Philadelphia Union Striker Tai Baribo (center right) embraces teammate Indiana Vassilev after scoring in the first half of the Union’s 3-2 win over the New York Red Bulls at Subaru Park in Chester, Pa. on Wednesday night, August 13, 2025.
Photo by Kyle Grantham/Philly Soccer Page
The Philadelphia Union triumphed on Wednesday night over both the New York Red Bulls and the weather, which threatened to postpone the US Open Cup quarterfinal for a second time. The Union twice came from behind to win over the Red Bulls in a feisty, back-and-forth game. Lets get to the ratings.
Player Ratings:
GK Andre Blake – 5.5
Blake could have done better on the first goal; he seemed caught off guard and unable to properly set himself. He had no chance on the second.
LB Kai Wagner – 7.5
The set-piece king did it again, setting up the Union’s first and putting in dangerous crosses all night long. He was typically tenacious on the defensive side of the ball.
CB Olwethu Makhanya – 6
Badly misplayed the long ball on the Red Bull’s first goal, first by letting it bounce over his head, and then by getting outmuscled in the air by goalscorer Wicky Carmona. Made amends with the game winner.
CB Jakob Glesnes – 6
Mostly in control, but lost track of Choupo-Moting on the Red Bulls’ second goal.
RB Frankie Westfield – 7
A lot of good interplay going forward tonight for the young fullback, who combines well with Quinn Sullivan.
DM Danley Jean Jacques – 6
A quieter game from Danley, but the midfielder still showed a few moments of class in possession and against the ball.
DM Jovan Lukic – 5
Lukic had a few uncharacteristic giveaways and struggled to get involved on the offensive side of the game.
AM Quinn Sullivan – 5
An up-and-down game for Sullivan, who provided some moments of creativity, but was also shrugged off the ball too easily a few times. Also quite involved defensively, putting in a few tackles and helping Westfield lock down the right-side.
AM Indiana Vassilev – 6.5
Great flicked-on header to set up Baribo’s goal, and good interplay throughout the first half, before being forced off at halftime due to injury.
FWD Bruno Damiani – 5.5
Just thirteen completed passes and no shots for the big Uruguyan, who struggled to get involved on the night.
FWD Tai Baribo – 8
Baribo took his goal well, did great to pick out Milan Iloski for the Union’s second, and battled the physical Red Bulls centerbacks all night long.
Substitutes:
(46′) Milan Iloski – 7
Iloski made an immediate impact on his Union debut, causing problems with his movement and dribbling, before finding the back of the net with a beautiful first-time finish at the back post.
(70′) Mikael Uhre – 6.5
Uhre won some good fouls with his typical hard running, including the one that set up Makhanya’s winner.
(77′) Nathan Harriel – N/A
(77′) Jesus Bueno – N/A
(94′) Cavan Sullivan – N/A
(94′) Alejandro Bedoya – N/A
Geiger Counter – Joshua Encarnación – 6.5
This was a physical game, but Encarnación mostly kept a handle on things.
Player of the Match – Tai Baribo
A goal, an assist and plenty of grit for the team’s leading goalscorer.
What’s Next…
This result moves the Philadelphia Union on to the US Open Cup semifinal at Nashville SC on September 16. In the meantime, the Union travel up the road to play the Red Bulls for the second time in four days, a rematch that promises to prove feisty after tonight’s tough game.
I feel like Quinn is always lower on these ratings than what I watch, and in comparison to others.
I thought the ref did an excellent job. Was he perfect? Of course not. His biggest misses were cases when judging who the ball went out of bounds off of. But in many cases it was obvious he and the linesman were both screened and had to judge by the trajectory of the ball. And there was at least one time I remember Uhre slipping on his on but still drawing the foul.
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But other than that, he got most of them correct when players on both teams went down without being fouled and not falling for it. And I don’t remember a game with so many 10-15 second stoppages on restarts so VAR could do its thing. An absolutely none resulted in his being called to the monitor to check things out. Meaning that if his original call wasn’t 100% correct, it wasn’t clearly and obviously wrong. Think of all the times recently where we’ve seen VAR try to re-referee the game and send the ref to the monitor on 50/50 calls.
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So kudos to the ref, especially considering the difficult field conditions (and unlike many of the players, he was able to keep his feet).