Philadelphia Union's Leagues Cup Knockout Round Bracket is Winnable...and Boring

The Union face D.C. United in the round of 32 and wouldn't face a Mexican team until the quarterfinals.

The Philadelphia Union’s path to the Leagues Cup final was confirmed on Sunday night.

Jim Curtin’s men will play D.C. United in the round of 32 on Thursday night at Subaru Park. If they win, they face the winner of the Hudson River Derby in the round of 16, a match that will likely take place next Monday, but the date not been confirmed by the club yet.

The Union’s quarter features a grand total of five Major League Soccer clubs, all of whom play each other twice in the regular season in 2023.

Also included are Atlas, the team the Union eliminated in the 2023 Concacaf Champions League quarterfinals, Queretaro, who lost to the Union on Wednesday in the Leagues Cup group stage and Pumas.

The Union have proven they can beat six of the seven teams in their way to reach the semifinal. All of the Union’s matches will be at home in the knockout round, unless LAFC also reaches the championship match.

The expectation is easy to set for the Union: Reach the semifinal at minimum.

The excitement around those matches….well its’s kinda meh to be honest.

The Union are 4-0-1 in six regular-season matches this season against D.C., New England and the two New York clubs. They outscored those opponents 9-2 in those matches. There is one match left in the regular season against RBNY, New England and D.C.

In 2022, the Union went 7-0-2 against those four clubs, and in 2021, the Union played the quartet 14 times between the regular season and playoffs due to MLS’ regionalization of the schedule.

So that’s a whopping 28 matches against D.C., Red Bulls, NYCFC and New England played since the start of 2021, with at least five more to come (three MLS regular season, two Leagues Cup).

There’s nothing new about the matchups, and the ones against D.C. and RBNY have gotten stale in recent years because of the one-sided nature of the matchups. You could make the case the NYCFC games swung a bit that way as well due to the Pigeons’ drop in the table.

So, yes, it’s a brand-new competition, but at least for the Union and the teams on the I-95 corridor, it carries the exact same characteristics as recent U.S. Open Cups and the MLS regular season.

The Red Bulls, Revs and D.C. were all grouped together in the Open Cup draw this year. In 2022, there were Hudson River Derby, NYC-Revs and RBNY-DC matchups in the USOC. The Union were the odd team out on the regionalization, so at least they had new opponents in those competitions.

At some point, these matchups create fatigue or become less special because they happen so often. There have been eight RBNY-NYC games in the last three years. That has to water down the passion a bit.

What makes derbies and regional rivalries across the globe so special is those games happen twice a year and a club could hold bragging rights for an entire calendar year.

Not in the 2023 version of North American soccer, where everything has to be regionalized because of travel and costs.

If MLS and Liga MX are going to force the Leagues Cup upon us, there should be an unlimited budget for travel, so that we get unique matchups.

I would love to see the start of the knockout round have some sort of randomness to it. Maybe do one regional round to narrow the teams down to 16 and then do a draw and make a spectacle out of it?

If all you care about is winning, this is a bracket you love if you’re a Union fan.

The Union do not have to play a Mexican team until the quarterfinals, and if that opponent is Atlas or Queretaro, they are already deeply scouted because of the CCL and the Leagues Cup group stage.

That leaves Pumas as the biggest mystery to the Union, and likely the toughest competitor as well.

Pumas started the new Liga MX season in fourth place before the Leagues Cup break, but they are also a side that finished 16th last season.

Pumas were the 15th seed out of the Mexican teams in the Leagues Cup draw. Tijuana was 16th and Queretaro was 18th.

The Union’s incredible 2022 MLS campaign made them the No. 2 MLS seed, and the No. 1 team in the group draw. LAFC automatically entered into the round of 32 with Liga MX champion Pachuca.

The weak group-stage draw and the start of the knockout-round bracket are a reward for the Union’s 2022 performance, but in turn, it doesn’t strum up any new excitement, like the other parts of the bracket.

Over in the West, Tigres, Monterrey and LAFC are in the same quarter. We could see some final-level matchups in every round. That’s fun! That’s exciting! And if you’re a Union fan, good news that LAFC could be knocked out early and a home final is a true possibility.

The interest will spike if Lionel Messi and Inter Miami emerge out of the South bracket and come to Chester for the semifinals, and of course, a final is a final.

But at least the start of the knockout round lacks any sort of pizzazz and carries the same level of excitement as a midweek Open Cup match.

Photo Courtesy of Philadelphia Union.