Rate the U: Lost in possession but won the game

It’s a glorious Sunday morning, not only did the Philadelphia Union win Saturday night. Not only did this team a new club record, with five straight wins, they also continue their best start ever. Also thanks to the results of El Trafico, the Union are the only team yet to lose a game this season.

When it comes to pointing out some specific player performances from Saturday, there is a team stat the at jumps out that needs improving. That stat is possession, last night the boys in blue had 31.4%. While they ended up with a win, this has been a troubling issue this season and they need to start addressing it.

Now to the individual player performances, let us start with the man in net. Andre Blake who faced 4 shots Saturday night and stopped all of them. There was concern towards the end of the half, when he crashed into the post. For the rest of the half he had a grimace on his face as he went to kick the ball. However in the second half, there was no sign of pain in the shoulder.

A few times Columbus found itself knocking on the door from outside the 18-yard box. However that would be when Philly ended up getting numbers in the box and make it difficult for Columbus to get clean shots off.

As for the Union’s attack, it was the first time we saw Uhre partnered up top with Carranza and while there wasn’t a true goal from the front two, there was the idea of what lies ahead. A few times throughout the game Uhre would create two chances for shots in the match, one of which should have been converted but was wide. All in all it was a good first outing of the new attacking duo. Once they build up their chemistry, this team could be really fun to watch.

Enough about my thoughts; we want to know what you thought of the performances? Rate the players and head coach Jim Curtin and provide feedback on the match in our Community Player Ratings Poll.