Ilsinho, here splitting a pair of D.C. United defenders in the April trip
to RFK Stadium, performed admirably in the No. 10 role last week.
(For Digital First Media/Mike Reeves)

CHESTER >> For the 16 or so months that Ilsinho has been with the Philadelphia Union, a false equivalency has sprung up around him.

The Brazilian is impeccably creative, capable of summoning tricks with a soccer ball that many dare not dream attempting. A career winger in Europe whose upbringing in the Brazilian ranks occurred as an outside back, Ilsinho has played his entire career on the flanks. But his skillset, to an American audience, mimics what is expected from a No. 10 – the passing, the runs, the danger but reticence to shoot, the diminished defensive responsibility.

To slide him centrally by 20 or so yards couldn’t be that different for him, right?

“Everything is different at this position,” Ilsinho said Tuesday.

Well, then.

Ilsinho capably handled matters in the middle of the park in Saturday’s 4-0 win over D.C. United. He made way in the 64th, just before Oguchi Onyewu’s second goal sent the visitors flying toward a rout. But his first foray of the season in the No. 10 role in the absence of Roland Alberg was promising, even if it entailed a good deal of change for the 31-year-old.

“Everything is new for me because I just played it two times last year, just the first two games,” Ilsinho said. “I have to move different, I have to run different. I have to look for some space, look for the final pass for other guys.”

For as different as the position might have felt to Ilsinho, manager Jim Curtin thought it extracted some of the traits the staff sought from him out wide. And while the final touch remains lacking – see the 21st-minute passage in which he does magnificently to create space but curls a meek effort straight at goalie Bill Hamid – the initial signs are encouraging for a player who hasn’t played there since the opening two games of 2016 when Tranquillo Barnetta was injured.



“I thought a lot of things we worked on him as a winger came out in the game,” Curtin said Tuesday. “We’ve been trying to get him to run in behind the defense a little more, since he has a tendency to come inside and not stretch them as much and hold the ball at his field. Strangely, as a No. 10, you saw the ball that Fabinho plays him over the top where he’s running behind aggressively, the one that (Steve) Birnbaum makes that hell of a play in the box to defend otherwise that’s a great goal, a tap-in from Ilsinho and a really good action from Chris (Pontius). To get him to do that, to run hard in the box, was really eye-opening, was good.”

“It’s different but the good point is that I have more freedom, I can move to both sides, left or right,” Ilsinho said. “But I need to run at it a little bit more. But it’s good. I just try to help my teammates, and I try looking for CJ (Sapong) or Fafa (Picault) or Chris when I get the ball. It’s different, but it’s good.”
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UNION (4-2-3-1) 

Blake 

Gaddis-Elliott-Onyewu-Fabinho 

Medunjanin-Bedoya 

Pontius-Ilsinho-Picault 

Sapong 

Bench: McCarthy, Marquez, Rosenberry, Creavalle, Herbers, Najem, Simpson 

D.C. United (4-1-4-1) 

Hamid 

Birnbaum-Opare-Boswell-Kemp 

Jeffrey 

Sam-Harkes-Acosta-Neagle 

Mullins 

Bench: Worra, Robinson, Korb, Odoi-Atsem, Ortiz, Sarvas, Le Toux 

Preview 

- A win = NO CHANGES ALLOWED for the Union, apparently. Ray Gaddis is again preferred to Keegan Rosenberry, and Oguchi Onyewu and Jack Elliott each keep their spots even with Richie Marquez at full health. There’s a certain logic to that, and we’ll see how it works.

- The one change is one some have been clamoring for: Ilsinho as the No. 10. He doesn’t seem to be changing games as a winger, so why not try him centrally in the absence of Roland Alberg (quad)? The only slight issue in this: 60 percent of the supposed attack five (Ilsinho, Alejandro Bedoya and Fafa Picault) have a combined 0 goals and 0 assists this year. At least Bedoya gets another game in the No. 8, where he’s been quite good.

- D.C. goes defensive with the backline, with Steven Birnbaum playing at right back, an injury-depleted position for them. Sebastien Le Toux is sitting he bench with Patrick Mullins restored to the starting lineup along with Bill Hamid.

