Philadelphia Union fans shouldn’t get their hopes up just yet

Hold your horses Philadelphia Union fans; we aren’t out of this one yet.

Most Union fans seem to be celebrating the team’s 2-1 victory over the Houston Dynamo Sunday night, which seems great, especially after a dominating 5-1 performance against rival D.C. United. Usually, I’d be incredibly excited after two games like that, but right now I’m just nervous.

Context in these scenarios is important.

Objectively, the Union shouldn’t have beaten Houston. Kacper Przybylko shouldn’t have scored his first goal, and up until then, the Dynamo looked to be a step ahead. Even if the goal did count, Houston is currently sitting in 9th in the West with 30 points. A Union tie or loss would’ve been devastating to the team hold on first by a string.

D.C. was an amazing game, I’ll admit. But D.C. has fallen through the MLS standings in the last few weeks, and rivalry games are usually toss-ups either way. 

Before D.C., Philadelphia got creamed by Montreal Impact 4-0 at the end of an eight-game span where they got one win. They also got beat 4-0 by Real Salt Lake two weeks earlier, and lost five times in that span.

This very well may be a turn around for the Union, and quite honestly, it needs to be. There are eight games left in the regular season for the Union, and only two of those games are against teams currently under the red line.

So one last time Union fans, please don’t set yourselves up for a letdown, because it could be coming. Be happy with every point they earn, and then focus on the next week until they’ve finally reached the end of the season, one way or the other.