Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union
Tai Baribo collected a hat trick to lead the Philadelphia Union to a 4-1 win in their 2025 Home Opener against FC Cincinnati.
Leading Philly’s intense high press, Baribo notched two by the 30 minute mark, his first coming just 6 minutes into the match.
How The Match Unfolded
Andre Blake started in net, and in front of him, the backline featured 19-year-old Homegrown Frankie Westfield and Kai Wagner as outside backs, and Makhanya and Jakob Glesnes paired at centerback.
Jovan Lukic, Danley Jean Jacques, Quinn Sullivan, and Daniel Gazdag made up the midfield, and Mikael Uhre and Tai Baribo started up top.
Minutes in, Baribo capitalized on an assist from Kai Wagner to start the home campaign off with a Doop. The Union kept the pace and energy up, but it wasn’t until the 30th minute that they’d find the net again–courtesy, of course, of Baribo. He nearly made it three minutes later, but his effort was ruled offsides.
Coming out in the second half, the Union seemed poised to continue their relentless attack, and for only the second time in his career, Baribo found the back of the net for a third goal of the match. The play started with a lead pass from Danley Jean Jacques through three Cincinnati players, finding Baribo darting toward the net. He first tried to get the ball to Gazdag in front of the net, but Deandre Yedlin made the stop in front of the net. Gazdag quickly recovered the ball, sending it past two Cincinnati defenders and Celentano for a Baribo finish.
Not wanting to be left out, new Cincinnati signing Evander turned a one-man run into a FCC goal when he cut to the left and snuck a low shot past Union captain Andre Blake. The Union’s two goal lead was nearly trimmed to one 20 minutes later, with a wild sequence of events that started with a stop by Blake. The ball snuck free of Blake and was served on a silver platter at the feet of Kévin Denkey, who, in a frenzy, rushed his shot and caused it to crash into the left post. Evander came in for the assist, but was ultimately denied via sliding block courtesy of Glesnes.
While a miraculous save would have been a perfect end to the night, new signing Bruno Damiani had other ideas. After making his club debut in the 69th minute, Damiani made memories with a late goal to make it back-to-back matches in which the Union scored four goals.
3 Points
- Jakob Glesnes made his 150th career MLS start for Philadelphia–becoming just the sixth player in club history to reach the milestone. Glesnes celebrated the achievement with a start reminiscent of his post-surgery days, including one heck of a block at the goal line.
- Bruno Damiani took his first attempt on goal within the first 30 seconds of seeing the pitch and managed to close off his debut night with a goal off a Sullivan assist in the 90+3′.
- As of the writing of this article, only 2 teams in the entire MLS have more goals than Tai Baribo does on the season. Baribo, with 5 goals, ties the total goals of Dallas and Columbus, while trailing Orlando and San Jose by 1 goal.
Lineups
Philadelphia Union (4-2-2-2):
Andre Blake (C), Kai Wagner, Olwethu Makhanya, Jakob Glesnes, Frankie Westfield, Danley Jean Jacques, Jovan Lukic (Jesus Bueno –89′, Quinn Sullivan, Daniel Gazdag (Indiana Vassilev –82′), Mikael Uhre (Bruno Damiani–69′), Tai Baribo (Cavan Sullivan –82′)
Unused Subs: Andrew Rick, Ian Glavinovich, Olivier Mbaizo, Alejandro Bedoya, Chris Donovan
FC Cincinnati (3-4-2-1)
Roman Celentano, Lukas Engel (Kenji Mboma Dem –85’), Teenage Hadebe, Miles Robinson (C), Gilberto Flores (Alvas Powell –70’), DeAndre Yedlin (Bret Halsey –58’), Tah Brian Anunga (Pavel Bucha –58’), Obinna Nwobodo, Yuya Kubo (Corey Baird –58’), Evander, Kévin Denkey
Unused Subs: Evan Louro, Stefan Chirila, Peter Mangione
Scoring Summary:
PHI – Tai Baribo – 6′
PHI – Tai Baribo – 30′
PHI – Tai Baribo – 52′
CIN – Evander- 58′
PHI – Bruno Damiani- 90+3‘
Disciplinary Summary:
CIN – Obinna Nwobodo (Yellow Card)
I was really impressed with Makhanya. He seems to have improved significantly from last year’s time with Union 2. And although he probably gave away too much space on the goal against, when you have a 3 goal lead, it’s probably better to do that than to give away a foul and pick up a yellow.
Has anyone scored 5 goals in the first two games of an MLS season? Amazing start for Tai.
According to the league website, he’s the 4th player to do it in the history of the league.
That has to be one of the most memorable home openers I have attended! We thought the curse of switching sides would hurt us but that was not to be! It was very windy and cold.
Lots of hustle and a solid performance from the new boys. While possession seemed somewhat even Cincy could not get much in the final third. Happy to see the solid use of subs.
Thanks for the write-up, overall an impressive game. On a minor note, Baribo had a brace rather than hat trick against Orlando.
