April 08, 2015
We haven't gotten around to much Philadelphia Union coverage, but what has happened since Sunday night is pretty fascinating for reasons that mostly occur off the pitch. On it, the Union have been a disaster to start the season, only collecting two points from their first five games. Sunday night was the team's latest notable disaster, as they surrendered two stoppage time goals to lose to Sporting Kansas City, 3-2:
Notice that two of the three Sporting goals came from set pieces. I'm not going to pretend I'm well versed the in finer points of soccer goalkeeping, but Dom Dwyer's (aka Mr. Sydney Leroux, aka The Luckiest Man on Earth) goal that knotted the game at one was laughably bungled by Union keeper Rais Mbolhi. I haven't seen a ball misplayed so poorly since Jay Bruce lost Jimmy Rollins' line drive in the lights in the 2010 NLDS. In his weekly power rankings, ESPN's Jeff Carlisle wrote, "Rais Mbolhi is earning a rep for being one of the poorest DP signings in league history."
DP stands for designated player, which basically means that each MLS team is allowed to go outside of the salary cap to sign a couple of stars. The minutiae of the MLS collective bargaining agreement isn't particularly important here, though (mostly because I don't know it).
What you should be aware of is that the Union spent a lot of money on a player that has only stopped 50 percent of the shots he has faced this season. In particular, the Union seem to have this odd fascination with goalkeepers. They've invested a lot of their resources in the goalkeeping position, drafting Zac MacMath fifth overall in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft and taking Andre Blake with the top overall selection last year. Unless they're planning to revolutionize soccer strategy by emulating the Tenor brothers' hockey goaltending in "Stuck on You," it seems like overkill for a position that you only need one of.
Union coach Jim Curtin announced today that Mbolhi has been benched for performance reasons, and according to the local media that covers the team on a daily basis, it doesn't sound like he's particularly interested in having him back if you read between the lines like only they can. Here's a nice little string of tweets from my pal Dave Zeitlin, who writes about the Union for MLSSoccer.com:
Press conference over. In summation: Curtin told Mbolhi he was benched and to "take time away." No timetable for his return to the team.
— Dave Zeitlin (@DaveZeitlin) April 8, 2015
Curtin told me after the press conference that Mbolhi is not in the country right now. He's back in Europe with his daughter.
— Dave Zeitlin (@DaveZeitlin) April 8, 2015
Curtin can say what he wants on the record but if you read between the lines you can figure out that Curtin never wanted Mbolhi in his net.
— Dave Zeitlin (@DaveZeitlin) April 8, 2015
Blake is still recovering from preseason knee surgery, so the Union will start North Catholic (R.I.P.) and La Salle University product John McCarthy against David Villa and New York City F.C. Saturday afternoon at PPL Park. Welcome to the show, kid. McCarthy sounds like a great individual story, but it's not a great look for the organization that invests so much on goalkeeping that someone who played for the Rochester Rhinos last year will be in net.
The Union aren't very good right now, but hey, at least they're interesting.
