Chester – The Philadelphia Union staged a dramatic late comeback at Subaru Park on Saturday night, erasing a first-half deficit to defeat the Colorado Rapids 3–1. Mikael Uhre delivered the heroics with a brace in the final minutes, capping off a relentless second-half surge that secured the Union’s 200th club victory and vaulted them back atop the Supporters’ Shield standings.

“Even if you had gone on to lose the game, I still would have held my head up high and told the boys they rallied to the very end and played really well,” said Philadelphia Union head coach Bradley Carnell. “But to show you’re a good team in this industry, you have to show that you can get points on the board. And I think we found a way to do that. Everyone made an impact—starters, bench players came in with support, and those who didn’t get in were amazing—and then the fans as well.”

With both Nathan Harriel and Frankie Westfield suspended after yellow card accumulation and a red card, respectively, during last Saturday’s match in Houston, Olivier Mbaizo earned his fourth start of the season at right back. Andre Blake returned in goal after a night off as part of what Carnell called “a plan moving forward” to manage his workload alongside Andrew Rick’s minutes. Up top, Tai Baribo and Bruno Damiani started as the forward pairing, with Mikael Uhre, Chris Donovan, and Sal Olivas returning to the first-team roster for the evening’s match.

Colorado came out pressing, trying to create a counter opportunity to catch the Union defense off guard. However, the Union stood tall, neutralizing the Rapids’ press for the most part with quick, well-timed passes forward. Quinn Sullivan had the Union’s first real chance of the match, ripping a shot on goal that went just wide of a diving Zack Steffen. Moments later, Sullivan played a key role again, passing to a wide-open Tai Baribo on the far post, who headed the ball back for Jovan Lukic. The defensive midfielder’s shot let him down, as he tried to drive it home but sent it straight at Steffen. Philadelphia recorded three of their first four shots on target in the opening 14 minutes.

The Union thought they had the opening goal when Steffen made another big save, and the ball appeared to roll into the net. However, referee Malik Badawi ruled it had stayed out, even though replays suggested otherwise. Sullivan continued his excellent first half, delivering a wonderful cross to Danley Jean Jacques, but the midfielder couldn’t put it on frame.

To Colorado’s credit—as Carnell noted—they were a very hard-working team and stayed in the match. At one point, the Rapids thought they caught a break when a shot deflected off the arm of center back Olwethu Makhanya, but Badawi declined to go to VAR.

The Rapids eventually struck first when their high press forced Union midfielder Indiana Vassilev to turn the ball over, leading to a 5v3 counterattack. Cole Bassett ripped a shot off the top of the post, and the rebound fell into the box where Rafael Navarro pounced, finishing past Andre Blake to make it 1–0 in the 37th minute. It marked the eighth goal the Union have conceded this season between the 31st and 45th minutes—the most they’ve allowed in any 15-minute span. Philadelphia went into halftime trailing at Subaru Park for only the third time this season.

The Union came out aggressively in the second half searching for an equalizer. Jean Jacques had an early chance but sent his header wide, and Baribo couldn’t quite connect on a cross from Sullivan.

The breakthrough came in the 64th minute when Kai Wagner delivered a pinpoint cross to Baribo, who finished for his 15th MLS goal of the season—tying him for second in the league. For Wagner, it was his ninth assist of the campaign, and the Union’s 16th goal from a set piece this year.

Jovan Lukic nearly put the Union ahead moments later after a clever give-and-go with Mikael Uhre, who had just entered the match. Lukic went one-on-one with Steffen, but just as in the first half, he couldn’t finish. Danley Jean Jacques also missed a golden chance in the 87th minute on another Wagner cross after Uhre’s shot was blocked.

Mikael Uhre, however, would make his presence felt in the final minutes. The Danish forward scored in the 89th minute with a clever strike past Steffen to put Philadelphia ahead 2–1. Deep into stoppage time, Alejandro Bedoya found Uhre breaking through the defense on a brilliant pass. Uhre beat the Colorado keeper one-on-one for his second of the night, sealing a 3–1 victory and capping off an explosive second half. The assist was Bedoya’s 40th in MLS play.

“We’ve challenged every player you know, in terms of our stylistically, what we expect and how we how we want to go about things, said Carnell. “And he was due, for sure, but he never dropped his head. He worked his butt off, and he got a little injury and came back. And we can’t expect too much too soon. So, you know, it’s been three games now back from his injury. And I think you can see, which way he is trending.”

For Uhre, it was his first brace since 2023 and tied him with Bruno Damiani for second on the team with four goals this season. His second goal also gave him 36 career MLS goals for the Union, tying CJ Sapong for third-most in club history. The win marked Philadelphia’s 200th victory as a club and moved them back to the top of the Supporters’ Shield standings and the first team in the league to 50 points, one ahead of FC Cincinnati, who drew with Inter Miami earlier in the evening.

But Carnell knows there is still alot of soccer yet to be played. “I can’t go anywhere and just take a pair of shoes off the shelf and saying, hey, it’s first to 50 after, you know, 25 or what have you we need a couple more games to go to make it something worthwhile. So the group is galvanized. We were having fun. We just enjoying the moment and sort of pushing each other every single day. So it’s nice to do that, but I mean, one day we might look back on this and say, this was a great season.”

The Union now get a brief break with only an international friendly next Saturday at Subaru Park against Eintracht Frankfurt. Their next league match is August 9th at home against Toronto FC. With nine league games remaining, a U.S. Open Cup run (if they advance), and the MLS playoffs ahead, the break comes at a perfect time for Philadelphia to recharge and prepare for the final stretch of the season.

Main article photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union.