Photo: Ron Soliman
The Philadelphia Union matchup with the Seattle Sounders on Saturday night at Subaru Park was short-lived. The Seattle Sounders brought an additional member with them on the team plane – the weather.
Twenty minutes before the first whistle, the rain picked up to “PacNW monsoon” level. The field quickly became water-logged, causing issues for both teams in the first five minutes. Playing a simple pass quickly became impossible and the referee crew decided to pause the contest at the six minute mark.
This, of course, was met with audible jeers from the river end to “let them play.”
Both teams exited the pitch and returned to the locker rooms, as a thirty-minute rain delay was announced over the public address system. The rain drove down into the faces the field crew as they made a valiant effort to “squeegee” the field – but they were no match for Weather FC.
The thirty minute delay became forty minutes, before an announcement that the game was postponed rang over the PA system.
All eyes shift now to Tuesday night’s second leg matchup in the round of sixteen of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, where the Union will meet Pachuca south of the border. A win or a tie with any Union goals scored will send them through to the quarter-final of the tournament.
Three Points
- Pardon the interruption – It was a wet one. The rain was steady throughout the afternoon, but especially picked up just before kickoff, causing the game to be postponed with a reschedule date TBD.
- No Carranza – Julian Carranza was not listed on the initial team-sheet, so his availability for the Pachuca match on Tuesday remains in question.
- Rest defense – With the weather delaying their match, the Union will now have some additional much-needed rest before they head down to Mexico for Tuesday’s match.
Lineups
Philadelphia Union
Andre Blake, Nathan Harriel, Jack Elliott, Damion Lowe, Olivier Mbaizo, Quinn Sullivan, Jose Martinez, Jesus Bueno, Daniel Gazdag, Markus Anderson, Mikael Uhre
Unused subs: Oliver Semmle, Kai Wagner, Matt Real, Jakob Glesnes, Alejandro Bedoya, Jack McGlynn, Jeremy Rafanello, Chris Donovan, Tai Baribo
Seattle Sounders
Andrew Thomas, Nouhou Tolo, Xavier Arreaga, Jackson Ragen, Christian Roldan, Alex Roldan, Joshua Atencio, Obed Vargas, Leo Chu, Jordan Morris, Raul Ruidiaz
Unused subs: Jacob Castro, Yeimar Gomez, Jonathan Bell, Cody Baker, Danny Leyva, Dylan Teves, Paul Rothrock, Danny Musovski
Scoring Summary
N/A
Discipline Summary
N/A
Might be a blessing in disguise. Not giving up a goal right at the beginning was certainly thanks to the weather.
Agreed, also the Union get a nice, long, rest to prepare for pachuca
True, although the play developed from the weather gaffes too.
Definitely the right call given how bad the field was with the standing water over most of it. And by the time they finished with the squeegees it was as bad as it was when they started.
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And it had gotten worse very quickly. When the players were warming up, it wasn’t nearly as bad.
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Of course in Seattle, this would have been considered one of the top 10 weather days of the year.
Utterly unplayable for a guy who loved playing in snow and muck and now attends in it. It was a bathtub.
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Who made out were the concessions and especially the club suite with over two hours of food and booze with a packed crowd.
Most likely the game will be during either the September or October international break since those are the only weeks that neither team is playing (other than during the Leagues Cup…so if both teams get eliminated early there, it would also be a possibility).
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Just in case anyone is interested, a link to the MLS rules regarding player eligibility for the rest of the match is available in the match recap on the MLS website. (I tried to post the link here but it wasn’t letting me.)
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Essentially, Carranza won’t be available to play unless someone on tonight’s gameday roster isn’t available because of a trade or international duty, etc. Same for the Seattle players who are out injured.
Very interesting about the player eligibility rules. Thanks for mentioning.
Thanks for that info!
That’s to our advantage. Seattle had many player out. Reed Baker-Whiting (left hamstring), Pedro de la Vega (right hamstring), Stefan Frei (right hamstring), Nathan (not due to injury), João Paulo (left hip), Braudilio Rodrigues (right hamstring), Albert Rusnák (right ankle).
Add the rest for the Pachuca second leg, the postponement worked out for us.
After some initial booing, most of those in the stadium took the postponement in stride. The 6 minutes of play that we saw were pretty laughable. When the ball settled in a puddle of 6 inches of water, it became extremely difficult to move it out. So it was definitely the right call. The best comment I heard from the stands around me: “I have $10 on Squeegie No. 2!”
And. . . the Union remain undefeated.
For MLS to start that game was ridiculous, but par for the course, and the way MLS treats it’s fans.
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Maybe Don’s subscription to weather.com ran out Friday.
Respectfully. at 6:45 pm the field looked playable still. It hit supersaturation really fast.
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that said, not sure it took rocket science to predict it either.
Was strange that the field did not drain. Someone mentioned that the river was too high for the water in the drains to drain into the river. Please find out whether this was the case. If so maybe pumps should be prioritized over a stadium expansion.
I had wondered about this too. I know it rained a lot, but watched a few minutes of Redbulls game in a downpour and it had green grass and was draining. The poor color of the pitch at Subaru Park also suggests drainage issues. I haven’t been there in person in a few years, but for the last year or more it has looked poor on the TV.