If the Union deserved three points in Orlando, then they probably deserved zero points in Commerce City.

Yet, somehow, Philly pulled off a clinical smash and grab on Saturday night, stealing a road point against the best team in Major League Soccer.

• MORE ON THE UNION
  
• 1st place Union vs. 1st place Rapids: Q&A with Colorado play-by-play man Richard Fleming
  
• Goals galore, with a side of incompetence: Player grades and analysis for Union 2, Orlando 2
  
• Union notes: Savage travel, loan recalls, and Conte's hypocrisy
  
• Did Richie Marquez score the best defender’s goal in Union history?
  

It was the first time this season that Colorado has failed to win at home, which is remarkable when you consider that the Rapids only won five home games in the entirety of 2015.

Colorado had chances to put the game to rest, but struck the crossbar twice and blasted another shot over the goal from seven yards out. Their staunch defense performed as advertised, and the Union could not muster a single shot on goal until 92 minutes had gone by.

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone. After all, Jim Curtin's team was playing in altitude just three days after settling for a 2-2 draw in the Florida humidity. The club flew directly from Orlando to Denver and only two players were swapped out of the starting eleven. It was a war of attrition between two well-prepared teams who don't give up cheap goals or make cheap mistakes. The lack of squad rotation can certainly be criticized, but the injury situation did limit Curtin's available options.

The Union return home with two points out of six from their toughest road trip of the season. They are now unbeaten in seven games and remain in first place in the eastern conference.

Ghost runs and defensive recognition

There isn't much to talk about tactically in this game. Both teams play a similar shape and a similar style, which is a defensive-minded and relatively safe 4-2-3-1.

Let's take a look at the goals and see what we can find.

There are a couple of things going on here. It starts with a Warren Creavalle turnover, which leaves Fabian Herbers and Ilsinho stranded upfield.

Colorado sees a chance to get forward, then plays a negative back-pass before cycling the ball wide to Marlon Hairston, who was excellent as a second-half sub.

Ray Gaddis is pulling off another man and is a bit slow to close down Hairston. Sam Cronin is ghosting into the box with a late run from the midfield, and he gets a head on the ball for the goal.

Who should pick up Cronin on this play? You can make a case for three players doing more.

First, Brian Carroll seems to be in no-man's land. He's hovering at the edge of the box but doesn't see the run.

Second, Roland Alberg does see the run but doesn't do enough to track back and get in position to make a play.

Third, Ken Tribbett has a player behind him and can't react in time.

If you watch closely, you can see Alberg pointing at Carroll, attempting to "pass off" Cronin as his defensive assignment. He's not wrong, but he's not right either. Alberg has to recognize that he needs to track back to cover for his teammates who are out of the play. As a number 10, that's generally not your responsibility, but this is a stretched, late game situation and he's the one with the fresh legs. Carroll obviously doesn't respond to Alberg's communication there, so nobody ends up going with Cronin on that run.

Late runs and defensive recognition, part 2

The Union goal was hardly a thing of beauty, but it counts just the same.

And, ironically enough, it was also scored on a late run from a defensive midfielder.

As soon as the ball is lofted in by Gaddis, Carroll is blowing past Micheal Azira to the near post. Mekeil Williams, who had a very nice game, basically watches as the veteran touches home the equalizer.

Herbers deserves a lot of credit on this play. After an entire game of C.J. Sapong battling with the Colorado center backs, it's actually the rookie sub who gets up enough to challenge Axel Sjoberg on this hopeful ball into the box. It could have gone anywhere, and ended up at Carroll's feet.

I noticed some Union fans chiding MacMath regarding this goal, but I don't think he does much wrong. He slides across the goalmouth and makes himself big. Carroll hits the ball, with his left foot, into the only spot that isn't covered. If we're blaming Colorado players for this one, MacMath isn't even top three on the list.

