CHESTER, Pa.—When the schedule for Leagues Cup was announced earlier this year, one match for the Philadelphia Union in Phase One stood out the most to fans and those who follow the team: Sunday’s match against Liga MX side Club Necaxa.

The reason for that is quite simple. Sunday’s match will be the first time former Philadelphia Union forward Julián Carranza will step foot back inside Subaru Park since heading to Europe in the summer of 2024, only this time as a member of the opposition.

For a quick history lesson for those of you who might not remember, Carranza was brought in on loan from MLS side Inter Miami in December 2021. At the time, Philadelphia gave up a natural second-round pick in the MLS SuperDraft the following season. Later that same season, following seven goals in 16 appearances, Philadelphia decided to permanently acquire the Argentine forward for $500,000, spread out over two seasons.

Carranza, along with Mikael Uhre and Dániel Gazdag, would go on to have a record-setting year for the Union in 2022, leading them to the 2022 MLS Cup. Carranza finished the year with 14 goals and six assists.

While Europe was always the goal for him, rumors and reports would swirl throughout the 2023 season and into 2024. On June 30, Philadelphia agreed to a transfer with Dutch club Feyenoord Rotterdam, ending the forward’s time in Chester.

“I’m happy to see the success that he’s having now and the success that he’s had in his career since he left the Union,” Union interim head coach Ryan Richter said about Carranza. “But you know he’s a good player, and he’s hungry to score, and he’ll be like that tomorrow, I’m sure.”

At Feyenoord, Carranza played in 21 matches, scoring six goals in 833 minutes. One of those goals came in the Champions League at the San Siro and helped knock AC Milan out of the competition.

The following season, he was loaned to English Championship side Leicester City on a season-long loan with an option to buy. The loan was cut short after Carranza made nine league appearances without scoring, totaling just 318 minutes.

In January 2026, Feyenoord sold Carranza to Club Necaxa, marking his return to North America.

During the Clausura portion of the Mexican league season, he appeared in six matches and scored three goals for Necaxa. However, the beginning of the 2026-27 Liga MX season is off to an even better start for Carranza. Through three matches of the Apertura portion of the league year, he has three goals and one assist and is currently the leading scorer for a club that sits eighth in the table.

On his time in Europe and returning to the Philadelphia, Carranza had this to say:

“It’s been two years already, so a lot of things have happened. In my personal, professional life, I feel like in Europe was a good round for me. I had a lot of experiences over there. In the Dutch League, also in the English Championship. So, I’ve grown a lot, mentally, and obviously, football this we’re talking about. So, yeah, as I said, a lot of things happened in those two years, and I’m really happy that that happened. And as I said in my answer before, I’m really happy to be here as well.”

While Carranza’s return to Philadelphia might be the headline of the evening, interim head coach Ryan Richter and his staff will have ten other Necaxa players on the field to focus on as well.

For one, they will need to deal with midfielder Javier Ruiz, who was a member of the 2026 Liga MX All-Star squad. The fellow Argentine attacking midfielder will be one to watch on Sunday, with five goals and one assist during his time with Necaxa.

Martín Varini’s squad fell in its opening Phase One match in Chicago on Thursday evening, losing 2-0 to the Chicago Fire on goals from Jonathan Dean and Andrew Gutman. That makes this a match in which both squads will want to pick up three points and keep themselves in contention in the tournament.

But as Richter said during Saturday’s press conference, it is all about building off the second half of Thursday’s performance into a full match.

“There’s a lot of positives from the game on Thursday, and the things that we talked about, the way that we played the second half, finished the game, the way we were on the front foot, and how aggressive we were, led to a lot of great opportunities for us. And the important point for us is that we start the game like this, and we start with this kind of energy and this kind of confidence to be aggressive from the start of the game.”

Richter also noted when asked that Andrew Rick would be in goal again Sunday night. “I thought he had a solid performance in his first game and looking for him to build on that going into tomorrow.”

Varini picked up a red card in the 78th minute of the match against the Fire for what the Leagues Cup 2026 Disciplinary Committee called “using offensive, insulting, or abusive language or actions” and issued him a one-match ban and will be out for tomorrow’s match with Marcos Villano, the club’s assistant coach, presumably being in charge. Villano was with Carranza at Saturday’s press conference.

As of the writing of this article, Philadelphia currently sits 14th in the Leagues Cup table with Saturday’s slate yet to be decided. As of the conclusion of Friday’s results, Columbus Crew, FC Cincinnati, and Charlotte are the only teams with wins in their first two matches.

With plenty of work still to do, Richter reiterated following Thursday’s match that while it is now an uphill battle, he is also looking to use this tournament to build toward the remainder of the MLS season.

“We have to be smart, he said following the loss to Cruz Azul. “Now, if we look at it, and it doesn’t look possible to advance in the next round, then we have to play these games the way we do, try to win and approach it with the right energy and keep building on the positive momentum that we had from the first three league games.”

As to what Milan Iloski attributes the Union’s current run of form, which has netted the Union a win in their last three out four matches, he shared:

“I think just getting back to who we are, you know, really putting a focus on the mentality we come with every game, and you know, getting back to how Philly’s been playing for a really long time.”

We will see if Philadelphia can make it four wins in five matches coming off the 2026 FIFA World Cup break on Sunday.

Club Necaxa and the Philadelphia Union will meet on Sunday, August 9, at 7:30 p.m. at Subaru Park in the second match of Phase One of Leagues Cup.

Jillian Almoney contributed to this article.

Main article photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union.