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⚽️ Another Blown Lead at Home, Another Draw

Union can't hold a lead in fourth straight draw

Author

Matthew Ralph
September 28, 2023

Photo by Carl Gulbish

LAST MATCH: Union 1 - FC Dallas 1

NEXT MATCH: at Columbus Crew, Saturday, Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m. | Apple TV - MLS Season Pass

Good morning. Maybe it was their jerseys making them look like DC United, but when Quinn Sullivan scored in the 25th minute to put the Philadelphia Union in front, it looked like another route might be on. But then the opposite thing happened and only a called back goal by a VAR handball salvaged a point in a fourth straight draw.

Updated standings:

In the email today:

  1. 👖 Another Blown Lead at Home, Another Draw

  2. 📈 Grading Players from FC Dallas Draw

  3. 🏆 Meme of the Day: Least He’s Happy

  4. 💧Water Cooler: [Poll Topic]

  5. 🔗 Link Roundup 

1) 👖 Another Blown Lead at Home, Another Draw

It’s one thing to settle for a draw when down a pair of goals on turf in Charlotte. It’s another thing to tie three straight games at home by blowing two leads and not scoring in a third.

If this is the point of the season when the Union need to stumble to get that storybook rebound in the postseason so be it, but the four-game draw streak they are on isn’t building confidence or momentum even if injuries and fatigue are partially to blame.

Julian Carranza, Jose Martinez and Jakob Glesnes are big enough names to lose and Leon Flach is still unavailable so the cupboard is a little bear right now at the time of year when you want it to be full and equipped a deep postseason run.

Our take: The Union depth has been a mixed bag all season and while there have been some decent performances from the bench players that have played there are signs of wear and tear on them now too. With four games left there’s still home field to play for but the Union need to get healthy quick and remember how to win again.

2) 📈 Grading Players from FC Dallas Draw

  • 🧤Andre Blake 🅰️ - Recorded the first goalkeeper assist in Philadelphia Union history, couldn’t do much on the Dallas goal and was generally solid.

  • 🇨🇲 Olivier Mbaizo 🅱️ - Mbaizo often walks that line between being outstanding one minute and wtf the next. He had a couple of both moments on the night.

  • 🇯🇲 Damion Lowe 🅰️ - Lowe played like he really took his pace rating in EA Sports FC personally. His recovery speed and lock down D nearly single-handedly earned the Union a point.

  • 🗼Jack Elliott 🅰️ - Though not as noticeably spectacular as his counterpart, Elliott was solid in the D and played some great balls forward.

  • 💰 Kai Wagner 🅰️➕ - DP left back this, DP left back that. Wagner is the best left back in MLS and the most dangerous player in the Union attack. Find the money and pay the man.

  • 🇻🇪 Jesus Bueno 🅱️ - Bueno recovered from a pretty lackluster first half to put in a solid shift in the second but to no fault of his own he’s still a downgrade from Martinez in the midfield, especially against a very pacy Dallas attack.

  • 📐 Jack McGlynn 🅱️ - His ball to Ale had the back post probably upgraded him from a C to B but not his best night on either side of the ball.

  • 🟨 Alejandro Bedoya 🅱️ - Bedoya had a chance to score another winner against Dallas but he just wasn’t able to redirect McGlynn’s ball to the back post past the keeper. Though not perfect, he was very active and involved throughout.

  • 🥾 Mikael Uhre C - Simply put, Uhre needs to be more dangerous. As disorganized as the Dallas back line looked on that first goal, he should’ve been able to exploit them for a second or even third goal but came up empty.

  • 🤩 Quinn Sullivan 🅰️ - Something about playing this kid makes sense, doesn’t it? His goal was a thing of beauty (never mind Dallas playing him on and letting that ball through) and his ability to keep defenses guessing popping up in different spots on the field is a weapon that needs more deployment.

3) 🏆 Meme of the Day: Least He’s Happy

Sixers star James Harden was a bit happier than the Philadelphia Union were on Wednesday. The Houston Dynamo part-owner was in Miami celebrating a US Open Cup trophy while the Union settled for a f

4) 💧 Water Cooler: Disappointment

What's big the biggest disappointment of late with the Union?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Have additional thoughts? Reply directly to this email to comment, and see if we include your response tomorrow.

…

Results from our last poll Starting Forwards vs Dallas:

More than 60 percent of respondents wanted Uhre and Baribo but got Uhre and Sullivan instead. Sullivan scored a first half goal while Uhre struggled to find an illusive second that would’ve secured all three points for the hosts.

5) 🔗 Link Roundup:

The newsletter today was written by: Matt Ralph @MattRalph_

Thanks for reading!