Photo: Kevin Barrett
The Chicago Fire earned a 2-1 road victory over the struggling Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park on Kids’ Day, powered by goals from Hugo Cuypers and Jonathan Bamba.
Cuypers continued his strong start to the season, scoring his fourth goal late in the first half for the Fire (2-2-1, 7 points), who secured their first away win of the season. Fire goalkeeper Chris Brady made three big saves as Chicago snapped a four-match winless run against Philadelphia and avenged last year’s playoff elimination.
Philadelphia (0-5-0, 0 points) saw its difficult start continue, extending the worst opening ever by a reigning Supporters’ Shield winner. The loss came less than 72 hours after their elimination from the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
How The Match Unfolded
First Half
Both teams struck during an extended first-half stoppage time. Chicago opened the scoring when Andrew Gutman delivered a curling cross from the left, and Cuypers rose between defenders to head home from close range.
The Union responded four minutes later when Milan Iloski scored his first goal for the club this season, looping a header over Brady after a long throw-in sequence to make it 1-1 at halftime.
Second Half
Bamba delivered the decisive moment in the 58th minute. After Robin Lod carried the ball into the right side of the penalty area and cut onto his left foot, his cross sailed past Cuypers and found Bamba at the back post. Bamba struck a composed side-footed volley inside the left post to restore Chicago’s lead.
Philadelphia pushed for an equalizer, but Chicago created the better late chances. Maren Haile-Selassie narrowly missed in the 63rd minute, and Lod hit the crossbar in the 82nd.
The Union handed a debut to 16-year-old forward Malik Jakupovic, who entered in the 62nd minute, but the Union were unable to find a late breakthrough as their winless start continued.
Three Takeaways
PSP’s Three Points
- Worst Start Ever: By a Supporters’ Shield winner. Ever. But hey, they scored from open play. Kind of. Off a set piece.
- Is it time to bench Bruno Damiani?: I think the last time he scored was last August versus Chicago. Am I wrong?
- Is Bradley Carnell to blame?: I don’t think so, but at what point do we have to start pointing fingers?
Lineups
Philadelphia Union (4-2-2-2):
Andre Blake, Nathan Harriel, Olwethu Makhanya, Philippe Ndinga (Ben Bender 76’), Frankie Westfield, Alejandro Bedoya (Indiana Vassilev 62’), Jesus Bueno (Jovan Lukic 45’), Milan Iloski, Danley Jean Jacques (Jeremy Rafanello 66’), Cavan Sullivan (Malik Jakupovic 62’), Bruno Damiani.
Substitutes not used: Andrew Rick, Geiner Martinez, Japhet Sery Larsen, Stas Korzeniowski.
Chicago Fire (4-3-3):
Chris Brady, Leonardo Barroso, Mbekezeli Mbokazi, Andrew Gutman (Viktor Radojević 45’), Joel Waterman, Anton Saletros, Robin Lod (Jason Shokalook 89’), Dje D’Avilla, Jonathan Bamba (Johnny Dean 89’), Hugo Cuypers, Philip Zinckernagel (Maren Haile-Selassie 31’).
Substitutes not used: Mauricio Pineda, Sergio Oregel Jr., Jeffrey Gal, Puso Dithejane, Jack Sandmeyer.
Scoring Summary:
CHI – Hugo Cuypers (Gutman) 45+3’
PHI – Milan Iloski (Bedoya, Westfield) 45+7’
CHI – Jonathan Bamba (Lod) 58’
Disciplinary Summary:
CHI – Robin Lod (caution) 8’
CHI – Dje D’Avilla (caution) 23’
PHI – Philippe Ndinga (caution) 37’
CHI – Viktor Radojević (caution) 87’
The Union Cliff of Despair is now open.
Sell the Team !
I’ll take my usual room at the cliff. Are there still free cookies?
Yes, we always have cookies
Time for Damiani to get a ride on the sun rocket.
Clean house…
Fire Carnell
Terminate Tanner
Start over.
I would like to see Gio Savarese coach this squad, and they already seem to have a GM making player decisions.
Time to clean house… Red Bull Philadelphia is broken. System figured out.
Moving on….
Comes a time when the next chapter of The Union Bible needs to be inspired by The Holy Ghost… to help make it make sense.
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Just Play Well.
