Union defense breaks down in 3-1 loss in Toronto

For 90 minutes Wednesday night, the Philadelphia Union were on track for a disastrous night in Toronto.

Somehow, in stoppage time, it got worse.

The Union came out flat and piled on uncharacteristic defensive miscues in a 3-1 loss to Toronto FC, then added a pair of suspensions for the weekend thanks to a red card to Jesus Bueno and a yellow to Jose Martinez.

In the process, they watched Toronto FC, which had lost eight straight matches and hadn’t won since May, get its first three points in months in a week where John Herdman was named the new manager.

Goals by Deandre Kerr and Jonathan Osorio five minutes apart capitalized on backline breakdowns and sent the last-placed team in the Eastern Conference to victory. The Union were lucky to get to halftime even, a Julian Carranza strike cancelling out Lorenzo Insigne’s opener. But bad decisions by Jack Elliott and Jakob Glesnes led to unusually soft concessions in one of the Union’s worst defensive performances in some time.

The first concession was self-inflicted, with Glesnes giving up possession too easily and too close to goal, perhaps caught between two minds on a clearance. The ball fell straight to Osorio 25 yards out to play a ball in to Kerr. With the Union outnumbered and Glesnes ball-watching, Kerr squared to Insigne to score his first goal since June 10. It’s the first time in nine matches that Toronto has led.

In the 58th, neither Kai Wagner nor Elliott could deal with a great line-splitting ball by right back Kobe Franklin. When they converged in the right corner of the box, that left Kerr one-v-one with an overpursuing Glesnes, the young forward shaking the reigning MLS defender of the year and burying a shot past Andre Blake to make it 2-1.

Glesnes was beaten against five minutes later, Osorio simply running past his back shoulder as Franklin looped a perfect ball over the top that Osorio nodded home.

The Union’s goal was only through TFC being in a giving mood. Alejandro Bedoya got the smallest nick of a header on Mikael Uhre’s speculative ball across the face of the box. That was enough to cause a catastrophe from Toronto starting goalie Tomas Romero. The Union Academy product flapped haplessly at the far post as the ball found Carranza to tap home his 11th of the season into an open net.

It got worse in the second minute of stoppage time, with a frustrated Bueno kicking out at TFC midfielder Raoul Petretta. Originally given a yellow card, referee Mark Allatin was summoned to video review and correctly changed it to red. Three yellows were handed out in the ensuing coming-together, one to Martinez, which means he will join his fellow Venezuelan national teamer in being suspended for Sunday’s visit from New York Red Bulls.