Chester – On Wednesday evening, the Philadelphia Union will return home to Subaru Park for their 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal match-up as they play host to MLS rival New York Red Bulls — the first of two matches against the New Jersey club in four days at home for the Union.
But for Philadelphia Union head coach Bradley Carnell, that is nothing new for him and the club, as they have already faced opponents on quick turnarounds this year. Maybe not four days apart, but Orlando and Atlanta come to mind as clubs they’ve faced fairly close together this season — and he knows the focus must be on tomorrow night’s opponent.
“It’s happened a couple of times this season already to to a couple of different opponents in the stretch. And, you get to play with an 18 man roster, as opposed to a 20 man roster, and it’s a once off Cup competition. I don’t think you want to over inflate that or over evaluate that, and the next game is the one you want to win. And the next game now is this knockout Cup game, and we’re putting full focus to that.”
As many longtime Philadelphia Union fans will recall, this rivalry isn’t exclusive to MLS competition. These two clubs have met a total of four times during the U.S. Open Cup, the most recent being on June 16, 2018, during the Round of 16, with Philadelphia winning 2-1 thanks to goals from Cory Burke and Harris Medunjanin. The Union would go on that year to reach the Open Cup Final, eventually falling 3-0 to the 2018 winner, Houston Dynamo.
Overall in the competition, the Union are 2-2-0 against the Red Bulls all-time, having advanced three out of the four times and holding a 6-4 edge in goals heading into tomorrow’s match.
But, as we say every year, it’s a new season. Recent success against the Red Bulls aside, this is always a rivalry that delivers both memorable and heartbreaking moments for fans.
“They have some superstar firepower, and we have done pretty well against the big name players throughout the last couple of games,” said Carnell. Here (In Chester) we are difficult to break down. We don’t give up much XG, we are connected and compact. And we’re excited about the game so, but we want to make it known this is our turf, our house, and Derby ones are always you wanted to check that off the box kind of thing. Every single season, there’s a couple there that’s on your list. And you know, a game against the Red Bulls is definitely one of those.”
And when you think of superstar firepower for Sandro Schwarz’s squad, you look no further than Swedish midfielder Emil Forsberg and Cameroonian forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who have combined for 18 of New York’s 33 goals in MLS play. When speaking about the duo, Bradley Carnell had this to add:
“You know, a highly respected strike force, Emil did it for so many years at RB Leipzig and comes here and now sets his tone as one of the leaders here, in this group here, and doesn’t skip a beat. So, you know, Choupo-Moting has a lot of energy, a lot of running. He’s got a lot of speed still, and he’s really dangerous in the box. So I think it’s the overall contribution, they all offer something that’s very difficult to play against.”
On the Philadelphia Union side, the squad will look to get some momentum back after back-to-back losses for the first time in the Carnell era. However, they do have a bit more reinforcement returning to the squad.
Both Quinn Sullivan and Nathan Harriel are returning from U.S. National Team duty with the Gold Cup squad that lost 2-1 to Mexico on Sunday. Bradley mentioned that they are “hungry” in terms of being ready to go. So expect to see both players make an appearance on Wednesday evening.
On the injury front, it sounds like both Jesús Bueno and Mikael Uhre are progressing, but the quarterfinals might be too soon for both players. However, Frankie Westfield sounds like he might be coming back the soonest of all three, as the club was expected to evaluate him on Tuesday afternoon.
As for squad rotation? I’ll be curious what that looks like on Wednesday evening. The deeper clubs get in these competitions, the fewer bench and second-team players we tend to see. However, in my humble opinion, you’ll probably see some rotation on the evening — and probably some even on Saturday — so keep an eye out for that, which brings me to my bit of news.
Olney to USL Championship Side Lexington SC??
Before I wrap up, one other piece of potential transfer news that dropped on Tuesday from Jose Nunez is that the Philadelphia Union are working on a deal to loan out homegrown midfielder CJ Olney to Lexington SC of the USL Championship.
Olney spent most of his time with Union II in 2024, playing a vital role in the squad winning the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference title and appearing in 18 minutes with the first team. However, in 2025, he has yet to feature with the first team and has played exclusively with the MLS NEXT Pro squad so far.
Jillian Almoney caught up with CJ recently at training and discussed his goals for 2025 and getting minutes with the first team. While we wait for confirmation from the club, this would be a great opportunity, in my opinion, for CJ to continue his development, as he has outgrown the second-team side. And while we’ve seen moves like Brandan Craig’s not work out, we’ve also seen moves like Matt Real’s and others work when they move to USL Championship sides — so more to come on that story.
However, back to Wednesday night’s match in Chester. One can expect a physical, close, and chaotic match, with passionate supporters for both sides in the stadium — always a wonderful atmosphere. And make sure to check out our latest episode of The One Team We Agree On, where we discuss this and a few other notes from last week’s action.
And finally, if you cannot make it to Chester tomorrow night, the match will be available on Paramount+ starting at 7:00 p.m.
Main Article Photo Courtesy of the Philadelphia Union
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