Union back atop the table after bounce back win

Newly acquired center back Ian Glavinovich earned his first start and scored his first career MLS goal thanks to yet another key assist from left back Kai Wagner during the Philadelphia Union’s bounce back win against Head Coach Bradley Carnell’s former team, St. Louis CITY SC, Saturday night in Chester.

The Union backline faced major criticisms following a poor outing just over a week ago against Nashville SC in which they allowed three goals, ultimately losing 3-1 at home. But despite having a handful of players unavailable due to international duty, injury, and suspension Saturday night, Carnell and company fought their way to a 1-0 win thanks in large part to the team’s collective defensive efforts and a few stellar plays from back up keeper Andrew Rick.

The win places Philadelphia firmly atop the Eastern Conference table following Matchday 5.

Following Matchday 5, Philadelphia Union find themselves alone atop the Eastern Conference table following their second clean sheet victory of the season Saturday night at home against St. Louis CITY SC. Courtesy of mlssoccer.com

Carnell and his staff were forced to shuffle the lineup as the club were without six starters Saturday. In the build-up to the match, there were doubts on how the team would fare given the fact that they had not rotated the starting lineup previously.

But they did not regress following their first loss of the year. Instead, they seemed to quickly shake off that bitter defeat thanks in large part to Glavinovich’s eighth minute header that set the tone for the rest of the match.

“He’s a routine professional,” said Carnell of Glavinovich post-game. “I think you could see exactly why we got him. He’s composed. He sees the game. He knows if he should head it up the field or take it down on his chest.”

And Glavinovich also showcased a great knack for using his head in the offensive end as well. He found a small pocket of space which is all you really need when you have a guy like Wagner on your squad. Wagner whipped a near perfect cross into the box off a corner to find Glavinovich who managed to head it powerfully into the back of the net for the early goal. Wagner regains his position as the MLS league leader in assists with six as he continues to routinely dominate games up and down the left side of the pitch week in and week out.

Tai Baribo and Kai Wagner are front and center on the MLS Stats page. Both are league leaders. Baribo has 6 goals. Wagner has 5 assists. Courtesy of mlssoccer.com

It was a positive sign for Glavinovich who has missed significant time since training camp due to a nagging hamstring injury. In his first start with the club, he only needed eight minutes to make an impact.

Another positive Saturday night was the performance from Glavinovich’s center back partner, Jakob Glesnes. Glesnes, entering his sixth season with the club, showcased an ability to quickly forget about a poor performance against Nashville with a very strong defensive showing Saturday night. Glesnes contributed to the club’s second clean sheet with a handful of key tackles and a clutch blocked shot inside the box to preserve the lead. He seemed to be much more aware of his positioning as well, something that plagued him last match.

“Jakob’s committed to this process, and he was excellent tonight, and he was a true leader,” said Carnell of the Norwegian center back. “He played with passion and pride, and you could see he wanted to right something that he thought went wrong last week. So I’m proud of him as I am the whole group.”

Carnell is also likely proud of himself. And he should be after defeating the club that fired him last July following a nine-game winless streak. Carnell did not comment much on his former club, in fact he didn’t mention it at all in his opening statement following the win. He also declined to comment on a post-match confrontation between himself and St. Louis forward Joao Klauss. Carnell was bumped and accosted by Klauss moments after he finished shaking the hands of St. Louis’ technical staff.

Perhaps there is still some bad-blood between a few players and Carnell. Or perhaps not. There are no substantiated reports of any major incidents between Carnell and his former players. But the match certainly displayed an added layer of physicality from the opening whistle. The key takeaway is that the Union did not back down. Instead, they fought back and defended their home turf – something that last year’s roster too often failed to do in 2024.

Another aspect that plagued last year’s roster was a failure to provide Jim Curtin with enough depth to survive these international windows. And while this year’s club may still have some depth issues, see Nate Harriel being used as a midfielder as an example (despite him performing well in an unnatural position), they have enough pieces to not only find a result but win.

“Tonight, we asked the players to put on display what everyone doesn’t see, really behind the scenes, and that’s a group of committed guys, the whole roster, growing together, enjoying each other, committing to a philosophy,” said Carnell. “We’ve been creating a lot over the last couple of weeks, and we’ve shown this with with one stack of players, and now we showed it tonight with another set of players.”

Philadelphia will travel to Inter Miami this Saturday in what will be the biggest defensive test of the young season so far against Messi and company. Miami are one of just a few remaining unbeaten teams in the league with a 3-0-1 record.