Three things we learned from the Union’s draw against D.C. United

“I was gone for a minute, but I’m back now.”

It’s been a while since we’ve written takeaways about a Philadelphia Union match, but they are most certainly back. After the Union’s scoreless draw at home against D.C. United on Wednesday night, some reoccurring themes emerged that we wanted to take a closer look at.

Without further ado, let’s dive into what we learned from Wednesday’s performance at Subaru Park.

Where’s the midfield?

If there’s one thing that this team is missing, it’s a cohesive midfield. The Union still has a good defense, and it may even have a good attack — but we never get to see it.

Philadelphia’s backline has done a great job of keeping balls out of the net in the past few matches (disregarding LAFC, for many reasons). Against D.C., Jakob Glesnes, Kai Wagner and Jack Elliott made likely goal-stopping plays. But they were in those situations because of the midfield.

Elliott’s 65-yard prayer was the Union’s best chance of the night because the midfield simply didn’t progress the ball well enough to create chances for Mikael Uhre or Julian Carranza. Yes, Daniel Gazdag is included in “midfield” here.

Best chance of the night so far.#DOOP
pic.twitter.com/onOxz824mz

— Philadelphia Soccer Now (@phlsoccernow) May 18, 2023

Simply put, the Union has a strong core of attackers and defenders. But the group that arguably matters most is falling so far behind that the rest of the team cannot play enough catch-up to make up.

Defensive masterclass

As mentioned above, the Union’s defense was fantastic — per usual. Even disregarding the incredible efforts made by Glesnes, Wagner and Elliott, Andre Blake put on a show against the Black and Red. I mean, just look at this.

Your weekly Dre highlight#DOOP pic.twitter.com/hpWpn4KVjp

— Philadelphia Soccer Now (@phlsoccernow) May 18, 2023

And this.

Dre being Dre. #DOOP
pic.twitter.com/sXTpP5CqiO

— Philadelphia Soccer Now (@phlsoccernow) May 18, 2023

Sure, it isn’t great to rely this heavily on defensive highlights, but at least they’re there. When all else fails, the Union sure can play for a scoreless draw.

A brief reality check

If nothing else, this bullet point is for me. Initially, I was planning on complaining about the team some more — something about how the wins weren’t pretty enough and MLS should just dissolve the club entirely. And it’s hard not to be negative when the Union draws 0-0 at home. Jim Curtin even agrees.

Curtin: "Your ugly 0-0 draw at home feels like a loss."

— Philadelphia Soccer Now (@phlsoccernow) May 18, 2023

Should the Union have won on Wednesday? Sure. And it would have even been nice if they had done it in the 6-0 style of the 2022 campaign. But take a step back, and the Union is reemerging as one of MLS’ hottest teams. They’ve secured 11 points out of their five games, only two teams in all of MLS have done better. They’ve outscored opponents 9-5 in that same time frame — not perfect, but certainly good.

Philadelphia could certainly be doing better. But fans have to accept them for who they are at the moment, the good, the bad, and the ugly.