Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union
The Philadelphia Union opened their 2026 MLS campaign with an uncharacteristic 1-0 loss to D.C. United on Saturday night at Audi Field – marking their first opening-day loss since 2020. Playing their second road match in four days, the Boys in Blue conceded to former teammate Tai Baribo, who found the net after an earlier strike was ruled offside.
With several new faces in the lineup, the Union never fully settled and were forced to chase the match a man down for much of the second half.
First Half
Head Coach Bradley Carnell’s first MLS lineup of 2026 ushered in a new era, with Japhet Sery, Finn Sundstrom, and Ezekiel Alladoh all making their league debuts.
The opening half never quite found a rhythm, but Milan Iloski created the Union’s most dangerous moments. In the 21st minute, he sent one effort wide before forcing Sean Johnson into a sharp save just moments later.
It was former Union striker Tai Baribo, however, who proved decisive. In the 23rd minute, he finished off a feed from João Peglow to give D.C. a 1-0 lead.
Iloski nearly responded before halftime, bending a 30-yard free kick around the wall that Johnson managed to push aside. The Union went into the break trailing by one.
Second Half
Carnell turned to his bench at halftime, introducing Geiner Martinez for Sundstrom as the Union looked for a spark. The Union came out with renewed urgency, and Iloski again tested Johnson in the 54th minute, driving a powerful effort that was tipped over the bar. Agustín Anello entered soon after, adding fresh energy to the attack.
The match took a decisive turn in the 59th minute when Alladoh was shown a red card in his MLS debut, forcing the Union to continue their push down a man. Anello saw multiple attempts blocked during a sustained spell of pressure, and 16-year-old Cavan Sullivan nearly made an instant impact after entering in the 70th minute. His corner kick found Nathan Harriel at the far post, but the header sailed just wide.
The Union continued to search for a breakthrough late, but the equalizer proved elusive.
Philadelphia returns to Subaru Park for its first home match of 2026, hosting Defence Force F.C. in the second leg of its Concacaf Champions Cup matchup.
Three Points
- Defensive jaugernaut, who? For a team built on defensive discipline, the sloppiness was concerning.
- New look, same magic? Even reigning Supporters’ Shield winners need time to gel at the beginning of the season… and this isn’t even that same team.
- Wherefore art thou, Uhre? Uhre’s presence off the bench last season was an underrated piece of the team’s success. The lack of options on the bench that excel when the game opens up is concerning.
Lineups
Philadelphia Union (4-2-2-2): Andre Blake; Nathan Harriel, Olwethu Makhanya, Japhet Sery, Finn Sundstrom (Geiner Martinez — HT) ; Jesús Bueno (Agustín Anello — 57′), Danley Jean Jacques; Milan Iloski (Cavan Sullivan — 70′), Indiana Vassilev (Alejandro Bedoya — 79′) ; Ezekiel Alladoh, Bruno Damiani (Stas Korzeniowski — 79′)
Unused Substitutes: Andrew Rick; Jeremy Rafanello, Sal Olivas
D.C. United (4-4-2): Sean Johnson; Lucas Bartlett, Kye Rowles, Keisuke Kurokawa, Silvan Hefti; Barndon Servania, Matti Peltola, João Peglow, Jackson Hopkins (Nikola Markovic — 89′); Tai Baribo (Sean Nealis –90’+3′), Gabriel Pirani (Louis Munteanu — 70′)
Unused Substitutes: Gavin Turner, Caden Clark, Conner Antley, Jared Stroud, Hosei Kijima, Alex Bono
Scoring Summary:
DCU: Tai Baribo (João Peglow) – 23′
Disciplinary Summary:
PHI: Olwethu Makhanya (Yellow – Foul) – 41′
PHI: Jesús Bueno (Yellow – Foul) – 45′
PHI: Ezekial Alladoh (Red – Dissent) – 59‘
PHI: Japhet Sery (Yellow – Foul) – 80′
PHI: Danley Jean Jacques (Yellow – Foul) – 88′
DCU: Jackson Hopkins (Yellow – Foul) – 89′
DCU: João Peglow (Yellow – Foul) – 90’+4′
That was less than ideal
That is the most diplomatic statement I’ve read in years.
