CHESTER, Pa. — Tranquillo Barnetta scored his first MLS goal and C.J. Sapong added the insurance as the Union easily dispatched Sheanon Williams and the Houston Dynamo, 2-0, in an energetic match Sunday night at PPL Park.
“The guys earned everything tonight, they earned all three points,” Union manager Jim Curtin said. “A lot of guys had good nights. We’re a team that when seven or eight are checking the plus side, we’re going to come out on top.”
Union goalkeeper John McCarthy earned the five-save shutout.
The win, which puts the Union at 9-15-6 on the season, was the club’s first against the Dynamo in its last seven tries. The Union are 1-4-2 in the season series over that span. Meanwhile, the Dynamo fall to 9-12-8 in a competitive Western Conference.
“It wasn’t the prettiest game,” Union captain Maurice Edu said. “But if you look at the highlights, we created numerous chances and kept a clean sheet.”
Wasting little time, the Union struck. From the right side, Sebastien Le Toux placed a low pass to Barnetta in the box. The Swiss national caught defender A.J. Cochran sleeping, gathered possession and slipped one to the right of Tyler Deric for the 1-0 Union lead in the third minute.
The helper was Le Toux’s 50th career assist, putting him in the 50 goal, 50 assist club. Only 15 other players in MLS history have reached that milestone.
“It’s a good thing, I guess,” Le Toux said. “I’m proud about it, it’s a great achievement for me personally. But like I’ve said, all the things I’ve done in my career, I’ll look at it after when I’m done playing and I can say I’ve done this in MLS. Now it’s done, so we can move on and talk about something else.”
The Union doubled their lead in the 63rd minute, when Barnetta fed a lead pass to Fabinho on the left side of the Dynamo box. From there, Fabinho laced a strong cross to streaking Sapong, who beat his man to the tap-in, making it 2-0.
It was Sapong’s ninth goal of the season and second in as many games.
“It feels good, it always feels good to get on the score sheet,” Sapong said. “I’m glad that, even on a day where I could be a little cleaner and hold the ball up a little more, I was still able to fight for every ball, tire out their defense and get a goal. It’s a good sign.”
The Dynamo's best chance of the match happened in the 36th minute, when a cross into the box was headed on-frame by David Horst. The ball initially fooled McCarthy, deflected off the left post and danced down the goal-line before the goalkeeper slapped it out of danger.
“He headed it and it hit some part of [Edu],” McCarthy said. “I was stuck. Once it hit the post and was still in play, I had to go for it. The deflection really threw me off guard.
“A lot of stuff hasn’t gone our way, but we’re glad it did tonight.”
The Union received a much-needed boost Sunday, as captain and center back, Edu, returned to the starting lineup after missing the last six matches with a groin injury.
“It wasn’t his cleanest game on the ball but he has to get that rust off,” Curtin said. “Happy for him to get 90 minutes and keep a clean sheet. But he holds himself to a high standard and he knows he can do even better.”