Brotherly Game
Philadelphia Union conclude season with loss to Cincinnati
The Philadelphia Union’s season ended short of the playoffs after a 2-1 loss against FC Cincinnati at Subaru Park on Saturday.
Philadelphia needed all three points to claim the last playoff seed. They also depended on a loss from either D.C. United or Montreal. D.C. United lost their game 3-0 to Charlotte FC, leaving Union a playoff spot if they won.
“It was a difficult, tough year. We’ll have to evaluate and look at things, find a way to improve, and get ourselves back to where we should be,” head coach Jim Curtin said in a press conference.
Midfielder Quinn Sullivan opened the scoring in the third minute with a through ball from midfielder Jack McGlynn. Sullivan also set a new record: the youngest player in club history to convert 10 career goals and 10 assists in the regular season at 20 years and 208 days old.
“I thought we actually started the game well. Quinn gets us a goal, and then a chance to get the second one was Mikael [Uhre] with the little 1v1 that he had,” Curtin said.
After the fourth official announced that there would be three minutes of added time to the first half, Cincinnati’s first goal came at the fourth minute of added time to tie up the game.
Just one minute after the second half started, defender Jakob Glesnes was alone in the Union penalty area and tapped it back to goalkeeper Andre Blake, who came out of his area, resulting in an own goal.
“The second goal is just bad for me,” Glesnes stated, answering a question from the media. “I think I’m more under pressure than I am when trying to play back the ball to Dre [Andre Blake], and it’s just bad for me. Nothing more to say about that.”
Looking forward, the Union has a lot of young talent that has been growing and will continue to grow in the offseason.
“The academy guys coming in are homegrown players from the region,” midfielder Alejandro Bedoya stated, answering questions from the media. “There’s going to be a lot of them coming through and sticking with the team. Players come and go, but the club is here to stay.”
Curtin guarantees a change during the offseason. The team will determine that change after analyzing the season.
“We’ll have to break down what we did well this year and what we did very poorly,” Curtin stated in a press conference. “We’ll have to retool. We’re not going to rebuild the whole thing. I don’t think we have to tear the whole thing down.”