UNION (4-2-3-1) 

Blake 

Gaddis-Elliott-Onyewu-Fabinho 

Bedoya-Medunjanin 

Picault-Ilsinho-Pontius 

Sapong 

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

Houston Dynamo (4-3-3) 

Willis 

DeLaGarza-Machado-Leonardo-Beasley 

Alex-Cabezas-Clark 

Manotas-Torres-Quioto Bench: Deric, Anibaba, Holland, Sanchez, Remick, Wenger, Boniek Garcia 

Preview 

- No changes from Jim Curtin this week, which should shock no one. Roland Alberg is still out, so Ilsinho gets another shot at the No. 10 role. Oguchi Onyewu and Jack Elliott keep their spots in central defense. And Chris Pontius stays on the same right wing where he’s been so effective late.

- It’s steady as you go for Houston, which makes just one change. Instead of risking Alberth Elis with a hamstring strain, he stays home and Erick Torres, MLS’s leading goal scorer, is restored to the starting XI for the Western Conference leaders.

- If you’re looking for a matchup to watch tonight, might I suggest the wings? Romell Quioto and Mauro Manotas have stretched opposing defenses vertically and horizontally, spreading defenses out and getting in behind. Ray Gaddis and Fabinho will have their hands full; they need to keep those two in front of them and prevent dangerous crosses from the byline in the direction of a dangerous target man like Cubo Torres. Given the steamy conditions tonight, expect Fabian Herbers to be ready to spell one of the wingers sooner rather than later since they’ll have to run plenty, too.

CJ Sapong has had plenty to celebrate this season, including Saturday's hat trick
against the Red Bulls. (For Digital First Media/Mike Reeves)

Once or twice or seven times in the past, I’ve made the argument about a central deficiency of the Philadelphia Union: Never in franchise history has the club had a truly elite goalscorer, a top-10 MLS hit man to lead the line and paper over cracks elsewhere in the side.

They’ve had a lot of other positives – exemplary chance-creators (Sebastien Le Toux, the ultimate luxury player Cristian Maidana and now Haris Medunjanin), top defenders (Jeff Parke and Carlos Valdes, part one), even a goalkeeper of the year, hard as that may be to believe.

But the Union have flailed in vain for nearly a decade trying to find that star to reliably put goals in the back of the net and strike fear into the heart of opponents (pun intended). They’ve tried to go young, go old, draft and loan, literally around the world.

For all that searching, through the first quarter of the 2017 MLS season, CJ Sapong has looked like that elusive striker. Now we’ve heard versions of this story before – ah the halcyon days of #Sapong4USMNT – and it’s well established that Sapong hasn’t yet in his career been a double-digit scorer in MLS.

That reality caused a bit of tension following the Union’s 3-0 win over New York Red Bulls Saturday when that question was put to Union manager Jim Curtin (or at least was attempted; I’ll refer you to Kevin Kinkead’s timeline for further details).

So let’s attempt the query again: What makes 2017 different than the previous six seasons of evidence we have on Sapong? What evidence is there that nine goals isn’t the rigid ceiling it’s appeared to be, one Sapong has hit twice but never broken through (2015 with the Union and 2012 with Sporting Kansas City)?

Curtin’s response was short on details:

“He’s the same. He’s the same player. He’s confident though, and when strikers are confident, they go on runs, just like Bradley Wright-Phillips, when he’s confident, he goes on runs. David Villa, the same thing. It’s not one thing. It’s getting services, it’s a little bit of timing and movement in the box, sometimes a ball just drops to you and you get on a streak. The finish on a PK, he does that. He’s scored goals a lot of different ways, and CJ is again a very good striker who’s in good form right now, and when he’s confident, he’s as dangerous as anybody in our league.”

Since forecasting the future is not exactly my forte, let’s instead look at the present, which will tell you that Sapong is one of MLS’s most efficient forwards in the early going of the season.
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With four of Orlando City's six goals this season,
Cyle Larin is showing just how big an impact a star striker can have.
(AP)

We’re a month and a half into the MLS season, which is long enough to draw some conclusions. One parallel should seem obvious, both for its prevalence in the standings and its utter depravation around Philadelphia.

The Union are last in MLS with a scant two points from six matches. They are the only team remaining in the league without a victory. Those myriad struggles have elicited finger-pointing and rationalizing in recent weeks, with blame doled out to the players (some more than others), the coach and higher rungs of the organization.

One thing seems abundantly clear: The Union roster as currently constructed seems to be talented enough to only get wins when everything goes correctly. Its margin of error is so razor-thin that bad bounces or even average performances from a multitude of players can’t be surmounted.

A potential reason for that is revealed by a glimpse at how successful teams are getting things done. Stack up the list of MLS’s top scorers next to the standings, and you’ll see the immutable conclusion that a star goal scorer can paper over many, many cracks in a side.

Causality here is difficult to determine – are the teams winning because their top forward is scoring, or is the forward scoring because he’s a cog in a winning team? Shoring up weaknesses at the pointy end of the attacking spear with one lights-out scorer is not necessarily a panacea, but it’s certainly one of the easiest avenues toward getting a team back to sustained competitiveness.

The list of contenders for surprise of the early season is lengthy, and all are in position due in some part to explosive strikers.
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