Pressure pays off in Union domination of Atlanta United

CHESTER — The Philadelphia Union’s organizational ethos has long been about a coherent, 11-man effort exceeding a team of talented individuals.

When you add in a superior tactical plan, as coach Bradley Carnell and his staff crafted on Saturday, and a disjointed visitor finding its way this season, you get results like the 3-0 thumping meted out to Atlanta United.

From start to finish, even through a red card to Jovan Lukic in the 59th minute, the Union controlled matters at Subaru Park. They were unlucky not to be up more than 1-0 at halftime, courtesy of Quinn Sullivan’s first goal of the season. But their dominance of play built “a platform,” as Carnell put it, to run away with the three points.

“We had to commit to exactly what we wanted to do against a really talented Atlanta team that has some real weapons and danger and threats in all areas of the field,” Carnell said. “To limit them and mitigate them the way we did — for sure they got some chances later on — but we managed to stay disciplined, aggressive, and we kind of made the game what we wanted it to be. We put in a scrap when we needed to, and we made it pretty when we needed to.”

The numbers are slanted by Atlanta chasing the game and by 30 minutes with a numerical advantage.

But ultimately, they amounted to nothing. The 71 percent possession, 12-10 edge in shots, 500-plus accurate passes may look impressive. They were not in the moment. For all that possession, the Union had more touches in the opposition’s box, a 27-23 edge.

The Union limited Atlanta to just three shots from inside the box in the first 75 minutes, frustration evident as the team’s trio of eight-figure attackers struggle to fit together.

The Union’s pressure on Atlanta’s backline left many of the visitors’ passes to be inconsequential connections far from goal.

They expended so much energy trying to break the first line of pressure that once finally through, the disjointed attack often settled for low percentage looks a goal. And the Union capitalized on all the pressure with a pair of tidy transition goals, Mikael Uhre laying off for Danley Jean Jacques to get his first with the Union, then Tai Baribo netting his seventh goal of the season.

Some of that was by tactical design from the Union.

Carnell opted to use Nathan Harriel in central defense to counter the pace of Atlanta’s $20 million striker Emmanuel Latte Lath. Latte Lath had two shots off target and no successful dribbles.

Harriel’s athleticism allowed free reign for Kai Wagner to clamp down on Atlanta’s primary chance creator, right back Brooks Lennon, who was nowhere near as influential as usual at just two chances created. When the Union went down to 10 men, Carnell shifted to a back five, with Olwethu Makhanya at right center back. That left Wagner and Harriel to deal with the threat of Lennon and Miguel Almiron on the defensive left.

“We were looking for a spark,” Carnell said, about Harriel in particular. “And in every player, there was a spark, there was an edge, there was something there from the beginning of the game which validated the decision.”

The Union could’ve been downcast at half to be leading just 1-0.

Uhre in particular generated three quality looks at goal, among them a strike of the post in the 29th minute on a well-worked counter and two attempts in a scramble in the 17th. But Uhre kept at it to get his assist in the second half, and the Union kept creating dangerous moments.

“I feel like we had some good looks,” Uhre said. “Obviously, I would have loved to score but just missed the last one. Also the one from Indy (Vassilev) came a little bit faster than anticipated, so I kind of had to throw myself into the shot. But I think we got some great looks and we should have definitely put more than one away in the first half.”

Carnell had maintained, through the Union’s stretch of one win in five games, that his team was playing well even if it wasn’t translating into results. Some of that was caused by goals not going in — three goals in five matches contributed heavily — and some was structural breakdowns at key moments.

On Saturday, the team did a lot of the same things it had been doing. But in polishing the tactical approach and crisper execution in both boxes, it turned into three points.

“I don’t feel we’ve played bad over the last three games,” Carnell said. “I think it’s just unfortunate we’ve played very, very good opposition, and we fell short against Miami and last week (in New York). So that’s just the soccer game. At the end of the day, there’s 22 guys dueling, competing, and if you don’t get on top of it, don’t score a goal, unfortunately, you can’t win the game. So we put ourselves in a window to win the game tonight, and we took our chances.”