CHESTER, Pa. — On Saturday, the Philadelphia Union returned home fresh off their first home win in MLS play, looking to build off that momentum as they hosted Western Conference opponent Seattle Sounders.
While the match was more of the grind-it-out defensive effort fans have come to expect from the club in recent seasons, a Milan IIoski 31st-minute goal was the difference on the evening as Philadelphia picked up its third clean sheet in league play en route to a 1-0 victory.
“It’s never easy to turn around in three days, especially with everything that that the team put into the game on Wednesday,” Richter said. “So, no, it wasn’t perfect tonight, but the guys… I can’t ask for more from the mentality and attitude and the way that they approach this game. If you really look against, you know, right now in a tough moment, Seattle, but a really good Seattle team—to be able to get another home win, turn around like that, put that type of effort in again, get another another win to to start this off in the right way with a lot of positive energy, a lot of positive momentum.”
“I think this is definitely what we needed to win two big wins at home to kick off part the second half of the season,” Frankie Westfield said after the match. “And always, you know, when you’re winning, the vibes are so much better. And I think Ryan and his crew came at the beginning of this preseason and brought the vibes up right away, and we’re getting up there in training, and from training, it’s continuing to the game.”
The starting XI for Saturday evening’s contest was very similar to Wednesday’s match, with one notable exception: center back Neil Pierre received his first Major League Soccer start.
When asked about Pierre’s performance, Richter had this to say about the young defender’s evening:
“Neil did a good job. You know, he won his duels. He was organized. He was focused, and he played a solid game,” Richter mentioned.
Andre Blake returned in goal with a defensive back line featuring Pierre, Frankie Westfield, Nathan Harriel, and Kai Wagner, who made his 200th MLS start.
The midfield featured Jovan Lukic and Danley Jean Jacques in the central midfield positions, while Indiana Vassilev and Cavan Sullivan rounded out the unit.
Up front, Milan IIoski and Bruno Damiani returned for the second consecutive match.
The bench consisted of Geiner Martinez, Japhet Sery Larsen, whom Richter said on Friday had been removed from Wednesday’s match for precautionary reasons, Jesús Bueno, Alejandro Bedoya, Ben Bender, Ezekiel Alladoh, Agustin Anello, Quinn Sullivan, and Andrew Rick.
Both teams felt each other out through the opening 10 minutes. However, Seattle’s relentless pressure and some sloppy passing early on derailed a few opportunities Philadelphia could have created.
With the Union controlling most of the possession through the opening 18 minutes, Seattle looked on several occasions to catch the home side on the counterattack. The Sounders nearly succeeded in the 18th minute when Osaze De Rosario received a pass that led to a foot race with Nathan Harriel, forcing the homegrown defender to make an excellent tackle to thwart the attack.
A scary moment followed a Kai Wagner throw-in in the 26th minute as Stuart Hawkins ran hard into Cavan Sullivan, sending the young homegrown to the ground. Sullivan was able to continue the match, though he was very heated about the collision and had to be calmed down by his teammates.
For the third consecutive match, Philadelphia found the back of the net first, this time in the 31st minute. Milan IIoski scored his seventh goal in five matches, chipping Sounders goalkeeper Andrew Thomas after receiving a fantastic feed from Frankie Westfield, who recorded his fifth assist of the season and his third consecutive match with an assist.
Neil Pierre also earned an assist on the play, the first MLS assist of his career.
For Milan, he has now scored seven goals over his last five matches. When asked what he attributes his forward’s recent run of form to, Richter had this to add:
“I told him, that was one of the the first conversations that I had, is that you know I see him as a striker because his best quality is when he’s in and around goal, he gets a shot off, he gets it off quick, he hits the target, and he’s really clever in his movement and in how he gets open, and and he’s quicker and his good timing to run behind,” Richter mentioned.
“He can finish in one touch; he can finish from outside the box. So trying to put him in positions where he can use his skill set, and you know he scored a great goal tonight.”
“I think my best attribute scoring goals and being around the box and finding ways to score goals and help the team,” said IIoski. “So you know I think that was an attribute that he saw in me, and you know we decided that was my best attribute that we need to get the most out of me and get the most out of the team. So you know we agreed, and it was you know it’s been good so far, and we just got to keep going now.”
As both teams headed to the locker room, it marked only the third time this season that Philadelphia held a halftime lead at home and just the third time overall this season (New England and Toronto).
Seattle went to its bench in the 60th minute, bringing on Peter Kingston, Jesus Ferreira, and Gallatin Sandnes.
Philadelphia nearly doubled its lead moments later when Cavan Sullivan played a wonderful through ball to a streaking IIoski. However, Sullivan appeared to wait too long to release the pass, and IIoski was ruled offside, negating the goal.
Philadelphia countered with Quinn Sullivan and Ezekiel Alladoh for Richter’s first substitutions of the evening in the 65th minute.
Seattle nearly found the equalizer in the 74th minute as Blake punched away a contested ball in the box that fell to Seattle defensive midfielder Snyder Brunell, who attempted to chip Blake. However, the effort sailed over the crossbar.
Quinn Sullivan had an opportunity in the 76th minute, but Thomas was able to make the save as the Union continued pressing for an insurance goal.
Danley Jean Jacques exited in favor of Jesús Bueno for Philadelphia’s third substitution of the evening. Danny Musovski and Sebastian Gomez came on for Seattle’s fifth and final substitutions as the visitors began creating better opportunities late in the match despite being outshot 15-7 overall.
Despite Seattle’s second-half push, Richter remained confident his club would see out the victory.
“I didn’t feel like it was it was that they were in control,” Richter said. “They had the ball, but they weren’t creating chances. So the the change was more just basically the the the profile of the two players is Jesús will hold that position in the middle and did a great job when he came in, and some of the chances that didn’t come off… the offside, the couple two-on-ones that we had… like normally you should get the second goal. We didn’t, and we probably weren’t sharp enough in those moments, but the second goal was there for us to kill the game, it didn’t come. But we did a good job to not let that come back and haunt us.”
Philadelphia’s final substitution came in the 89th minute as Alejandro Bedoya entered the match for the Cavan Sullivan.
The Union continued creating opportunities in the closing moments as they grinded out a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Seattle, earning their fourth home win against the Sounders and their third clean sheet of the season.
With their second consecutive victory, the Philadelphia Union improved to 3-10-4 on the season, good for 13 points. Combined with Atlanta United’s 4-1 loss at New England on Saturday, the Union climbed out of the bottom spot in the Eastern Conference and into 14th place.
While fans may breathe a temporary sigh of relief and begin to see a glimmer of hope, Richter is not looking that far ahead and is instead taking things one match at a time.
“Now it’s Atlanta and going to the next game, and it has to, for me, it has to continue to go that way, ” he said. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We won two games. It feels really good. The mentality feels right. The culture feels great. Let’s focus on the next game and go from there.”
The Union will have another opportunity next Saturday, Aug. 1, to continue climbing the standings when they host the aforementioned Atlanta United at Subaru Park. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., and the match will be available on Apple TV.
Main article photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union
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