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Sports

Struggling Union welcome NYCFC to PPL Park

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Chester, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - The Philadelphia Union's quest for its first win of the season continues on Saturday when the club welcomes expansion side New York City FC at PPL Park.

Philadelphia have struggled mightily through the first five matches of the season, with last week's 3-2 loss to Sporting Kansas City serving as rock bottom early on.

Philadelphia entered stoppage time at Sporting Park with a 2-1 lead and left the venue with a 3-2 defeat.

The Union entered the contest having earned only two points from their first four games, but the club took the lead inside of three minutes thanks to a Jacob Peterson own goal.

Sporting answered in the 16th through Dom Dwyer, but Fernando Aristeguieta scored his third goal of the season only three minutes later, putting the visitors ahead 2-1.

That lead lasted until the first minute of stoppage time when Sporting's Jalil Anibaba equalized before Krisztian Nemeth scored a few minutes later to hand the Union their most crushing defeat of the campaign.

In the aftermath of the Union's most crushing defeat of the season, goalkeeper Rais M'Bolhi will no longer start between the sticks as head coach Jim Curtin said on Wednesday that local lad John McCarthy will start on Saturday.

"Rais M'Bolhi will not be playing in goal," Curtin said. "John McCarthy will be our starter and Andre Blake will back him up. It was my decision and it was based on performance. It���s what I think is best for Rais and the Philadelphia Union moving forward.

"He'll take some time away, reflect on some things -- things he can do better, things he can improve on." Curtin added. "He's a professional and I expect him to come back better."

New York City, meanwhile, had last week off, but are coming off a 1-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City at Yankee Stadium on March 28.

Ike Opara's 12th minute header off a Matt Besler long throw-in produced the only goal of the contest to send NYC to its first defeat of the season.

"Matt Besler has a very long throw-in and Kansas City loves to take advantage of it," NYCFC head coach Jason Kreis said. "It was not a surprise to us. We talked about it yesterday in the preparation meeting, we showed a lot of video about it. It's also very clear Opara is the target for them. We put our tallest guy on him to mark him but unfortunately Opara beat him to the ball. The throw in was inch perfect and ended up in the back of the net."