CHESTER, Pa.— It was a wild, wet day at Subaru Park as the Philadelphia Union hosted the New England Revolution in a friendly as they ramp back up before the season resumes. In a match that was supposed to go for 120 minutes to allow all the players some quality time on the pitch, it was slightly downsized after two weather delays forced the friendly’s transfer to the indoor field after about 66 minutes of play. A final period of 45 minutes was played indoors with the Revolution scoring a late game-winner, defeating the Union 3-2.
The Union’s starting lineup featured Milan Iloski and Bruno Damiani at striker. Ben Bender, Cavan Sullivan, Indiana Vassilev, and Jesús Bueno were at midfield. The back line saw Nate Harriel at left back, Frankie Westfield at right back, and the center back duo of Japhet Sery Larsen and Neil Pierre. Andre Blake, the captain, was in goal.
Notably, Andrew Rick was back from his time with the USMNT where he was a training keeper, though he did not dress for the friendly. Quinn Sullivan, Jeremy Rafanello, and Stas Korzeniowski were present, but still on the mend and did not dress.
The Union got off to a rocky start when they conceded in the 3rd minute. It began on a Union corner that Sery Larsen misplayed, leading to New England going on a counter. Peyton Miller crossed to new Revolution signing Wilson Harris, who finished the ball into the net for the lead.
The Union, however, found their footing after that and looked more confident as the half went on. Blake made a few saves, including one in the 20th minute that he knocked out following a Revolution free kick outside the box.
Midway through the first half, a torrential downpour began, but the Union were finding a good connection on the right side with quality play from Westfield and Sullivan, and Pierre was doing a solid job with his distribution and defense. The Union finally cashed in on an opportunity when Sullivan crossed a beauty in front of goal, where it glanced off the head of Iloski and into the net to tie it 1-1 in the 28th minute.
New England nearly took the lead, however, in the 31st minute when Peyton Miller missed wide right on a sitter. Bueno was shown a yellow card two minutes later for a foul, and the match did see a few chippy moments.
As the first half was wrapping up, the Union were definitely finding momentum and saw some chances, though the wet conditions were not helping as Westfield slipped on a couple chances. Sullivan also had a chance that went wide right. There was no stoppage time, with the halftime score 1-1.
After a thunderstorm lengthened halftime to about an hour in length, the match resumed. No changes were made for the Union, and Bueno had a shot go wide in the early going. After a hard tackle, Westfield was shown a yellow in the 49th minute.
New England took the lead once again in the 51st minute after Blake initially made the save, but his deflection went right back to Miller, who did not miss this time, giving the Revolution the 2-1 lead. Almost as if the soccer gods were unhappy, thunder rumbled right after and the rain returned.
As the match got into the 60th minute and a torrential downpour was drenching the pitch, Sullivan was fouled while going on a run, earning him a free kick that was shot on target, but saved. This was followed by multiple chances and corners for the Union, including an impressive volley by Sullivan that went on target, and a shot by Westfield.
In the 64th minute, the Union made their first substitutions with Ezekiel Alladoh and Jovan Lukic replacing Damiani and Bender, and Vassilev sliding up into attacking left mid. That did not last long, however, as around the 66th minute, there was a bolt of lightning and huge crack of thunder, halting play. At this point, the decision was made to move the match to the indoor field at the WSFS Bank Sportsplex and just play 45 minutes more.
Once all parties moved across the campus and were warmed up, the rest of the bench took the field, with Alladoh, Eddy Davis, Agustín Anello, Lukic, Kellan LeBlanc, Giovanny Sequera, Rafael Uzcátegui, Finn Sundstrom, Geiner Martinez, Philippe Ndinga, and George Marks getting their turns.
On the turf of the indoor pitch, it was the Union seeing the bulk of the early chances, and Alladoh scored to tie the match 2-2 about 20 minutes in after a cross from Ndinga and a back heel pass from Anello. In the 24th minute Marks made big save to keep it level, and in the 27th, Davis had a promising shot deflected out by keeper.
It was relatively back and forth as the stalemate continued, with the Revs getting a big chance in the 33rd minute on a free kick just outside box, though it was thwarted by the defense. However, as time was running out, the Revs found their game winner in the 43rd minute on a header by Keegan Hughes off a free kick.
After beginning at 11:00 AM, the match finally ended almost four hours later, thus concluding an interesting day, to say the least, for the two teams. The Union, after recovering from an early blunder, went on to look solid with their starting talent, and Cavan Sullivan showed a lot of promise as he continues to develop and show his worth to the starting eleven. Once his brother Quinn, who has been working his way back into training, comes back fully, perhaps the Union will see more of the spark that has been missing.
The substitutes that came on, which included bench players and several from Union II, also showed some growth, but also areas to work on in terms of finishing. How all this will translate when regular play remains to be seen, however in Ryan Richter’s short tenure so far with the first team, there is an air of optimism.
Speaking after the match per the Union’s press release, Richter said:
“It’s been a lot of hard training. Now, we just played our third friendly game for this little preseason period. We’re just building every day, getting our fitness up to the level that we’ll need once the season starts back up, and working on a lot of new ideas.
The team has done well, they’ve trained really hard, and they’ve been open to the new ideas we’re trying to implement. I’m proud of where we’re at right now, but there’s still a ways to go before we get to the first game against Red Bull, and the guys are fully bought in and prepared for that.
Playing at home is great for the energy of not only for the team but also for the fan base and for the club as a whole. No one’s happy with the way the first part of the season went, and we have an opportunity in the first couple games to show that now there’s a different kind of energy, and we need the fans, we’re going to need the club, we need the support of everybody. Our job is to put a product on the field that everyone’s proud of.”
With apparently one more friendly to go before MLS play resumes on July 22nd for the Union, the team is putting in the work and it will be interesting to see if perhaps they can go the way the Phillies did after the departure of Rob Thomson and turn it around.
Main article photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union.
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