You earned this one tonight so here comes.
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Got beat by Tai Baribo then tuned in to Miami / LAFC and have resentment this is the soccer we’re force fed in a world of genuine Rhythmic Controlled Paused football. Surrendered it for years. Tonight a tough pill and I refuse to be quiet. The aesthetic matters. I know I know new players yada yada yada… words words words.
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But I digress from the real post incoming…
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..everything about that game was SHIT. Everything.
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Jesus Bueno being my whipping boy tonight of ineptitude. He is a hatchet. That’s it. A Gattuso Bully with 1/3 the talent. Turnover machine. Danley literally walking around with his thumb up his ass in possession offering nothing. The two pivots that didn’t help the center of field a bit, the lack of awareness off the ball by multiple players at key points of the game, the shit passing to nowhereville by what seemed every player.
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All of it shit…a straight red for dissent the ONLY thing that player brought to tonight’s game. TERRIBLE soccer. T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E.
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Sundstrom gets benched mercifully at the end of the first half and quite honestly : Bueno, Harriel, Mahkanya, Damiani and Vassilev should have been benched too. Iloski comes off for Cavan which makes zero sense…
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Piss poor god awful soccer. Genuinely terrible…New York RB start two high school juniors tonight. Cavan a bench player behind these players? He told Anello to go stand in the corner on that corner kick… how in the world has the family chosen to allow him to develop here when a club like Real Madrid wanted him. I just can’t figure it.
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….better get better-> first game or not. That was terrible and it does not represent me. I believe in aesthetic. Keep your Soccer Shield… i don’t want it.
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In other news, and in closing, Miami completed more passes in first 120 seconds of the game then The Union did in the whole first half. In a stadium with goals that can be rolled away like the converted middle school cow pasture near my house . This is my life. I do not have to approve.
But THE SYSTEM! I was told The System itself beats bad teams, and that who is playing on the field doesn’t matter in The System. Enjoy Season 2 of The System, St. Louis did.
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Didn’t enjoy watching the soccer played last year, but winning covers up a lot. Losing to a bad team playing ugly soccer is a way to have empty seats in the summer.
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Man City is going to move Cavan to Belgium this summer because Carnell believe Vassilev has more skill and will help the team win more than C. Sullivan.
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None of the new signings looked like they are better than who they replaced. The FO will be disappointed not because the team will lose matches, but because they will make less of a profit when they sell them.
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America is going to get to 10 on aggregate against this team. It’s not going to be pretty.
Breathe…..
Very harsh, like the Red Card. But understandable.
We all have to learn to spell these new names correctly too… with all the hyphens and vowels!
6th place, out in first round…
no 2026 silver.
Do we have any info on WTF happened with that red card on Alladoh?! I’ve never seen anything like that.
He said something to someone that the ref heard. Remember Kai Wagner and Bobby Wood in German cursing? If it was bad enough multiple game suspension to start the year off…
Poor performance, Carnell especially.
Red Bull played three teenagers tonight, they apparently looked pretty good. One of them had a brace. Red Bull won.
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No Union Academy player has been chosen to replace the players sold in the offseason, except moving the starting RB to play him out of position. The coach of the first team with The Best Academy in The United States doesn’t start a player who Manchester City thinks is pretty good, he instead chooses an MLS lifer with limited offensive skills.
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Understanding the best Academy and Union 2 players will always have bigger aspirations and not play much in Chester, where are the academy prospects, besides Westfield, earning starting XI spots for the first team? Could have used McGlynn’s left foot tonight, but he, like others, was an asset to be sold at a profit.
For the record Jim Curtin got shit canned for the exact post you posted.
I know there are not enough roster spots for the ‘world class’ academy players to play in but I find it interesting a 6’7″ national team caliber center back in Neil Pierre is the kind of player you don’t find a way to bridge to…. as an example.
