Philadelphia Union, a Squad Not Quite Yet Ready to Win

Photo by Bob Larson
Sporting KC celebrate its US Open Cup championship at PPL Park.

Chester, PA – As Andrew Wenger’s penalty kick was sent harmlessly at Tim Melia, Sporting Kansas City were poised to take the US Open Cup away from Philadelphia Union at PPL Park on Wednesday Night.

Jordi Quintinilla, the youngest member of the KC squad, calmly converted the clinching PK and sending KC to their third trophy in four years – leaving the Union’s trophy case bare.

The final PK pairing of Wenger vs. Quintilla perhaps unfairly but accurately illustrated the difference between the two squads.  Wenger never looked confident over the ball, and Quintilla, though again, Sporting’s youngest player, confidently took his PK.

In the postgame conference, Union head man Jim Curtin called the KC squad “winners” and said that the knew how to win.

Matt Besler of KC called it an “intangible” thing [being winners].

The Union, although certainly not losers, but as of yet, just simply not ready to win.

There was simply no panic in KC, not when they were down a goal, not when their initial quality chance hit the woodwork, and not when down to their last PK twice before finally having a chance to win it with Quintilla.

The Union had the game in their hands up a goal with three-quarters of the match to go and simply could not get that second goal.

It wasn’t for lack of effort as Tim Melia, a goalie found off the scrapheap by KC, looked world-class making top-stop after top-stop denying LeToux, and Barnetta a chance to add to the lead, and later on, denied Conor Casey the game winning goal when Casey found himself free on a counter.

Meanwhile, KC simply stayed the course and found an equalizer from Krisztian Nemeth and then navigated PKs to seal itself as the US Open Cup champion for 2015.