CHESTER, Pa. – Nearly every downtrodden player on the Philadelphia Union said their 2-1 loss to visiting San Jose on Saturday night was a match they should have won.
But for Union goalkeeper Chris Seitz, it was defeat that has to be accepted, and the plan is to move on and improve on the positives of a devastating loss.
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“That’s soccer, sometimes you dominate a game like that,” Seitz said. “We could have played another half hour and I don’t know if we would have scored again. For us it’s a little bit of focus and it’s a little bit of luck and today, the luck wasn’t on our side.”
The Union outshot San Jose 17-8 on Saturday night, and mustered 10 shots on goal. But their inability to beat San Jose goalkeeper Jon Busch and a costly late error doomed them, kicking off the franchise’s first-ever lengthy home stand on a sour note.
“From the flow of the game and team commitment we can’t say bad words about this team,” Union coach Peter Nowak said. “The game is not about how many shots we have on goal or if it was a handball or if it was a foul. At the end of the day, results stand regardless. We have to anticipate things that may hurt us. We lost a game we were supposed to win.”
Part of the problem for the Union this season has been their vulnerability to conceding goals late in halves. Saturday’s match against San Jose was another prime example, as Cornell Glen scored in stoppage time of the first half and Arturo Alvarez netted the game winner in the last gasps of the match.
“I don’t know if people are turning off or what it is,” Seitz said. “Obviously in the 90th minute we’re not a team at home that’s going to push for a tie. We’re going to push for a winner and with that, it’s about taking chances. With that being said, we need to have cover and be organized enough to cut that out and not allow things that happened today.”
