The Philadelphia Union Are Who We Thought They Were

The Union's pair of losses to Orlando City and Columbus reinforced the overall struggles of the 2024 season.

The Philadelphia Union are who we thought they were.

The recent losses to Orlando City and the Columbus Crew showcased the fatal flaws of the Union’s 2024 campaign.

Philadelphia conceded on multiple occasions in both matches, moving the MLS regular season total up to 17 and 18 multi-goal concessions in 2024.

The Union have not won a single game in MLS play this season in which they allowed multiple goals.

The winning formula, as it has been in previous years, has been to build a strong defensive foundation and go from there.

Early in the season, the excuse was the Union would be better once Andre Blake returned from injury. That has not been the case.

Mistakes have happened in front of Blake, and some of them are the same ones that occurred when Oliver Semmle and Andrew Rick were in net.

The Union have the sixth-highest goal concession rate in the Eastern Conference. No team in that group ranks higher than eighth in the East standings.

Some of the defensive shortcomings could have been excused over the last week if the Union found a way to get a result or two on their travels.

After all, this is a team that showed flashes of its old self with five wins in a seven-game stretch to get itself back into the postseason mix.

Everything seemed to turn a corner during that stretch.

Andre Blake was back in net, the defense wasn’t letting in goals at a high rate and the Union continued to score at a high rate.

The one difference between the last two games and that winning run is the Union avoided the top teams in the East for the most part.

The September 14 loss to Inter Miami was, in fact, a better representation of where the Union currently stand in the MLS hierarchy than any of the positive results.

What the winning run taught us is that the Union can compete with teams from fifth place down in the East.

However, they are not currently tooled to do combat with the top dogs in the East and that was evident in the defeats to the second-and-fourth-place teams in the conference this past week.

The Union are 0-7 against the top four teams in the East in MLS play.

0-7 with six multi-goal concessions.

That’s not how the Union contended for championships in the past, and if they found a way to get a single result out of those games, they’d sit in a better position ahead of Decision Day on October 19.

Sure, you could look into countless other results across the MLS campaign where the Union let points go. I can think of at least three off the top of my head.

But even if the Union didn’t make mistakes in those other contests, they’d still be outmanned in any potential playoff matchups.

The last week wasn’t a wake-up call, it was just a burst back into reality for what the 2024 version of the Union really are.

A strong argument could be made that missing the postseason as a whole, which is far more likely now than last Tuesday, is the best possible thing for the franchise.

If anything serves as a wake-up call to Union ownership, it’s sitting on the sidelines while nine (that’s right nine) other teams in the East get to play at least one postseason contest.

Making the playoffs in MLS is not hard, and yet somehow, the Union have found multiple ways to play themselves out of contention.

The Union will still fight like hell to beat FC Cincinnati and hope for help on Decision Day, but even if a miracle happens, it’s hard to imagine something different happening in the postseason.

Photo Courtesy of Philadelphia Union.