Grades

Starting XI: Blake, Gaddis, Marquez, Tribbett, Rosenberry; Carroll, Creavalle; Le Toux, Barnetta, Pontius; Sapong

C.J. Sapong: C

For Sapong, this was more like a Steelers vs. Broncos game. He received some immense physical punishment and also dealt out quite a bit of it, pulling off a shirt rip and shoulder charge in the first 45 minutes of the game.

Frankly, you could have whistled Sapong, Burling, or Sjoberg on most of those battles, but the referee decided to “let them play” a little bit, which resulted in C.J. not being able to do a ton in the hold-up game.

Sebastien Le Toux: C

A 61 minute shift for Le Toux, who helped out defensively but couldn't get anything going in the attack.

Tranquillo Barnetta: B-

He had a couple of set piece opportunities, but couldn't replicate his magic from earlier games this season.

Barnetta was the only starter besides Brian Carroll to even attempt a shot in this game.

Chris Pontius: C

Took an early blow, got his head wrapped up, and helped Gaddis defensively.

Offensively, there wasn't much going on in this game, and his night was similar to that of Le Toux's.

Brian Carroll: B

That was veteran recognition on the near post run for the equalizer.

Carroll could have been better on the Rapids goal, but I'm interested to hear what the coaching staff says about that late run into the box and whether or not Alberg was responsible for it.

Earlier in the game, Carroll had a bad turnover in zone 14 but cleaned it up a bit after that.

Warren Creavalle: C

He was much less effective in this game after putting in a great performance Wednesday night. Asking for 90 more minutes out of your midfielder destroyer just feels like too much in my book.

Creavalle would have probably played the six in this game if Vince Nogueira had been healthy enough to start.

Ray Gaddis: B-

Decent game for Gaddis, who prevented a goal with a critical interception just six minutes into the match.

Gaddis did well enough after that to keep Dillon Serna and Mekeil Williams mostly in check. The addition of Hairston to the game provided a much trickier matchup on that side of the field.

Richie Marquez: C+

A big block 14 minutes into the game was his biggest contribution, as more of the activity surrounded CB partner Ken Tribbett.

Ken Tribbett: C-

For whatever reason, Tribbett just seemed to be closer to the ball on more occasions. His defensive event numbers (clearances, interceptions) almost double Marquez's numbers on the night.

I think that's the result of Luis Solignac, on the left-hand side, playing a bigger role than Serna in the Colorado attack.

Tribbett had one tough moment where took a bad touch and got skinned by Hairston, who squared for a Powers shot off the crossbar. Later, he got beat again by Hairston, in the sequence that leads to another shot off the woodwork and the disallowed, offside goal.

Keegan Rosenberry: B-

You see how his game changes depending on what midfielder plays in front of him.

With Le Toux on the field, Rosenberry doesn't get forward as much but receives solid defensive help. With Ilsinho on the field, Rosenberry is more inclined to attack, but also a bit more stranded in defense.

Outside of one well-placed back-post ball, he still seems frustrated with the inability to find his passing range, which was evident on the ball he played into the channel that was too far for Le Toux to chase down.

Andre Blake: B

He got crushed by Bobby Burling on that first-half ball into the box.

Otherwise, Blake was ridiculously close to getting a hand on both shots that went off the crossbar. He only had to make one save in this game, and couldn't do much on the Colorado goal. There was a nice second-half punch on a corner kick into the box.

Substitutes

61' Ilsinho: C

He came off the bench and immediately pulled off an end-line skill check followed by an elastico.

After that, he disappeared offensively and offered little help defensively.

71' Fabian Herbers: B-

Give Herbers a lot of credit for his contribution on the equalizer. He's probably giving up seven inches (!) in height disadvantage against Axel Sjoberg.

85' Roland Alberg: N/A

Again, not on the field long enough to have any real offensive input, but out there long enough to make a defensive mistake.

Referee: Hilario Grajeda: C

No huge controversies in this one, Grajeda had a difficult task in policing the big battles between Sapong and the Colorado center backs. He called a couple of fouls that gave the Union really good set piece chances in the first half.

Union crossbar: A+

Came up with more saves than Blake and MacMath combined.