If this is the version of of the game we have to digest, I’d rather watch academy kids play it for a few years then get sold on. I could get behind that. This not so much.
LAFC and Miami played football last. We have the soccer version of Crash Test Dummies.
Whatever. I crush them when they earn it and commend when they earn it. This morning the defending Shield winners are the soda can under my foot. Piss off with that game.
Embarrassing.
No heart, no fight. Guido clearly had money on DC. Baribo was a filthy pos tonight. Should have been kicked out earlier. Union let him elbow a guy in the throat without reprisal. Gutless. He should have gotten carried out after that garbage.
Anti-football sucks.
Here’s hoping Carnell is shitcanned mid season yet again.
Did anyone not see this coming?
Anyone else disappointed with Tai Baribo’s celebration after scoring against his former team?
IMO – he immediately became a villain.
Disrespectful celebration and throwing the elbow, yet no response from any Union players. I miss El Brujo.
He always was…. dramatic.
And for him, why not. We sold him, after a great season, right? Of course he scored against us.
But I have a feeling that might have been his season highlight. We’ll see.
Did Blake sell him? Did Damiani sell him? Did Harriel or Makhanya or Iloski or Danley or Bueno or Vassilev sell him? Celebrating like that is rubbing it in their faces. Baribo is a piece of shit who should hear about it when he comes to Subaru Park in April.
Disagree about Tai being a villain. We traded him and he showed us why that was the wrong move. Has every right to celebrate against us.
Union performance, not so much.
… and a straight red card for the $4.2M man “Abadabadoo” for saying something the ref heard?
What was it?
Welcome back!
Gonna be a long summer.
Too many pieces gone at once.
Brutal and warranted takedowns above. Unsurprising so long as Sugarman owns the club. I’ve resigned myself to be the future face of the viral Jets kid fan who simply accepts his fate by now.
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“Crash must have called the guy a cocksucker.”–Annie Savoy in Bull Durham. You don’t get straight red for the usual jawing. As Baribo’s replacement, the team and fans deserved better tonight like his predecessor provided.
The juxtaposition of LAFC-Miami in front of 75,000 fans playing real soccer with global stars and the D.C.-Philly insult to the game in front of empty chairs could not have better showcased the best and worst of MLS. D.C. United has an excuse, at least. They were bottom of the league last year, and went out and bought a guy who scored 16 MLS goals for $4.5 million and then spent $7 million on a DP striker. But for the defending supporter’s shield winners to field a squad that can’t complete a pass and seemingly has no creative idea other than to try to jam the ball into a packed midfield is as inexcusable as it is inexplicable.
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Part of what makes this frustrating is that the ownership might say (and be correct!) that they spent more money this offseason than is typical for them. But there was no evidence that they replaced the creative loss of Wagner, found any semblance of a creative midfielder, or replaced the strike threat of Baribo/Uhre. They brought in some new defenders and, at best, replaced Baribo pretty like-for-like (though it’s tough to judge Alladoh on 60 minutes of garbage service). The Union are the type of club that, if they had a player like Denis Bouanga, they would have sold him a couple of years ago for $1.5 million and a handful of TAM so that they could replace him with the third-best winger in the Timbuktu Super League. Are they decent at finding value for money in the transfer market? Sure. But quality game-changers are what are needed, and we don’t seem to be looking for, or willing to pay for, them.
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The Union have a lot of new faces, most of them unfamiliar with MLS, and they are still learning to play together. Fine, point taken. And maybe once the defenders are all on the same page we’ll be a reasonably defensively stout team. But unless that gelling process produces creativity and decent service that was utterly missing from yesterday’s display, then fans are in for a long slog of a season watching MLS Version 1.5 while every other team is already at or trying to catch MLS Version 3.
