⚽️ Selling Out the Season

_{LAST MATCH: Union 0 - Nashville SC 0
NEXT MATCH: vs. New England Revolution
Saturday, Oct. 21, 6 p.m. | Apple TV - MLS Season Pass}

Good morning. There’s no Union game until Decision Day in New England on October 21, so we’ll continue taking a deeper dive at where the team stands heading into the postseason.

In the email today:

Though the Nashville SC game didn’t produce any goals it did set a new attendance record for the Philadelphia Union. The reported attendance of 19,387 marked the team’s 17th sellout of the season and put the regular season attendance at 322,208.

The previous high-water mark for a 17-game season was in 2011 when the Union drew 310,401 fans for the season. The team had just 15 home games in their inaugural season but were able to average 19,254 fans hosting their first two games at Lincoln Financial Field.

• The Union are 18th in the league in attendance for the season despite averaging a higher number of fans (18,953) than capacity (18,500).

• Subaru Park is the fourth smallest venue in MLS.

• Atlanta United topped the league in attendance with 807,947 fans over their 17 home games. That’s an average of 41,116 fans a game, which is more than double the mark for Subaru Park.

Our take: From 2013-2019 the Union saw attendance slip from an average high of 17,867 to 16,518 and then Covid kind of threw all attendance figures out the window for a couple seasons. Since then the Union have rebounded with electric sellout crowds, but the limited size of the venue continues to hold them back in terms of ticket revenue and accommodating the growth of the fanbase.

2) 🦅 Union Front Three Key to Postseason Hope

Though the scoreless draw with Nashville was a dud, the first half against Atlanta United earlier in the week featured the extremely positive development of the front three all scoring in the first half.

The last time Daniel Gazdag, Julian Carranza, and Mikael Uhre scored in the same game was the 4-1 win over Atlanta last August. They also scored against D.C. in a 6-0 win earlier that month and against Houston in a 6-0 win late July during one of the best offensive stretches in club and league history.

The Union also scored three goals in a half against D.C. after Leagues Cup, against Queretaro in Leagues Cup, against Inter Miami before Leagues Cup, and against New England in May.

• What separates the most recent three-goal half outburst from the rest may have been that all of the goals came from open play and revived a creative spark that had been lacking in preceding games.

• Uhre’s goal was especially important. His 9th of the league season was his first in 8 games, and only his fourth since the start of July. So there has been a correlation between Uhre’s production and the Union’s offensive play, and though it’s not all on his shoulders, last Wednesday was an example that he can still be the main man.

Our take: With one game remaining in the regular season and a potential home matchup against Atlanta, Columbus, or New England in the best-of-three format of the first round, the Union will need to be more than just a stout defensive team to return to the MLS Cup. And though they failed to score against a good defensive Nashville side Saturday night, the finale against New England at Gillette Stadium will be the last test for the Union to show they can get the attack on track before the playoff pressure mounts.

3) 😏 Meme of the Day: Unbeaten in Eight

4) 💧 Water Cooler: Union Defender of the Year

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

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Results from our last poll Union Young Player of the Year:

Jack McGlynn edged out Jesus Bueno and Nathan Harriel in our poll for Union Young Player of the Year.

5) 🔗 Link Roundup:

• 🇺🇸 Philadelphia Union teammates Jack McGlynn and Nathan Harriel both started for the U.S. U23 team in a 2-1 win over Mexico.

• 📺 Todd Lewis was the special guest on the PHLY Union podcast on Wednesday.

• ➡️ Jimmy King took a look at Brandan Craig’s loan to Austin FC for Philly Sports Network.

The newsletter today was written by: Matt Ralph @MattRalph_ and Greg Oldfield @GregOldfield21

Thanks for reading!