Philadelphia Union's offensive woes carried over to 2013 in season opener

In the Philadelphia Union?s first game of the new year, it wasn?t all that much different than last year.

It was mostly the same players, mostly the same results and ultimately ? and unfortunately for the Union ? mostly the same outcome.

During their 3-1 loss to defending Eastern Conference champion Sporting KC on Saturday at PPL Park, the Union started strong but failed to convert numerous chances to add to their early lead and suffered too many defensive breakdowns in the season opener.

The game was too reminiscent of last season, when the Union struggled to find the back of the net despite multiple opportunities only to watch their opponent finish on the offensive end and leave with a victory. The Union, who managed just 37 goals in 34 games last season, outshot KC, 17-7.

?I?m extremely disappointed,? said Union coach John Hackworth, whose team went 10-18-6 last year. ?I feel like we let the fans down, and I feel like we let ourselves down.?

Despite a slew of changes in the offseason, the starting lineup looked a lot like the one that ended the season last fall. Out of the four major acquisitions, only two of them started.

Newly acquired center back Jeff Parke took over for all-star Carlos Valdez, who returned to play in his native Colombia, and all-time leading scorer Sebastien Le Toux returned to the fold up front and tallied the lone goal for the Union.

However, highly touted defender Bakary Soumare, who joined the Union last year but didn?t play because of an injury, remained on the bench while second-year player Raymond Gaddis started outside and Amobi Okugo played in the middle. Meanwhile, forward Conor Casey, brought in to provide extra punch to the front line, only played the final 10 minutes.

?Ray played a good game today,? Hackworth said. ?He played very well defensively and he had one of the best guys in our league (Graham Zusi) to try to negate. For us, we feel like Conor has had a great preseason but we wanted to press and we did. That?s not playing to Conor?s strengths. We feel like Conor still needs time to get integrated and the same goes for Baky.

?He?s had a solid preseason but we?ve gotta go play a 90-minute game where we know we?ve gotta play the two-time defending (Eastern) champion and we feel like we?re gonna take the game to them so our decision was to go with Amobi.?

The moves worked for at least one half as they dominated a KC squad that is expected to challenge for the MLS Cup for the first 45 minutes. And another positive was Le Toux showed the all-star form he resembled in his first two seasons with the organization after a mostly forgettable season last year with Vancouver and New York.

?It is good for my confidence as a forward, for the past year now I?ve played a lot on the side and I know I can do it but I prefer to play forward so scoring this goal was huge for me,? said Le Toux, who shanked what should have been an easy go that would have put the team up 2-0 in the first half. ?But I am just disappointed in the result, so I am not really thinking about my goal.?

The Union hope the second game of the new year ? this Saturday at Colorado ? presents them the chance to form a new identity for this year.

?It?s a fresh start and now we gotta put this game behind us,? Parke said. ?I know it?s difficult to lose the first game coming out of here but we have another game out there and we have to come together so we can be kind of in a different environment together.?

Contact?Eric Goldstein?at 856-845-9478 or?egoldstein@southjerseymedia.com

Source: http://www.nj.com/south-jersey-sports/index.ssf/2013/03/philadelphia_unions_offensive.html

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