CHESTER, Pa. — The last time the Philadelphia Union and Colorado Rapids met back in August, Peter Nowak’s team played one of their trademark matches: solid, but inevitibly undone by their inability to finish.
The Union seemed to sort out that problem at least temporarily in their big 3-0 win over Chivas USA last Saturday, and they're out to score early and often when they face the Rapids on Wednesday night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
[inline_node:317863]"I think it was similar to probably almost 15 games that we have played this year,” Union captain Danny Califf said of the 1-1 result between the two sides at PPL Park last month. “We played really well, limited them to a couple chances, and they scored, and we couldn’t put our chances away."
One Union player who will be especially excited for the trip to Colorado is Califf’s defensive mate Jordan Harvey. Harvey spent three seasons with the Rapids after they drafted him ninth overall in the 2006 MLS Super Draft.
Beating his former team and improving on the teams’ earlier encounter would be especially pleasing to the 26-year-old.
"We played them here and I thought we did well,” Harvey said of the teams’ previous meeting. “We were unfortunate not to get a win out of that so hopefully we can carry that over to Colorado. There will be a little added incentive for me and hopefully we get that win."
Playing the way they did against Chivas USA would be a great start. One of their most comprehensive victories of the season, the Union had the visiting Goats on the ropes for most of the match en route to their second clean sheet of the season and arguably their best defensive showing.
Still, Harvey said the Union can learn from any mistakes made against the Goats.
"We're going to look back on that video and correct some of the mistakes we made,” Harvey said. “The first half wasn’t the greatest but we came out with a really good result, one of the best of the year. So we will correct the mistakes and hopefully go into Colorado and get a good result."
