Chester – After a signature win last Saturday evening at home against the New York Red Bulls that extended the Philadelphia Union’s unbeaten streak to 15 matches against their neighbors from New Jersey—and earned them their ninth clean sheet of the season—the club now turns its attention to a midweek matchup on Wednesday night in Chester, as they host C.F. Montréal for their second meeting of the season.

Philadelphia secured a road win in their first meeting with Montréal back on May 3rd, a 2-1 victory that saw Montréal equalize just before halftime. The Union battled in the second half and scored the game-winning goal in the 84th minute thanks to Mikael Uhre, kicking off an impressive unbeaten run that month.

But this is a different month. While Marco Donadel’s squad still sits at the bottom of the conference—currently tied for the Wooden Spoon with LA Galaxy at 15 points—they’ve shown improvement over their last five matches, picking up two of their three wins in that stretch and gaining seven points in the process. As we saw when the Galaxy came to town, never underestimate your opponent.

Speaking with the media on Tuesday, Philadelphia Union head coach Bradley Carnell discussed what he has seen lately from this Montréal side, which is still working its way up from the bottom of the league but now in a better run of form.

“It’s always good when your target striker is finding the back of the net as well. [Prince] Owusu has been dangerous in all phases of the game. You know in transition he can run behind from crosses he’s lethal. So you know that’s something that we have to be aware about. And then they have some good rotations. They have some good players in the wide spots. Dante Sealy who’s always very dangerous. We we knew in the first game it wasn’t all our way and we had a lot of respect for them going into that game and nothing has changed since then because they’ve actually got better and they’ve been getting the results.”

The results Carnell is referring to include a 3-1 road victory against the Houston Dynamo, a 1-0 home win against NYCFC, and a 1-1 draw last weekend on the road against Orlando City—never an easy place to play during the summer months.

Montréal has been riding Prince Owusu’s goal-scoring form, as Bradley mentioned. The German forward has scored five goals in the club’s last five matches. Along with Sealy, the duo will be a strong challenge for the Union’s defense on Wednesday, as they come into Subaru Park hungry to continue their positive run of form.

As for Philadelphia, they are riding high after Saturday’s performance against New York, a match in which they didn’t allow a single shot in the first 45 minutes. The game also featured great build-up play on Bruno Damiani’s goal, which has drawn praise from soccer pundits. But for Carnell and company, they’re aware of the pitfalls that can come with praise and are focused on keeping momentum going into the match against Montréal.

“Praise is always to build you up and then only to break you down. So I mean we’re trying to keep that as humble as we can be and and make sure that we approaching our mentality in the right way and especially our actions and for sure the way we started the game and the way we dominated the way we played the first 45 like if you think about a signature of the stylistic you know type of play that is exactly who we are and what we want to be. And then we’re still trying to add one or two more layers to the complexity of how we do things but it it was fun to watch but again it’s only 45 minutes and that doesn’t define a whole season.”

And he is right. In my opinion, there are still 12 MLS league matches left to play, a possible three U.S. Open Cup games, and a potential playoff run. The staff and players need to stay sharp if they hope to first get three points on Wednesday, and then carry that form through the summer and into the fall.

There’s also more good news: the side is getting healthier. Frankie Westfield, Nathan Harriel, Tai Baribo, and Quinn Sullivan all returned from absences in the last match. It now appears that forward Mikael Uhre—who was not listed on the player availability report Tuesday afternoon—is set to return in some capacity on Wednesday. Jesús Bueno is still listed as questionable, but Carnell hinted that both players could be available sooner rather than later.

Uhre, who hasn’t appeared since late May after suffering a knock in the draw against FC Dallas, will look to rejoin Baribo and Damiani in helping to bolster the Union’s forward line. With Uhre’s imminent return, Carnell addressed what his presence could mean for the team’s rotation.

“I don’t really think it’s different to how we managed the first 15 games. I would say we had that good competition. We had power from the beginning. We had power from the bench. We had good rotation going on. So, you know, nobody was stuck in a rut of like, you know, getting six minutes a game in the 84th coming in and what have you. So how we typically like to do things, we we like to set the tone early on and we like to uh maintain that through the rest of the game. And I think every strong, healthy, fit player that we have on board makes us better for sure.”

For Montréal, defenders Jalen Neal and George Campbell will be out for Wednesday’s match. Campbell, a Chester, Pennsylvania native, has been linked to a move to Championship side West Brom, while Neal is dealing with an ankle injury. Forward Giacomo Vrioni, who scored the equalizer in the teams’ first meeting, is listed as questionable with an elbow injury.

Philadelphia will be eager to pick up another three points before heading to Houston on Saturday. A win will help them maintain their position in the MLS Supporters’ Shield race and keep their season trending in the right direction.

If you can’t make it to Subaru Park tomorrow night, the match will be available on Apple TV+ as part of the MLS Season Pass, with kickoff at 7:30 p.m.

Main Article Photo Courtesy of the Philadelphia Union