Photo Courtesy Philadelphia Union
Looking to bounce back after being knocked out of the US Open Cup, the Philadelphia Union hosted the New England Revolution at Subaru Park on Saturday afternoon. A one-time finish from Bruno Damiani was the difference maker, and also the nail in the coffin for New England’s postseason hopes.
Andre Blake made his return to the lineup for the first time since his non-contact injury against the New York Red Bulls on August 16th. Both Olwethu Makhanya and Jovan Lukic were suspended for the match due to yellow card accumulation.
First Half
New England had the first promising chance of the match, but Philadelphia was able to quell the threat without allowing a shot on goal. The visitors came out in a 3-4-2-1, allowing for plenty of attacking pressure through wingbacks Peyton Miller and Brandon Bye. They outpressed the Union in the opening ten minutes.
The Union woke up around fifteen minutes into the match, and Quinn Sullivan worked his way down the fair sideline, still the most energetic-looking man wearing a Union shirt on the pitch. Two attempts to switch the play to Indiana Vassilev’s left side came to nothing in the end. Matt Turner governed his box well, collecting several lofted balls played into the area intended for the heads of Damiani and Baribo.
New England midfielder Allan Oiyrwoth earned a yellow card for a harsh tackle on Danley Jean-Jacques, but Kai Wagner overcooked the free kick into the box.
On the Union’s next restart, Wagner lofted the ball over the lines for Bruno Damiani, who shouldered his mark on the way to the ball, which official Lorenzo Hernandez called a foul.
Luca Langoni had a wide-open shot, being unmarked on the second ball of a New England corner, but the young Argentinian whiffed the volley and sent it over the bar. Normally a right midfielder or winger, the 23-year-old was given a tall task as a lone striker by interim head coach Pablo Moreira.
Matt Turner made an incredible reaction save on the Union’s 38th-minute corner to keep the match level. The header from Frankie Westfield at the back post was the best chance of the half for either side.
Indiana Vassilev had the ball and space ahead of him in the 42nd minute and played a well-timed through ball to Tai Baribo. The normally clinical Israeli’s one-touch shot went high over the bar.
Both sides went to the locker room in a deadlock, but the Union spent the first 45 minutes playing down to New England’s level.
Second Half
New England’s Peyton Miller saw yellow in the 49th minute for pulling fellow US Under-20 international Frankie Westfield down by the shirt. The Union made nothing of that restart.
Jesus Bueno committed a foul on the near sideline, but luckily, New England was unable to get on the end of Carles Gil’s ball. Bueno, for the better part of the match thus far, reminded us why he is usually behind Jovan Lukic in the depth chart. His passing did not connect with his teammates and often led to frustration.
Milan Iloski entered for Danley Jean Jacques in the 60th minute, slotting Indiana Vassilev back into the defensive midfield with Bueno.
Bruno Damiani and Brayan Ceballos had a coming together outside the box moments later, where Damiani went down with an apparent head injury. Lorenzo Hernandez did not call a foul.
Bruno Damiani found the breakthrough for Philadelphia on a low cross from Milan Iloski. The play started with an Indiana Vassilev through ball from the defensive midfield position.
Peyton Miller was given a straight red in the 75th minute for throwing the ball at the head of Tai Baribo after being called for fouling Quinn Sullivan. The Revolution played the remaining 15 minutes with 10 men. Tai Baribo also earned a yellow card during the confrontation.
Bradley Carnell turned to his bench to enter Chris Donovan and Jeremy Rafanello for Damiani and Bueno to see things out.
Matt Turner, yet again, had a big save in the 85th minute to keep Quinn Sullivan from adding a tally of his own. He reached with one hand to parry the well-placed shot over the bar, then claimed the ensuing corner in the air.
Chris Donovan found himself through on goal in stoppage time and chose to lightly pass the ball to no one. Andre Blake parried away the shot on the following breakaway, then smothered the corner kick to keep the clean sheet.
The Union stood firm through the final minutes of the match to increase the gap at the top of the standings.
Three Points:
- Frankie Westfield has likely played his final regular-season match of 2025. He will join the USA U-20 squad in Chile for the Under-20 World Cup at the end of this month. Union off-roster homegrown player Eddy Davis III was called into the camp as a training player ahead of the group stage.
- Tai Baribo is suspended for the Union’s next MLS match with his yellow card.
- Milan Iloski had an instant impact on the pitch and earned an assist to show for it. His acquisition was an important one for the Union’s offseason chances.
Lineups
Philadelphia
Andre Blake; Kai Wagner, Jakob Glesnes, Nathan Harriel, Frankie Westfield, Jesus Bueno (Jeremy Rafanello- 82′), Danley Jean Jacques (Milan Iloski- 60′), Indiana Vassilev, Quinn Sullivan, Tai Baribo (Mikeal Uhre-77′), Bruno Damiani (Chris Donovan- 82′)
Unused subs: Andrew Rick; Olivier Mbaizo, Neil Pierre, Alejandro Bedoya, Cavan Sullivan
New England
Matt Turner; Brayan Ceballos, Tanner Beason, Ilay Feingold (Tomas Chancalay-79′), Peyton Miller, Allan Oyirwoth (Will Sands- 79′), Alhassam Yusuf (Jackson Yueill-71′), Matt Polster (Eric Klein- 90+’), Brandon Bye (Andrew Farrell- 90+’), Luca Langoni, Carles Gil.