This team is horrible. No effort. The forwards don’t seem to want to make runs. They are supposedly a counterattacking team but every time they have the opportunity to counterattack, they slow the play up so that the other team can get back on defense. Even Cavan made a poor play giving the ball away leading to the winning goal. The only reason why the score wasn’t worse was because Chicago couldn’t shoot straight. Some of this is because of talent, but a lot is on Carnell either not having the team prepared to play or not buying into his system. The international break is a fine time to make a change. Otherwise someone is going to put up double digit goals against them (they play both Nashville and Messi in May and either one might just do it).
Miami won’t need to play Messi, will rest him. Nashville could get 7 though.
Charlotte just posted 6 vs Red Bull New York.
Red Bull Philadelphia has no chance next weekend.
FIRE CARNELL.
TERMINATE TANNER
START OVER, MOVE FIORWARD.
I thought the team was sorted well but the quality isn’t there. From opening night last year, the Union have lost without really replacing- Gazdag, Baribo, Quinn (injury), Uhre, Kai, Glenses and that doesn’t include never replacing Martinez- a team needs a pest in the midfield- and both Jacks- McGlynn and Elliot. It’s insanity. Indiana running around like a chicken with it’s head cutoff, Cavan getting pushed off the ball and bullied non stop, zero quality on the width, zero crossing. I mean was there one single cross tonight? Who scouted Bender and Bueno and thought this was a step in the right direction?
Damiani was a massive miss and Alladoh looks like a big whiff too. Union had a lot of heart there and they’re all gone and not replaced with quality. Hope Brad isn’t the fall guy here. This is an ownership/front office disaster. He’s playing kids out of their depth at the top because the two guys that were very good at that position were both sent packing.
+1
We Suck So Much
Is there any question that this is the worst Union team in 17 years?
Actually, it’s not even a team. Just 10 guys running around the field kicking the ball. JUST UGLY!
Just no coordination… POOP.
Man, this team is bad but how well do you remember the early days? The defense is still legit good. Blake, Makhanya and Frankie alone push us above some of those teams. It might be the worst offense in 17 years though
Sorry. Those early teams were still fun to watch.
I stand by my statement! 🙂
This is all Déjà vu for those that have been here since the beginning
Look, “Col Klink” has Chicago set up to fail too…. played WORSE than we did yesterday… but won, somehow.
This team is simply the worst in 17 seasons BECAUSE the Red Bull Philadelphia system is broken… management, players and philosophy. Totally broken and should be flushed out the River End, with Carnell, Tanner.
Even in the early years it was FUN going to watch those losers. Now it is NOT.
Defense is NOT legit good. If Chicago had been able to score on a couple of easy chances it would have been 1-4. Early years players at least put in their best effort. This year, not so much. Forwards seem don’t seem to want to make runs because they know they probably won’t score.
Nope, no question. The 0-5 start to the season cemented that.
Ugly soccer, disjointed bunch of of mostly unproven Union 2 players and never will be’s. I expected this after Baribo , Wagner and Glesnes were not resigned. An injured Quinn Sulluvan sealed the deal . There is zero commitment from the owner to grow the 1ST team. The Philly fans deserve better ownership. Ref Bull Philly is a failure and unbearable to watch. A major regression in the quality of players
Sell your 2 best defenders. Sell your 2 best strikers. Lose your assist leader and leading goal scorers. Lose the attacking midfield engine in Gadzag (who isn’t even playing now) and replace him with Iloski sure, but Iloski playing out of his preferred position. Missing your midfield spark in Quinn can’t be helped but no one has been able to fill that void. And then our MLS elite defensive midfield pairing has regressed badly. And where were Anello and Alladoh? Not that I think they would’ve helped but if you’re going to start building you need to put the pieces on the field and let them work it out. Is our answer really just to bring up union II players on short term contracts? Hard to see a light at the end of this tunnel. Not this year.
I’ll say it every week but who rebuilds a Supporters Shield winning team? The Union had a ticket into CCC and sold their two forwards instead of adding to that group. I get Wagner but Glesnes, Uhre and Baribo showed this isn’t a serious team any more. Selling players is about reinvesting in the team to avoid regulation and that’s irrelevant in this league. I think it’s time to sell the team as it looks like if MLS 3.0 really happens, this team will be the Florida Marlins of MLS.
Uhre played out his option and had a free choice to leave.
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The dynamics of a choice to depart can be much broader than simply soccer, especially when detail is kept private rigorously, as it was.
At least the opening of the season’s schedule gauntlet is now finished. They played and travelled for nine games in 32 days.
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Agustin Anello has a grade 2 hamstring injury, according to Joe Tansey’s report (I did not watch Carnell’s pre-Chicago presser which I assume was the source?). Eddy Davis has a quad injury that is not yet “right.”
