Indiana Vassilev struck for his first brace in more than two MLS seasons and the visiting Philadelphia Union took control of their Supporters’ Shield destiny with a 6-0 victory at D.C. United on Saturday night.
Milan Iloski scored and had two assists, substitute Mikael Uhre had a goal and two assists after he was summoned early to replace the injured Quinn Sullivan, and Bruno Damiani also scored for Philadelphia (19-7-6, 63 points).
With Lionel Messi’s Miami drawing at Toronto earlier Saturday, the Supporters’ Shield-leading Union now know they’ll win the honor if they win their last two matches. Seven points back, Miami isn’t the closest team to Philadelphia, but it’s the only one with two matches in hand after Saturday’s action.
D.C. (5-17-10, 25 points) suffered by far its worst result in its six games since the takeover of manager Rene Weiler, who is now 1-2-3 in MLS. It was tied for the Black-and-Red’s worst defeat this season with a 7-1 home loss to Chicago in June.
Philadelphia went in front slightly against the run of play in the 17th minute, and a few minutes after Uhre’s entrance.
After the Union won possession from Jordan Farr’s goal kick, Iloski found Uhre down the left.
With time to pick out his pass, Uhre fed a cross toward the penalty spot for Damiani, who powered a first-time shot past Farr for his third goal in four league matches.
The visitors added two more goals in the space of two minutes later in the half.
Philadelphia’s second goal in the 34th minute looked a lot like their first. This time it was Damiani getting down the left and then playing the cross to Uhre, who bodied up a D.C. defender and took the shot.
It deflected twice, the second coming off Connor Antley, who was credited with the own goal.
The third came in the 36th minute, when Vassilev followed up the rebound of Iloski’s effort from beyond the box and put it past Farr before the goalkeeper could recover from his initial save.
Iloski made it 4-0 four minutes into the second half when he beat Farr to the bottom-left corner from just beyond the box. Vassilev had his second in the 51st minute when he finished Uhre’s cross after yet another attack down the left flank.
Uhre finished the scoring in the 62nd minute from Iloski’s second assist.
–Field Level Media