Well I have to agree with Pachy… that was shit! Yes 4 days rest may be tough on the players but the overall performance was very poor! Both teams by the way! You knew Baribo was going to score! It’s the way of the world!! The whole organization has blame on the day. Not good enough! I mean… make a pass, an easy pass, not 20-25 yard hopefully gonna make it passes! Keep the ball!! Ok I’m better now… I guess
It was bad. I’m hesitant to be conciliatory. That’s how bad. All the points made so far are correct. Cavan was the best player when he came on. Passing looked like no one had practiced in the offseason. But. It was always possible that DC found enough talent to make their rebuild work. And teams in CONCACAF basically always hose their league games. Too much travel. Too many games. Too much focus drained. On the bright side that road is going to end quickly and then we’ll see where we really are.
Hey, look over here, there is another cliff…..
Pretty much what I expected. You traded away a player who can score in MLS and everyone kept mentioning how he slumped at the end of the season. Forgetting that his family & friend were still back home after he was finally able to get out of the country and recovering from an injury.
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You also still haven’t resolved the Tanner situation and now the player who cost the most in Union history said something that might turn into more than a game.
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75K in LA watched their team win and 65K in that audience were wearing black, not pink. Personally I thought the game was boring as Miami had zero real chances on goal. LAFC looked a lot like the Union just waiting to pounce on the counter and take advantage of their inability to get back and defend.
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Hey, this cliff doesn’t look nearly as big as the other one.
This was the type of team the Union found a way to beat last year…just about every single time. One game does not a season make, but it probably does show that the Union are not going to repeat with the shield since they need every point they can get against the lower echelon of the league. Otherwise they are likely to find themselves back in 2024 territory.
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Ref was awful. Questionable as to whether Baribo should have been in there to score and he gets away scot free. Yet somehow the first 4 cards including a straight red are all shown to the Union despite DC United committing more fouls (and I think the number only got close to even once the Union went down a man). I guess persistent infringement is no longer a thing.
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Vasillev made a horrid attempt at a pass which setup the breakaway leading to the goal. He really needs to be called out about that. You can’t kick it short or where you’re aiming when half your team is in the offensive penalty box.
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Finally, who cares if Miami and LAFC played a better game. They are teams with lazy players who want easy paychecks in a lesser league than they are capable of playing in. They are the type of teams that make me lean towards not renewing my tickets if prices keep going up. If the Union ever sign a retirement player like that for huge money, I’ll be out of here like lightning.
Agree that Baribo was lucky to be on the field after the elbow throw. Didn’t make a lot of contact, but you see VARs give that as a red all the time. We’re on the same page with Vassilev; that was a terrible giveaway and not one that your central mid should be making.
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Disagree with you on LAFC/Miami. Not sure how you can watch that game and think that LAFC players, up to and including Bouanga and Son, are lazy or not fun to watch. They were clinical on the counter and slick to watch in spurts, and totally outplayed Miami. Miami is more the aging stars mold, I suppose, but also has some really exciting young talent. To me their approach to building shows a pretty good mix of stars and young, promising talent.
That was the first time this group played an MLS team’s number ones for 90 minutes.
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Preseason saw them play Montreal’s number ones for 45 minutes, and they gave up four goals.
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They are not yet prepared for MLS physicality and intensity.
Second point. D. C. United won the battle of the midfield, hands down. They knew which passing lanes the Union were going to use and blocked them, repeatedly. Their very recent new signing from Hamburger SV of the Bundesliga was particularly effective. DC’s last two preseason matches, both versus MLS teams, were 0-0 mutual clean sheets.
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Third, the original game-day 20 had only two outside backs, Westfield and Harriel and Westfield could not go. Carnell’s pre-game presser may have said Mbaizo had a knock, I don’t remember. He was not on the MLS injury report, but he was not in the 20. Bender was listed as out with an adductor. Sequera as I understand it may be having trouble re-entering the country since he has to do so from Venezuela after having traveled to Spain for pre-season. That accounts for the five outside backs that played in Spain. And Union II had played a closed door preseason friendly at 3:00 PM, so Uzcategui — who had several matches at right back in the Colombian first division, in 2024 I think by my memory — was already used up for the day.
They need to complete the signing of the unannounced, unofficial left back from Sweden, desperately.