Unused Subs: Alex Bono; Wyatt Omsberg, Sharod George, Keegan Hughes
Scoring Summary:
PHI: Damiani– 71′
Discipline Summary:
NER: Oyirwoth- 21′ (Caution)
NER: Miller- 49′ (Caution)
NER: Yusuf- 62′ (Caution)
NER: Miller- 75′ (ejection)
PHI: Baribo- 75′ (caution)
NER: Chancalay- 90+’ (Caution)
Referee: Lorenzo Hernandez
Terrible first half; as usual. Glad they finally got the goal but should have scored another one with a man up for 15 min. Won’t be surprised if Turner is selected for WC team
Not surprised that the Union couldn’t score on the power play given that they had longer stretches up a man against Dallas and Nashville and couldn’t score (and gave up the winning goal while up a man against the latter).
Baribo has to be smarter during the dead ball situation and not take a yellow when he’s one card away from suspension. Even if Baribo doesn’t shove him, Miller would likely have been sent off for a second yellow on the initial foul.
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Very lackluster performance by the Union, fortunately against a weak enough team that they could get away with it. Hopefully they can play well enough to get 3 on the road in DC next weekend with two tough games to close out the regular season.
I’m OK with Baribo earning a yellow… it was his egging on / shove that earned him a yellow, and led to Miller overreacting.
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Agree it was a lackluster performance. Can’t expect points against NYCFC or Charlotte with that level of play.
Normally I wouldn’t have an issue with the yellow. But in this case it means he is suspended. For that reason I’m a lot less OK with it.
I’ll live with a suspension against DC. Let Iloski start. (He should have today)
Miller was going to get his second yellow for the foul. Ref was going to the pocket for the card as he was running in. Baribo didn’t see this, but still a dumb card to take.
Why is Chris Donovan even making the game day roster? Time to move on.
I tried to figure why Iloski is on the bench with Indy starting. Best I can think is that Iloski is the only guy on the bench that would be a spark and he is being saved to see how the game unfolds with the thinking to bring him on for Danley if more offense is needed and on for Indy for fresh defensive legs if we’re up. Otherwise the general vibe isn’t great. The offense has basically evaporated. Iloski is the only one with purposeful movement in that final third that actually unlocks things. Like it did on basically our only good look. Luckily we finished it. And Donovan did nothing to assuage the nay sayers. Did a nice dribble out of bounds a la Wenger. Trapped the ball down nicely and handed it to the opposition. Looked scared on the ball resulting in the soft pass to no one when he was in on goal. Did anyone think he’d actually shoot? Almost got flash backs to squandered chances of his design that could’ve led to the opposition stealing one or more points. It’s really hard to see the current run of form getting us past New York or Charlotte.
“Chris Donovan found himself through on goal in stoppage time and chose to lightly pass the ball to no one.” “….lightly pass the ball to no one,” yep, that’s our Dono.
Why do I feel like this was actually a loss? Sitting in Sec. 101 today, it looked like the U were being outplayed by a much lesser team. Of has everything been some grand illusion to date? They should have buried the Revs.
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It never bodes well when the Union get to play vs. 10 men. Guaranteed craptitude when opposing team banishments occur.
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And please, PLEASE send Chris Donovan to some faraway USL team. I’m sure he is a nice enough fellow, but today he demonstrated that when faced with a decision to make, he will without fail choose the wrong surface, skill or tactic.
Holy shit. Donovan? He’s still playing for this team? He doesn’t even know how to play soccer.
Holy shit, Vassilev? That guy is starting? He’s a frenetic lightweight who doesn’t know how to play soccer.
I mean, this shit is embarrassing. I hope the Union win the Supporters Shield and then MLS Cup. But with those 2 in the 18 we’ll still be laughed at by European, Mexican, and South American competition.
Sloppy performance again. Lucky to get the 3 points, but that’s not playoff quality, especially against a playoff caliber team. Still, they got the 3 and we needed them.
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What actually irked me though was another ‘Phillies Karen’ who stole a kid’s flag.
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The kid was walking out with his sister and their friends who had theirs. Poor fella was broken hearted that an adult woman snuck his flag from his stuff beside him, and his parents were guffawed. I gave him a flag (obviously NBD). He was cheered again, and the kids fist bumped me along with the parents thanks. Still, you could see the kid was still stunned how low some may go.
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That item wasn’t even a loose baseball hit into in the stands. Abandoned flags tonight could be retrieved in the stands without doing that to a kid. Whoever did that…you’re a major douchebag. Ripping off kids shouldn’t be ‘a thing’. Wish someone had got it on camera because we’d make her famous.
That was ugly, it wasn’t much better than the performance against Nashville. Against a playoff caliber team, it’s a loss.
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But it’s three points. And for the next three games, that’s all that matters. The Open Cup felt like the best chance for a trophy this season, and I can’t see the Union making a playoff run because of the roster talent deficit, so it has to be all in for the Shield.
What a great situation to put Cavan in! Instead, we get Dono and his pass to no one. What exactly does Carnell see in him? Ok Dono is most effective at hold up play but today even that was not working.
Raffa did a much better job closing down the game.
Win the last matches, get the Shield !
Mr. Donovan is not the answer.
DOOP!
Good teams get 3 points against bad teams. That’s what happened today. NE came out with a plan to make the game choppy and slow, aiming for a draw and with luck (lots) a cheap win. The U struggle against this type of game plan and today was no different.
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They got the job done. Did San Diego? I agree, in the first half NE outplayed our lads. It was not entertaining at all. The 2nd half was better. I’m not a great fan of xG, but in this case I think the final numbers show that the U were considerably better over the full 90 minute course of events.
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BC seemed intent on making the final 15 minutes an okole squeezer, and he succeeded. I cannot remember feeling less secure about a win with a 1 goal lead and 11 on 10.
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I have been clear about Chris D. USL is a far better place for him. But remember, he is a 100k/yr MLS striker. No one should have high expectations about his performance. Criticize him if you will, but what are your expectations, and why do you think he can perform at the level of your expectations?