Andre Blake writes another chapter in his Union legend with playoff penalty shootout heroics

Andre Blake needs no introduction to just about anyone around Major League Soccer.

Certainly not to Union fans, or to the opposing players and coaches who face him each week. Or to anyone who voted him as MLS’ goalkeeper of the year in 2020 or 2016. Or to anyone who voted him second behind this year’s landslide winner, New England’s Matt Turner, because they both had outstanding seasons and Turner skyrocketed to national prominence because of his.

You can go beyond MLS, too. Any conversation about the best goalkeeper in Concacaf starts with Costa Rica and Paris Saint-Germain’s Keylor Navas, but gets to Blake right after that. That Jamaica has struggled in World Cup qualifying of late is far from his fault.

You can even go beyond Concacaf, if you believe that the European clubs that have scouted Blake over the years haven’t forgotten about him. Especially the English teams that have waited a long time for Jamaica’s FIFA ranking to get high enough so they can get Blake a work permit without slogging through an appeal process.

In other words, what Blake did on Sunday night in the Union’s latest epic win — a penalty shootout triumph over Nashville SC in the Eastern Conference semifinals — wasn’t all that surprising. That doesn’t make it any less amazing, though.

» READ MORE: Union reach MLS Eastern Conference final by beating Nashville in penalty kick shootout

It was the eighth shootout in the Union’s 12-year history, but their first since June 28, 2017 in the U.S. Open Cup. It was the first at home since Sept. 30, 2015 in an Open Cup final, and just the third ever. (The first was on June 17 of that year, against Rochester in the Union’s first game of that tournament run.)

It was also just Blake’s third shootout, and the first of his career at Subaru Park. The previous two included one with the Union at New England in the 2016 Open Cup, and one with Jamaica in the 2014 Caribbean Cup.

But when Blake headed to the River End goal line on Sunday night, there was little doubt that he’d be up to the task. And once he saved a surprisingly bad shot from Nashville’s MVP candidate Hany Mukhtar with the shootout’s first attempt, the Union had an advantage that they carried the rest of the way.

“It’s just the mindset for me,” he said. “I try to have a clear head and just tell myself, how can I be locked in to just the ball? It doesn’t matter who is shooting, it’s just about trying to stop this ball from getting by me. And if I do that, then I’ll be doing a good job, and I was able to do that tonight with a strong mindset.”

The advantage grew when Blake stuffed Nashville’s Aníbal Godoy, a familiar foe not just from MLS games but from meetings of Blake’s Jamaica and Godoy’s Panama. And while Sergio Santos capped off a brutal night with a saved attempt after Godoy’s stop, Blake was so far in Nashville’s head by then that veterans Alex Muyl and Walker Zimmerman blasted their shots into the River End stands.

“Making the second one, I think after that they were really very nervous and didn’t know what to do,” Blake said.

Zimmerman’s miss, which clinched advancement for the Union, was followed by one of the all-time scenes in Subaru Park history: Blake’s teammates swarming him and lifting him on to their shoulders like a prize fight-winning boxer as the jam-packed crowd of 19,076 roared.

A few moments later, Union manager Jim Curtin gave Blake a big hug and lifted him so far off the ground that Blake almost resembled a bench-press weight. Not bad for a 42-year-old who hadn’t played a professional game in a dozen years.

“He’s lifted us up plenty of times through the years,” Curtin said. “A special person. I have a great relationship with him. And he’s a winner, man.”

» READ MORE: Andre Blake reflects on a hard year on and off the field as he leads the Union in the playoffs

Curtin admitted that he didn’t watch any of the shootout, continuing a personal tradition. He tried to avoid calling it a superstition, but once he didn’t watch Blake’s first save, he stuck with it.

“I can think back to when we drafted here in Philadelphia — literally in Philadelphia at the [2014] draft as the number one pick,” Union manager Jim Curtin said. “And to see him grow and learn and get better each and every year; to take a bigger role in leadership now in the locker room; to speak more; to win international games for Jamaica; to win big games for the Union; to put the team on his back in penalty kicks tonight.”

Curtin also noted how long it took Blake to get to that point. Though he was a highly-touted prospect out of the University of Connecticut, he was initially No. 3 on the Union’s depth chart behind Raïs M’Bolhi and Zac MacMath — the latter of whom infamously ran out of the draft hall to complain to his agent because he knew his position was under threat.

The Union also knew that they had a big-time goalkeeper prospect potentially eligible for a homegrown contract who just weeks earlier had helped the University of Maryland reach an NCAA Tournament championship game that was played in Chester. And when the Union traded up to get the No. 1 pick that they used on Blake, Zack Steffen’s odds of playing for his hometown team plummeted.

It is as easy to say now that the Union made the right decision in drafting Blake as it is hard to know whether Steffen would ever have actually played here. The Union never really tried to sign him and he left for Germany at the end of 2014.

But we do know that once Blake became the Union’s No. 1 starter in 2016, things worked out pretty well for him and the team. (They’ve worked out pretty well for Steffen, too.) And just the idea that the Union could have had either of them is pretty amazing to think about.

“I’ve been at the club for eight years, going on to nine, and have been here since we would struggle to make the playoffs,” Blake said. “So this club has really come a long way, and this new group of guys over the last three, four years have been doing a fantastic job. We’ve taken this club to the next level, and the fans appreciate it and we’re starting to write some new history.”

» READ MORE: Zack Steffen was quietly outstanding in the USMNT’s statement World Cup qualifying win over Mexico

» Join The Inquirer’s soccer staff for live coverage of the Union’s Eastern Conference final showdown with New York City FC on Sunday in Union Gameday Central. Kickoff is set for just after 3 p.m.