Match Thoughts: Nashville SC 3, Philadelphia Union 1

The Union were done in by a handful of mistakes in their first loss of the 2025 MLS regular season.

The Philadelphia Union struggled in all facets of the game in Sunday’s loss to Nashville SC.

It was a shocking come-down-to-Earth game after the high-flying start in which the Union collected nine points from the first three games.

The defensive struggles from 2024, especially from Jakob Glesnes, reared their head again and sprung up plenty of concerns about the Union’s big picture moving forward.

Just like the first three wins, Sunday’s loss is only one game, but it’s clear what the team’s biggest strengths and weaknesses are, and when its biggest strength doesn’t show up, the club could be in for some rough results.

Jakob Glesnes’ Shocking Game

I wrote after last week’s game that I was far more convinced that the early-season success of Jovan Lukic and Danley Jean Jacques would be more sustainable than the center-back pairing of Jakob Glesnes and Olwethu Makhanya.

The warning signs were there in the first three games, but some positional shortcomings were masked by last-ditch defending, and well, the fact that the Union won three games in a row.

It all came tumbling down in defense against Nashville, who I’d argue brought the first true test to the Union’s defense.

Week 1 is Week 1, FC Cincinnati had Champions League midweek after Week 2 and Leo Campana’s injury hurt the Revs last week.

Sam Surridge wreaked all sorts of havoc on the back line and got some help from some poor decision-making as well.

Jakob Glesnes deserves all the blame for the first Nashville goal. Glesnes immediately went to Hany Mukhtar when the ball was played to the Nashville No. 10 just past midfield.

Danley and Lukic were up field because that’s what the Union’s current system demands, so with knowledge of that, Glesnes could have let Mukhtar take the ball and worry about closing off Surridge’s space moving toward goal.

Instead, the step up to Mukhtar created acres of space for Surridge to run into.

“It wasn’t good enough from me today,” Glesnes said. “I would say that on all three of the goals.”

Frankie Westfield was no match for Surridge 1v1 and a last-ditch track back from Glesnes did nothing to prevent the ball going into the back of the net.

On one hand, I get why Glesnes would step up to Mukhtar to break the play up immediately, but the right move in this spot was to track Surridge and let either Westfield or Danley, who wasn’t too far from the ball at that point, crowd Mukhtar.

Glesnes pursued the ball too far up field on the second Nashville goal as well.

This movement stood out less than the mistake on the opener, but he took a straight line to the ball as Westfield moved toward the end line as part of his pressing responsibilities as the right back.

Glesnes didn’t alter his path and let Ahmed Qasem breeze right past him down the left.

Glesnes has never been the fastest player in the Union defense, so knowing that, he has to be more positionally sound to either force Qasem out wide, or to deny him the ball completely. Neither happened and Nashville scored a fairly routine goal. You could argue Andre Blake needs to do better at the near post, but also the defensive mistake shouldn’t have put the Union in that position to start.

Makhanya had a rough moment in the first half against Surridge as well, when the Nashville forward was just too physical for the South African. The move didn’t result in a goal, but it ended in a significant scoring chance.

The Norwegian was also responsible for conceding a penalty late in the second half with a late headed challenge on Mukhtar in the box.

I understand why there was frustration with the call, and it was mostly because the Union were robbed on the other end of what should have been a penalty, so let’s get into that.

Refereeing Issues

All everyone wants is for the refereeing to be consistent, and if calls are wrong, for VAR to clean up the mess.

After all, that’s the whole purpose of VAR.

Well, that simply wasn’t the case in the 61st minute, when Daniel Lovitz clearly tackled Quinn Sullivan on the right side of the box.

The referee didn’t call for a penalty on the field initially, so in theory, VAR should have corrected the decision. This happens all the time across the world.

BUT

The Union weren’t awarded a penalty after a lengthy review process.

The VAR has to be 100 percent certain that the call on the field was wrong. “Clear and obvious error” is the phrase we’re all familiar with.

I’m not sure what wasn’t clear or obvious about the play. Most analysts who cover the league chimed in on social media that it was blatant missed call.

That’s what makes the decision in the 77th minute more frustrating from the Union’s perspective.

But if you go back and watch it, Glesnes was a few seconds late on the headed challenge against Mukhtar in the box and he didn’t make the contact with the ball.

It was a poorly timed jump and he caught Mukhtar in the back of the head. It wasn’t a 50/50 challenge, which is why the penalty was given.

It was the right call, but 15 minutes earlier, the wrong call was made, and that’s where the frustration lies.

The referee did make the right call in second-half stoppage time, when Chris Donovan was fouled in the box. Like the Glesnes penalty, the defender got to the ball second and it resulted in contact inside the box.

The penalty attempt itself from Quinn Sullivan? Meh.

Attacking Whiffs

Quinn Sullivan’s stoppage-time penalty was bad, but it wasn’t the worst miss of the game from a Union player.

Daniel Gazdag inexplicably missed a sitter in the 57th minute before all the refereeing chaos came down on Subaru Park.

In my eyes, the Gazdag miss is where the match swung away from the Union.

That was THE chance for the Union to get back on level terms and finish strong in the final 30 minutes.

If that goes in, you’re not relying on refereeing decisions to get you back into the game with penalties, and you reinvigorate the crowd in Chester.

I mean, seriously, how do you miss from here?

Gazdag got too cute with the finish, and instead of using power to put it past Joe Willis, he used more touch to get around the goalkeeper and it was an easy save for Willis to make.

Sullivan’s penalty had a similar level of meekness to it. He didn’t strike it with a ton of power and put it right within Willis’ reach.

I was actually stunned that Sullivan stepped up to the spot in the moment. Gazdag was off the field, but Bruno Damiani was on the pitch. You have to let your record signing take the penalty in that situation.

Would it have mattered in the 101st minute? Probably not, but you never know what weird shit can go on in the late seconds of a game.

Jovan Lukic’s Golazo

Okay, let’s end on a positive.

Jovan Lukic struck a beautiful goal in the 33rd minute.

That was his second goal in two games for the Union.

I’m not going to sit here and wax poetic about anything else the central midfielder did on Sunday, but damn, that was one heck of a hit.

And if you want something to brag about:

The Union are the only team in Major League Soccer with a double-digit goal tally through four games. Take that, Inter Miami.

Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.