Everybody remembers Sebastien Le Toux’s hat trick against DC United in Philadelphia Union’s first home match as a franchise. But the lithe Frenchman who, ironically, played his last MLS match as a member of DC, always had another trick up his sleeve for Ben Olsen’s men.
In early 2016, with the Union off to a hot start but in the midst of a anxious run of three straight draws, Le Toux and company welcomed DC to Philly and played out an ugly, even, and scoreless game through 90 minutes.
But in the 91st, Le Toux collected the ball thirty yards out beyond the right tip of the 18 yard box. Richie Marquez, a center back by trade, stayed forward following a corner kick and hovered at the back post, hoping Le Toux would see him.
Le Toux saw him.
The man used to leading the line had evolved into a more flexible player over time, slowly improving his set piece delivery, though he could still frustrate with inconsistency. In this moment, Le Toux could serve in a ball as though he were taking a free kick off the right. The ball died in front of him when he knocked it down, and he strode toward it purposefully, needing to lift it with speed and spin to reach Marquez, who was just beyond CJ Sapong and a DC defender.
It was perfect.
And it was just one of Sebastien Le Toux’s 40 assists in MLS play for the Union, one of many club records he holds. The Philly hero notched 26 more assists from open play and 13 off set pieces, both also the most in Union history.
He created 310 chances in his Union career, which is about 1.75 per match. That’s… so many. Especially when you consider that this was a player initially playing at the tip of the spear; one who looked to finish chances rather than make them. Asking Le Toux to become a winger meant asking him to put the team first, and he did so with the same energy with which he approached goalscoring.
Seba the Helper would have been a Union great in his own right, but paired with his exploits in front of goal, he is truly one of a kind.
