PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — For the first time in franchise history, the Union are participating in the Concacaf Champions League — an honor they were able to achieve because of their recent Supporters’ Shield-winning season.
Concacaf, one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies, stands for the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football. The winner of the league will qualify for the quarterfinals of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Their opener against Deportivo Saprissa in Costa Rica was a 1-0 victory Wednesday night — the first leg of this round of 16 matchup against Saprissa.
Kacper Przybylko — fresh from dealing with back spams, as reported by the Inquirer’s Jonathan Tannenwald — scored the lone goal of the match in the 34th minute on a header set up by Olivier Mbaizo and Anthony Fontana.
Related
The Union held on for the shutout, with the second leg of this series scheduled for next Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Subaru Park in Chester. It was head coach Jim Curtin’s 100th win across all competitions.
“We passed our first test. We’re at halftime here, and again we want to make a run in this competition,” Curtin said.
The 41-year-old Oreland, Pa., native has been the head coach of this club as they’ve ascended through the ranks of Major League Soccer and into international play on the road.
“I think our city and our players can all be proud of what we did today. It’s a big victory.”
But this victory also featured drama in the closing moments of the match. Saprissa’s Ricardo Blanco committed a sliding tackle into Union defender Kai Wagner. No red card was assessed on Blanco. As of Thursday morning, the club’s official Twitter account had video of the tackle pinned to the top of their page.
The public relations staff’s press release recap of the match described it as “an egregious foul.”
With no red card assessed, shoving ensued after Blanco’s tackle. Something like this probably isn’t unusual in this tournament.
“Welcome to Concacaf, right?” captain Alejandro Bedoya said afterward.
“It’s Concacaf, so at the end of every game it’s gonna be crazy,” Curtin explained.
Many people, including Bedoya, had to break up the commotion. The Union captain sounded off on the referee for not giving Blanco a red card.
“Just like I have to sit up here and be held accountable for my play, the referee should do the same. They should be explaining that decision, because that’s a red in every other part of the world," Bedoya said.
“I don’t understand how that was not a red card. That was a disgraceful decision. But hey, we move on, we got a victory, we got a good result. I’m glad that we didn’t get any red cards ..., nobody did anything stupid.”
It will be interesting to see if any of this heat carries over to next Wednesday’s second leg, as the Union lead 1-0, looking to advance to the next round.