While Zac MacMath has his eye on the ball in this Sept. 6 game
against Toronto, the Union have an eye on ballooning salary costs
thanks to its goalkeeping hydra. (AP)

The declaration by Philadelphia Union CEO and Operating Partner Nick Sakiewicz upon the acquisition of goalkeeper Rais M’Bolhi that the club possessed “three of the best goalkeepers in Major League Soccer” was met with a few raised eyebrows. After all, since only one goalie can play at a time, it doesn’t seem to make sense to quarantine so many talented players on the bench or in street clothes in the owner’s box.

History suggests that it doesn’t pay to draft goalkeepers, as evidenced by the Union being the only MLS club over the last half-decade to draft a goalie. They’ve done it twice, and neither is a starter.

It also doesn’t pay to overpay a goalie, it seems.

The MLS Players Union released its salary figures Monday, giving us a glimpse at what the summer-transfer-window acquisitions are making. For the Union, the most eye-catching figure is M’Bolhi’s healthy price tag of $240,000.

So, how does that compare to the market value in MLS? Well, it puts the Algerian right near the top, sixth in MLS in terms of guaranteed compensation.

Below are the top goalkeeper salaries in MLS, per the recent salary release by the players union. (Breaks are every 10 goalies.)
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The Union did what they had to Saturday, pure and simple. It wasn’t always pretty, and it certainly wasn’t as effective as it could have been, but the Union need what was needed in dispatching a youthful D.C. United side, 2-0, at PPL Park. A few stray observations.

- I guess when the Union win, I should start with a positive. So how about this: Fabinho is a very good left wing option. Much of the Union’s struggles in the first half were because they went almost exclusively down the left with Sebastien Le Toux and Fabinho, deputizing at left back for Ray Gaddis. That lack of balance effectively shut Danny Cruz out of the game, and he didn’t have much influence before being withdrawn for Michael Farfan as a defensive sub. Cruz has played a lot and is a high energy guy, so Fabinho could be a good option if Cruz needs a break at some point.

- The Union peppered D.C.’s cage with 22 shots Saturday. Only three were off the boot of Jack McInerney. His first effort was his best, a top poke in the fifth minute that forced a reflex save from Bill Hamid to push it over the bar. But McInerney has to shoot more. He’s mired in a seven-game scoreless slump (yeah, we’ll use that word), and he played like it at times with his over deferential, pass-first mentality at times. When you consider the midfield options around him consist of Brian Carroll (two goals in MLS play, one scored with his back), Michael Farfan (one MLS goal, not from the run of play), Cruz (two MLS goals in one furious two-minute span against Seattle set against the backdrop of a generally misfiring eye for goal) and Keon Daniel (five shots on goal all year), there’s not much reason to lay the ball off. Good scorers shoot their ways out of slumps; that’s what McInerney must do.

- Among the myriad problems in the first half with the Union’s attack was this: With Casey and McInerney drawing D.C.’s back four backwards, who was the most advanced central player to fill in the space created in the 18-yard box and above? That would be Carroll and his aforementioned goal prowess. The central midfield spot remains a problem for the Union. Daniel, for some reason, constantly wanted to drop back and let Carroll go forward. Farfan wasn’t great in that role last week. And Kleberson, again for some reason, didn’t feature. If Daniel is going to push that far back, they’d might as well put Michael Lahoud out there to be a more effective and more consistent holder and set Carroll go forward.

Philadelphia Union (9-7-7, 34 points)

MacMath

Williams-Okugo-Parke-Fabinho

Carroll

Le Toux-Daniel-Cruz

McInerney-Casey

Bench: Konopka, Farfan, Kleberson, Lahoud, Kassel, Wheeler, Hoppenot. 

D.C. United (3-15-4, 13 points)

Hamid

Korb-White-Shanosky-Riley

Porter-Kitchen-Jeffrey-Kemp

Martin-Doyle

Bench: Willis, Woolard, Jakovic, Seaton, Thorrington, De Rosario. 

