Sometimes being the Man of the Match boils down to being the man of a single moment. On Saturday night, with his Philadelphia Union fighting for a point to finish off a brutally difficult two week stretch, Andre Blake only needed to be The Man for one moment, and boy was he ever.
A soft foul call had already relieved the Union of what looked to be the go-ahead goal earlier in the match, and now both teams were content to hold onto their positions in the standings and reload for the final three games of the season. Then, quite suddenly, Eduardo Sosa pulled the ball from beneath his feet and ripped a shot from the top of the box that deflected wide to the right. Harrison Afful, pushing high from his right back position as always, settled the loose ball and picked a spot in the far top corner of Andre Blake’s goal. Though nominally a defender, Afful knows his way around the opponent’s box, and when he connected with the ball it split atoms on its way through the air.
Blake set his left foot to push off but his right foot was in motion and it took a moment for the goalie to plant it and push. That meant the Jamaican needed to entirely change the motion of his body by pushing off of one foot. Of course, he did it.
Blake sprung to the right, stretched out a big glove, and ever-so-slightly changed the trajectory of the ball so it squeezed wide of the goal frame. Afful sat on his knees and pulled at his shorts, unsure if he should simply be stunned or file a complaint against Blake for violating the laws of physics.
Moments later, the final whistle blew. And that is why Andre Blake is the deserving Man of the Match.
