July 11, 2016

Union sorting out penalty duties on the fly

By Kevin Kinkead
PhillyVoice Contributor

Daniel Gajdamowicz/Philly Soccer Page

Ilsinho scored his first MLS goal in Saturday night's 3-0 win against D.C. United.

Chris Pontius is a pretty selfless guy. Twice in two weeks he's earned a penalty kick, only to step aside and allow Roland Alberg to take it instead.

Alberg was on a hat trick against Chicago, so it made sense to defer to the Dutchman in that scenario.

But Saturday night Pontius would have been perfectly justified to take the kick that he himself earned.

“The guys are doing pretty well on taking penalties right now," said Pontius post-game. "I’m going to keep letting them take them.”

Fair enough.

Alberg converted that kick to put the Union up 1-0. He also wanted the second penalty that the Union were awarded in the 3-0 win against D.C., but he didn't get it. Ilsinho, who earned the spot kick, finished it himself for his first MLS goal. Alberg was not at all miffed and joined his teammate in celebration after the Union's lead was doubled.

Manager Jim Curtin has always had a policy to stay out of penalty kicks, and that was no different in this game.

"With the penalties, again, that’s up to the players," said Curtin. "I will never be a coach that delegates before the game who the shooter is, because who is to say that if Ilsinho or Roland gets drilled on the play, and then his leg’s going to fall off, he has to shoot? It’s dangerous. In terms of switching, as soon as they called the second one, I was like, 'Oh is Roland going to step up and take this?' I would have been fine with it if he did. He is smart about the way he waits for the goalkeeper, so you can ask them what the discussion was, but they have a good way of communicating with each other even though the language is a little… different (laughs).”

Alberg converts the penalty. It's 1-0 to the Union. pic.twitter.com/0A5N4eIpnJ
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) July 9, 2016

In years past, Sebastien Le Toux was the Union penalty taker, not necessarily because it had to be delegated, but because he was so good from the spot. Le Toux is 13 for 14 on penalties as a Union player and didn't miss his first one until 2016.

But Le Toux isn't always on the field this year, and the Union have skilled shooters across the midfield line. Don't expect Curtin to get involved unless his team starts struggling in this area.

Speaking of dead balls, Alberg was hitting everything else on Saturday night.

That's been Tranquillo Barnetta's territory this season, but Alberg took every single corner and free kick before his second half substitution.

The balls were mostly accurate and fairly dangerous, and Alberg earned a secondary assist on the third Union goal when C.J. Sapong was able to knock down his service for a top shelf Ilsinho blast.

"Roland is a guy who has a great free kick, he serves a great free kick; so does Tranquillo," Curtin said. "Again, you look at the tape, does D.C. get a little comfortable when they’ve seen Tranquillo hit them once now? So it was just a little variation to it, I still think they both serve a great ball, it’s great to have an option, we’ll probably mix it up now, and try and keep teams off guard."