Photo Gallery: Philadelphia Union vs D.C United

The Philadelphia Union’s win over D.C. United is to me a snapshot of what the Union should be. The team pulled out a gutsy 1-0 win over what has become their biggest rivals thanks in part to stellar goalkeeping by Andre Blake and a fantastic strike by Fafa Picault. It wasn’t always pretty – at times it was downright ugly – but it was effective and the Union got three important points against a team they should have beaten.

I'd be remiiss if I didn't talk about Haris Medunjanin. I've already written about this, but it bears re-iterating: Doing the right thing when it would be very easy to either actively do the wrong thing or passively allow the wrong thing to happen is a study in courage and honor that seems ever rarer anymore. The fact that the Union won after this seems lost on some fans and even some players, however I recall the words of Sophocles – "I would rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud." I'm glad Haris did the right thing, because otherwise he'd be no better than Felipe – and by celebrating a fraudulent win, we'd be no better than Red Bulls fans.