Match Preview: Philadelphia Union vs. FC Cincinnati

The Union open their MLS home slate on Saturday with a fully eligible squad.

The Philadelphia Union have their full complement of players available for Saturday’s home opener against FC Cincinnati.

Forward Bruno Damiani is available after the completion of his visa process, Nathan Harriel is back from injury and Indiana Vassilev trained all week following his arrival from St. Louis City SC.

Union head coach Bradley Carnell spent all of preseason preaching about competition and opportunity for everyone.

To be honest, all the coach speak got a bit nauseating at times because it was the same thing after same thing, but to Carnell’s credit, the opportunities did manifest themselves last week and the team is bought in to his message.

Frankie Westfield and Olwethu Makhanya started in defense last week. Those appearances came due to injuries to Harriel, Oliver Mbaizo and Ian Glavinovich.

However, neither player looked totally out of place in the 4-2 victory, and that will at least make the competition interesting moving forward.

The assumption is that Glavinovich will start next to Jakob Glesnes at center back and Harriel is the starting right back when 90 minutes fit.

The one full week in between games for the first two months gives Carnell and his staff the chance to evaluate every aspect of the positional battles. We should truly see the best XI on the field each week if everyone is fit.

Damiani probably won’t start at striker on Saturday, but how he fits in is interesting as well.

Tai Baribo and Mikael Uhre each scored in the season opener, but Damiani is the club record signing and the new, shiny attacking piece.

Uhre is out of contract at the end of the season. The assumption is that Damiani’s arrival signals Uhre’s impending departure.

But remember Uhre has 33 regular-season goals in his Union career. I don’t think he’ll go out lightly, which is a good thing for the Union, and in turn, goes back to the whole competition is good story arc.

Vassilev is an intriguing attacking piece to have off the bench. He has familiarity with Carnell from their time together in St. Louis.

There’s actual depth in midfield and up top this season, so it’ll be fascinating to see how Carnell approaches his substitution decisions based on how each match plays out.

Just one thought though: This is the type of offseason the Union needed to have two years ago.

FC Cincinnati looks like a difficult matchup on paper, but the Eastern Conference side is right in the thick of the Concacaf Champions Cup.

Cincy plays its first leg of the round of 16 against Tigres on Tuesday. We all know how tough the turnaround can be for starters, so some sort of rotation should be used by Pat Noonan.

You’ll see a few different things around Subaru Park on match day.

The first is a shorter field. The grounds crew lined the field a bit shorter all around the pitch to suit Carnell’s Energy Drink Soccer style of play.

The other is the luxury seats in front of the River End.

As many of you have pointed out on social media, that seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

I will not there was netting down in front of the seats when I was in Chester on Friday. I wonder if that will go up during warmups so that stray shots don’t pepper the seats.

During game action, though, all bets are off, and as one player pointed out, it’s only inevitable until someone gets whacked in the face. We can take betting action on which player strikes someone with an errant shot first. My money would’ve been on Jose Martinez or Cory Burke if they were still around.

Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.