⚽️ THAT Brandon Aubrey!?

_{LAST MATCH: Union 4 - New York Red Bulls 1}

_{NEXT MATCH: vs. FC Cincinnati}

_{Saturday, Sept. 16, 7:30 p.m. | Apple TV - MLS Season Pass}

Good morning. The weekend off for the Union meant fans could go all in on the Eagles getting a first week W and as it turns out also getting a look at the new Dallas Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey.

Five years ago, Aubrey came to town hoping to make the Union as a defender for the reserve squad but ended up retiring from the game after one season. Now he’s joined a small fraternity of athletes to play both football and soccer professionally.

In the email today:

A lot can happen in five years. And if you’re Brandon Aubrey that includes going from Bethlehem Steel center back to a placekicker for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL.

• The Texas native made his NFL debut on Sunday, kicking a pair of field goals and converting four out of five extra points in a 40-0 win over the New York Giants.

• Soccer players kicking field goals isn’t new.

• Former Union Academy prospect Joey Julius – who played for Jim Curtin when he coached a U17 team to the Generation adidas Cup title in 2012 – made a name for himself in college as the kicker for Penn State.

• Two of Philadelphia soccer legend Walt Bahr’s sons – Matt Bahr and Chris Bahr – also both played football and soccer professionally.

Our take: It’s always good to see former players in the Union organization go on to do big things just not when they go the John McCarthy route and beat the Union in a shootout to decide MLS Cup.

2) 🗺️ The More Direct the Better for the Union

The Union are currently the 5th most direct team in MLS. We can measure directness simply by looking at the direction and distance of passes attempted. For this measure, we take the distance covered toward the opponent’s goal divided by the overall distance of the passes. A directness of 40% would mean that for every 10 yards a team passes the ball, they progress the ball on average 4 yards toward the opponent goal.

The Union are better offensively and defensively when they play direct. This chart below shows it very clearly. The Union are pedestrian when their directness level is below 40%, and a completely different show when above 40%.

3) 🖼️ Meme of the Day: When 4 for 4 Fans Trash Soccer

4) 💧 Water Cooler: Union Kicker?

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

…

Results from our last poll: What Union Player is Most Deserving of a National Team Call-Up

🇳🇴 Jakob Glesnes, 83%
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Jack Elliott, 17%

It wasn’t even close. Give this man a call, Ståle Solbakken.

5) 🔗 Link Roundup:

• 🇺🇸 USA vs Oman, 2023 Friendly: Scouting Oman
  This is the first all-time meeting between the two nations. Ranked 73rd internationally by FIFA, Oman began the year with a runner-up finish in the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup, a run that ended in the final with a 3-2 loss to Iraq but imbued the players with confidence.

• 🧹 The Philadelphia Union Academy teams kicked off the 2023-2024 MLS Next season with a clean sweep of Cedar Stars in New Jersey over the weekend.

• 🇫🇷 French star Antoine Griezmann says his “priority remains MLS” in terms of any future move from Atletico Madrid, where he’s under contract through 2026. Griezmann is 32 years old.

• 🏠 Get to know Union striker Mikael Uhre and his family in this “off the pitch” feature sponsored by a local real estate company.

The newsletter today was written by: Matt Ralph @MattRalph_, Jared Young @JaredEYoung and Alex Klein @DaddyKleinBucks

Thanks for reading! ⚽️