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Otherwise, as far as the public knows the team survived the gauntlet healthy.
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It would be informative to know how many times in those nine games they had as many as two or more consecutive days of practice.
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Now they can begin to teach properly and prepare for games properly.
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I was troubled by Danny Higginbitham’s analysis last night that the Union have no one who threatens green space behind the opponent’s restraining line. They lack speed up top.
4 of 5 MLS matches were against NON playoff teams and Defense Force was a MLS Next squad maybe.
9 games… alot, to start season…. BUT THEY KNEW IT WAS HAPPENING AND THIS IS THE OUTCOME?
SUBSTITUTING Juka-whatever his name is instead of Alladoh or even Stas?????
Really?
Against teams like San Jose. DCU, ATL and Chi we should have been able to score more goals… and we didn’t.
Red Bull Philadelphia is broken.
CLEAN HOUSE AND START OVER.
Gio Savarese is waiting for a call….
Danny’s analysis is 100% correct. In the first half, Cavan played a ball across the field to space on the right, not a great ball but Damiani got passed from behind by the defender. Late in the second Damiani did get to a ball played to space on the left but was caught from behind quickly by the defender.
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Joe Tansey had in his post match Substack article that Alladoh was out of the match day roster for discipline issue, was late to a training. Combine that with the red card and the body language on the bench in Atlanta, not a great start for Baribo’s replacement.
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Two CB’s were signed to replace Glesnes, yet Harriel seems to be the CB of choice next to Makhanya. They signed a right footed LB to replace Wagner.
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The rest of the depth are squad players or kids not ready from Union 2.
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Carnell talks about percentages of where goals in this system come from, 60/30/10. The is goals from transition and turnovers. The System was supposed to cover the fact that Union don’t spend as much as other teams. The System has created zero goals in 5 matches from turnovers. When the players aren’t good and The System isn’t working, this result shouldn’t be a surprise.
Can’t ask about Zeke without the petulant prick throwing tantrums at the presser ……..
Augustin’s ‘strings should be ready by August.
Practice consists of running into one another. They cannot execute basic skills endemic to playing the sport!
0-15-0. < 10 GF. Fired in summer-because they are happy to throw away this season and the mini as well. Who pays to watch this shit?
I need to see Coaching that trains players to play the actual game. Losing is what they do. They will never win anything of consequence to me. I just want to enjoy what I’m watching.
Haven’t done that in years.
Damiani = 416 minutes played and 0 shots on target.
Zero.
Nate Harriel and Indy Vassilev lead the team with 4 shots on target…
Great new signings after selling off the team, right Jay?
Alladoh = red card, injuries, zero goals.
Domiani = NO GOALS SINCE AUGUST.
Stas = Union 2 player quality, zero goals.
Iloski = poor quality, one goal.
Vassilev = chicken with head cut off, poor passing, shit quality, one goal, missed PK.
Union 2 replacements = Union 2 quality at MLS level. ZERO GOALS.
17 years I have INVESTED in this team.
17 years I have paid to see MLS quality teams play at PPL/Subaru.
17 years I have attended 95% of all home matches… plus many away matches within 300 miles, Union 2 games.
17 years I have watched this ownership group SABOTAGE this team TO MAKE MONEY FOR THE OWNER.
17 years I have SUFFERED thru US Open Cup final defeats, MLS playoff defeats. MLS CUP defeat.
17 years I have sat thru a Northeaster, snow, subfreezing temperatures, extreme heat, rain, fog, Liga MX fans.
17 years I have watched MY INVESTMENT like it was Enron….
And today, like a strip club at noon, I can’t get the image of last night’s loss to a shit team like Chicago out of my mind.
POOP.
CLEAN HOUSE.
FIRE CARNELL
TERMINATE TANNER
START OVER WITH GIO SARAVECE AS COACH.
Last night was just agony, again. It’s plainly obvious now that Sugarman cashed out this off season, and this is what’s left for the season Tix investors.
Just terrible and seriously thinking NOT renewing in 2027 after 17 seasons of ticket investment in this club.
One HUGE factor is missing Dave, my Sec 114 seat mate for those 17 years, who died suddenly at 61, and who made Union disappointment bearable. RIP Dave. We miss you so much.
It’s been tough to deal with Dave dying alone… but watching this team compete at MLS level is just a futile effort.
Red Bull Philadelphia is broken.
Fire Carnell and Tanner.
Start over.