Philadelphia Union
Philadelphia Union will secure Supporters’ Shield with win over NYCFC
Five years after a nearly empty stadium watched the Philadelphia Union lift their first major piece of hardware, an expected sellout crowd will have a chance to see the team repeat the feat with a win over NYCFC on Saturday.
Thanks to the Chicago Fire’s 5-3 win over Inter Miaimi on Tuesday, the Union are now in line to win the Supporters’ Shield with a win either on Saturday at home or at Charlotte on October 18. Additional scenarios would potentially play out if they drop points in both.
Unlike the 2020 shield when the Union benefited from an abbreviated 23-game schedule playing against a reduced number of teams in mostly empty stadiums in the middle of a global pandemic, the 2025 season doesn’t carry any caveats or asterisks. Save for a blip of a 7-0 loss in Vancouver, the Union are fully deserving of the place they are in now and their fanbase is on the cusp of what would be their biggest celebration to date (take the celebration in the stadium after Jack Elliott’s goal against LAFC and multiply it by at least two).
Beating third place NYCFC, of course, won’t be easy and they’ll come in with a spoiler mindset even with the conference and shield just out of reach. The Pigeons are coming off a big road win at Red Bull and beat both Columbus and Charlotte in September.
“There’s another three points on the line, and it’s massive,” head coach Bradley Carnell said Thursday. “If we can get that, it’ll be awesome. But (we’re) trying to filter out the noise and just continue what we do. That’s been the whole sort of driving factor this week.”
The match is slated for a 7:30 p.m. start.
Should the Union pull out the victory, they will be the first to clinch the shield at home since they celebrated their Decision Day victory over New England Revolution with a modified Captain America shield.
