Carranza sparks Union to victory over Montreal

CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — Julián Carranza scored a goal in each half to lead the Philadelphia Union to a 3-0 Major League Soccer victory over CF Montreal on Saturday night.

With their fourth straight win, the Union remain in third place in the Eastern Conference with 30 points and extended their unbeaten streak to nine games.

Carranza staked the Union (9-4-3) to a 1-0 lead when he took a pass from Matt Real in the 12th minute and scored.

Philadelphia increased its lead to 2-0 on Mikael Uhre's sixth goal of the season — unassisted in the 36th minute.

Carranza used an assist from Dániel Gazdag in the 61st minute to net his ninth goal of the season and cap the scoring.

Andre Blake did not have to make a save to earn his seventh clean sheet for the Union. Blake has 22 shutouts since the start of the 2021 season. He has saved 83.6 per cent of shots on goal for his career. No other goaltender who has faced a minimum of 25 shots is over 80 per cent.

James Pantemis did not have a save, making his second start this season for Montreal (6-9-1).

Montreal had a 3-2 home win over Philadelphia earlier this season to snap a six-match winless run in the series. Despite the loss, Montreal is 4-3-7 all-time in road matches with the Union.

The Union are 17-1-2 in their last 20 home matches, outscoring opponents 61-11 along the way.

“Philadelphia is always a difficult place to play. They're a team with a lot of quality, especially their three offensive players," said Montreal coach Hernan Losada.

"They're very efficient. In general, I take away positives from tonight, because we were able to give minutes to players who haven't had much playing time this season. This will give us a better idea of which players are ready to take on more minutes and which need improvement.”

NEXT UP

Montreal will play the Whitecaps on Wednesday in Vancouver in the Canadian Championship final then return home to play Minnesota United on Saturday. Philadelphia travels to play the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.

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