was serving a one-game suspension for his two yellows on Wednesday.  As we noted last week, a draw here was always about the best outcome possible.  If you take away the PK attempt, the xG differential drops to .3 - .7; as in the U defense wasn't all that bad.  Curtin also trotted out a new formation (5-3-2 or 3-5-2 depending on whether we had the ball - Curtin called it a 3-4-1-2) and he gave Harriel, Uhre and Carranza much of the night off.

The lack of offense and the passing accuracy do need to be addressed though.

The Kids Are More Than Alright (apologies to The Who )

With a 6-0 thrashing of the Dominican Republic the USMNT U-20 team took the CONCACAF U-20 Championships.  Their performance in this competition had two extra benefits - the team is now qualified for the 2023 U-20 World Cup and more importantly, for the 2024 Olympics.  

Paxten Aaronson was indeed No.1 at CONCACAF U-20

The Union's teen crew fingerprints are all over this hardware.  Paxten Aaronson was MVP and leading scorer with seven goals in the tournament.  Quinn Sullivan had six plus three assists.  Jack McGlynn appeared in all seven matches logging 333 minutes while Brandan Craig got 425 minutes in five appearances.  

We awaited with bated breath their return tonight and hope that they add some scoring punch to the Union's attack.

Time to Make Hay?

The Union sit second in the table, two points behind the Harrison Pink Cows but we have game in hand.  There's also a bit of a gap between 1-4 and the rest of the division.  The U's next two matches are DC at home (tonight at 7:30) and Miami away on Wednesday.  DC are 13th in the table while Miami sit in 9th.  This really should be six points but at a minimum, they must get four points from these two matches.  The week after things aren't as easy with a home match vs New England, then Orlando on the road.  Three matches in nine days, four in 16.  A crucial period for the Union.

A busy period yet BFS will probably be silent until 7/29.  This year's World Championships in track and field are in Eugene and we will be there.  A slight chance we'll fire something out before boarding an early morning flight on Friday but definitely nothing the following week.