- Let’s not beat around the bush: This isn’t a D.C. first-team side. Dwayne De Rosario is hobbled and on the bench. Luis Silva is apparently still suffering from concussion symptoms thanks to former Union defender Bakary Soumare in the U.S. Open cup semifinal midweek. Also absent is Nick DeLeon and Chris Pontius. Conor Doyle and Jared Jeffrey have played two MLS games, as has Conor Shanosky. Collin Martin has played one. James Riley (age 30) is the only player over the age of 25 in this side, making it D.C.’s youngest in history. Heck, they couldn’t even fill out a full substitutes’ bench of seven. This is a team that the Union must beat today.

- Now for the how. No slight on Doyle, but if the Union can’t keep a clean sheet against this team, that’s a problem. D.C.'s first teamers have scored 13 times in 22 matches, and these are the guys who don't usually make the cut. If the Union somehow fail to beat this team, you might as well call off the hunt for the playoffs.

- Might be something to watch: This will be Bill Hamid’s first start in the league since June 29. He missed five games as part of the U.S. team at the CONCACAF Golf Cup, then has been benched as Joe Willis has been hot of late.

- No surprises for the Union, really. Ray Gaddis misses his first game of the season with an ankle injury. In his place will be Fabinho, as was expected. The other change from last week sees Michael Farfan head to the bench for Keon Daniel, back from his one-game suspension. Still no Kleberson, though.

- Sebastien Le Toux has five goals and two assists in his career against D.C. United. Those numbers look good to improve tonight.

(Associated Press)

WASHINGTON – Freddy Adu said something to me tonight that was poignant and spot-on, while also self-critical. Didn’t see it coming, to be honest.

“We’re not going to get a lot of chances on the road. We got them and we didn’t put them away,” Adu said, following the Union’s 1-1 draw at D.C. United. “I thought we did enough to get a second goal, and we didn’t get it done.

“At the end of the day, we were able to hold on and hold on, but we took our foot off the pedal.”

That sentiment is something he said way back in March, after a season-opening loss at Portland. Back then, he referred to it as a reluctance to “pull the trigger.” Sunday night, it was a pedal reference. It’s the same thing, only separated by five months.

The Union are in a holding pattern. Every time they inch closer to relevance in the MLS Cup Playoff picture, they suffer a setback – or, in this case, a series of them – in stumbling to a three-match winless streak. With 12 matches to go, the Union are all but out of it. Returning to the postseason for a second straight year seems distant, with the team requiring about seven wins in the final dozen times out to get it done. Doesn’t seem likely, does it?

Adu was critical of himself when speaking of the Union’s inability to get a second goal. (For more on that, pick up Monday’s edition of the Daily Times. I devoted an entire column to it.) Union manager John Hackworth said it, too, but he didn’t call out any player in particular.

“I think we should have scored two, all right?” Hackworth said. “We’ll talk about execution, but we did what we needed to do in a hostile environment.”

There were a few too many shoves to count, and too many red cards issued to call this one a clean game. But the Union surrendered more than one chance at a second goal. They should have had it. Could have had it. And taking down a team like D.C., which – as Ben Olsen said – is still clawing for a spt in the playoff race would have done wonders for the Union.

Instead, they are where they are – and that’s outside the playoff picture.

A couple notes from the match:

• Rave reviews for former teammate Lio Pajoy were plentiful, as the Colombian striker – traded Thursday from the Union to United – made his D.C. debut against his old side. Union captain Carlos Valdes didn’t like having to mark Pajoy. “He is (freaking) fast,” Valdes said. (I omitted a certain seven-letter expletive in there.)
• When things got chippy, and D.C. goalkeeper Bill Hamid left his box to break up a fight, Union keeper Zac MacMath said the thought crossed his mind. “It’s something I want to do, but obviously MLS doesn’t like goalkeepers coming out of the box. I got a yellow card earlier in the year for that, so I just have to restrain myself.
• D.C. coach Ben Olsen gave the quote of the night … after he left the podium. On his way out of the press room, after eight solid minutes of ranting against referee Mark Geiger, Olsen let this gem fly: “Drop some money off for my fine.”

That's it. Final dispatch from D.C. See you all in Philly, with Hackworth's Wednesday presser and the Union's match Friday night.