That was an Ass whoopin. Union went Belt to Ass on many pundits Shield pick.
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It’s early days in the Carnell era, but this team has 2022 vibes. Keep in mind that Carnell took a far less talented St Louis side to the top of the West.
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Thbis team is going to score a boatload of goals this season. Can the defense hold up is the question?
That was an Ass whoopin. Union went Belt to Ass on many pundits Shield pick.
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It’s early days in the Carnell era, but this team has 2022 vibes. Keep in mind that Carnell took a far less talented St Louis side to the top of the West.
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This team is going to score a boatload of goals this season. Can the defense hold up is the question?
Gotta tell ya. I’m usually the fire and brimstone guy because I’ve spent so many decades of the Negadelphia years (which the Sixers and Flyers are keeping tradition). The Birds have given me hope the past several years with two SB wins before I die as well as the Phillies with one and in the fight.
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We still haven’t won any kind of championship, but the opening two matches have been class. I like the confidence and offensive aggression even when leading.
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Look at the goal differential besides the 6 points. Winning never gets old. Even Uhre seems to have improved. Baribo is a baller. The defense played well. Blake was himself.
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BTW, the best goal was Cincy’s. How simple, but aware and savvy. It’s one of those ‘why didn’t I think of that’ moments that even caught our team off guard.
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Besides the team, the crowd was silent and almost bowing in respect for the foresight. Credit due. Our team had a teachable moment. Convert his foresight to goals for us.
Nothing lifts dark clouds like winning. And winning big. The new Union double barreled attack is pretty fun to watch. It had Cincy on their heels all night.
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We don’t look very composed without the ball in our defensive third, but that might be a work in progress. When you have a sturdy midfield winning ball’s and converting them into opportunities at that kind of pace, the best defense might just be a relentless offense.
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Glad the Union have gotten off to a good start and put a lot of doubts to rest. Let’s keep it going.
Too darn cold to really enjoy, but that was an awesome start. Thank YOU!
Philly Red Bulls fun to watch!
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4 players with 5 goals to start.Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández (2021), Ayo Akinola (2020) and Brian Ching (2006).
Here are my observations from Section 105:
1) A big shout out needs to go to the Union fan base. There was nearly a full house at the Sub on a pretty nasty night. We bundled up, but even then, the wind chill made us cold. However, the Union’s play warmed us up and brought us to our feet repeatedly.
2) To a man, the Union were very quick to the ball, and they seemed to win every duel, which meant that most of the first half was spent in FC Cincinnati’s end. Cincinnati seemed slow on both ends of the pitch, but perhaps that resulted from the nearly relentless Union pressure.
3) The Union were particularly strong on the ball, there were very few times when Cincinnati dispossessed a Union player in possession.
4) With regard to the Union’s second goal, I think it is a fair question to ask whether referee Chapman and the linesman on our side of the field knew the offside rule that a defender making a back pass plays an attacker onside. From our seats we could see the back pass clearly and there should have been no issue that the goal was good. Yet the linesman and Chapman ruled the goal offside. Fortunately, the VAR official called down and had Chapman review the play on the monitor and the goal was allowed. Chapman announced that No. 9 (Baribo) was onside. We did not think that was an issue at all.
5) On a few occasions, Cincinnati were able to set up in the Union end, and this gave them their best chances to score. Right now, the Union do not defend well in their own end. That makes it extremely difficult to keep a clean sheet. Hopefully this will improve as the season progresses. So far, the best Union defense has been their good offense. . . and a healthy Andre Blake.
6) To give Coach Carnell some credit here, it looks like he is playing to the strengths of his players, and to their credit, it seems that they have bought into his style of play. It is exciting and pleasing to watch.
7) I know it is only the second game of the season, but the Union have soundly beaten two playoff teams from last season. I think that this team has the potential to do something special, barring catastrophic injury to Andre Blake.
Nice write up Anna and a good game to watch in person, even if it was quite chilly!
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Got a statistical question for everyone reading: Damiani scored a goal on his debut, but when was the last time the Union had a player do that?
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Brenden scored against Atlanta in 2019, has there been a more recent example aside from Bruno?
Zero to 60 in about 2 seconds with 900 pounds of torque makes this team a race car at the time of writing. Carry on.
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Plenty to be impressed with noting / no one has been more impressive thus far then Quinn Sullivan.
Patchy, I have been telling my friends and family that through two games, Q Sullivan has been the most impressive player. He’s more athletic version of McGlynn, and this new midfield formation really suits him.
Cold and windy. A lot of empty seats in the 2nd half. Can somebody tell me why these first couple of games can’t be played in the afternoon? Used to be due to network/broadcast TV scheduling. But I can’t see how that’s an issue with MLS on Apple TV.
Now think about the post-World Cup season when they switch to the international calendar. Gonna be a lot of attendance problems when so many games are in freezing temps.
It is entirely because of Apple. Apple wants all games in the same time zone played at the same time so it can have its like 360 program covering them all. Sunday evening games are the one exception.