CHESTER, Pa. — On Sunday evening, the Philadelphia Union hosted Liga MX side Necaxa, marking the return of former Philadelphia Union forward Julian Carranza to Subaru Park.
Following goals in the first half from Nathan Harriel and Bruno Damiani, plus a game-sealing goal from Cavan Sullivan, the Union made some key stops defensively in securing a 3-1 victory on Sunday evening.
“It was really important for us to to bounce back from a loss at home and make sure that doesn’t turn into a streak,” interim head coach Ryan Richter said about the bounce back on Sunday.
“So, it was great that the way they responded, the way we started the game and ultimately to get the result was really important today.”
For the starting eleven, Richter made four changes on the evening from Thursday’s squad.
Andrew Rick made his second start in a row in net, along with Nathan Harriel, Neil Pierre, Japhet Sery-Larsen, and Kai Wagner on the defensive back line.
The midfield consisted of Danley Jean Jacques, Jovan Lukic, Indiana Vassilev, and Cavan Sullivan. Bruno Damiani and Ezekiel Alladoh paired up top for Philadelphia.
For homegrown defender Neil Pierre, midfielder Jovan Lukic, and forward Bruno Damiani, they all made their first career Leagues Cup starts on the evening.
The bench consisted of Andre Blake, George Marks, Geiner Martinez, Jesus Bueno, Milan Iloski, Alejandro Bedoya, Jeremy Rafanello, Ben Bender, Agustin Anello, Quinn Sullivan, Frankie Westfield, and Malik Jakupovic.
Carranza got the start for Necaxa and received a warm welcome from the fans in attendance for Sunday’s match. Carranza played the full 90 minutes of the match, but the Union defense did a good job overall, allowing Carranza only two shots, with none on target. While he had 34 touches, only three were inside the box.
Philadelphia started the match on the front foot in the third minute with Nathan Harriel scoring, assisted by Cavan Sullivan. The play started with Wagner finding Vassilev, allowing the midfielder to cross the ball to a wide-open Cavan, setting Harriel up for a shot that beat Luis Jimenez for the opening goal of the match.
“It’s always good to score, and always good to help the team out,” Harriel said about the match. “It’s good to start off like that, you know, and set the tone for the game. But we definitely could have been a lot cleaner in a lot of other moments in the game. It’s funny back there, like we won, but guys still know that wasn’t good enough tonight from our standpoint.”
After a coming-together of Pierre and Carranza, Necaxa’s Matias Espindola went down after a collision with Pierre. Though it was looked at for a possible serious foul, a yellow card in the 11th minute was awarded to Pierre in the end.
Philadelphia added to their lead again in the 12th minute. This time, it was Bruno Damiani, with assists on the play from Nathan Harriel and Jovan Lukic, who started the play with a beautiful 60-yard long ball, allowing Harriel to run onto it and cross for Bruno to knock it in.
“It was a good feeling,” Damiani said about his goal. ” A little bit of release. Of course, I’m not comfortable enough with the season I’m having, but yeah, just a little bit get pressure out of my head, especially, and get confidence for when it comes.”
Carranza tried to score a quick goal on Rick in the 33rd minute, but the ball sailed wide left of the goal. Pedro Pedraza picked up Necaxa’s first yellow card of the match moments later on a foul on Cavan Sullivan, leading to a free kick for the Union.
After a foul by Harriel on Javier Ruiz set up the first real dangerous chance for Necaxa, the attempt went right at Rick. Another foul, this time by Jean Jacques on Carranza, set up another free kick right outside the 18 for Necaxa, which was cleared out by Philadelphia’s back line.
Necaxa continued to push for a late first-half goal to get some momentum back before halftime, but the Union did well not to let them back into the match before the half.
“I think I need to do a bit better,” Rick said about closing out the half defensively. “Maybe trying to force the ball a bit. It was really big though to close out without a goal against. I think going in halftime, conceding a goal, lose all the momentum with the team in the game.”
“I think it’s a little bit on me for not maybe rushing it a bit and just getting the guys up and then just hitting the ball as far as I can, rather than there’s a few times where I try to play a bit quick, which which wasn’t the right decision in the moment, but we learned from it,” Rick added.
Bruno Damiani and Danley Jean Jacques both had header attempts in the first five minutes of the half as Philadelphia pressed coming out of the break for the third goal.
That third goal eventually came moments later thanks to a nifty feed from Indiana Vassilev to Cavan Sullivan on the far post, allowing the youngster to half-volley the finish to extend the lead to three goals eight minutes into the half.
“It was really important for him today to to get that goal,” Richter said. “I think the the thing that I was most proud of was the type of goal that it was. It wasn’t the special one where you beat three players and you curl the ball in the top corner. It was get to the right spot at the right time and put the ball in the back of the net.”
Following a yellow card for Vassilev, Richter went to the bench for a quadruple substitution in the 60th minute, bringing on Quinn Sullivan for his brother Cavan, Frankie Westfield for Kai Wagner, Jesús Bueno for Danley Jean Jacques, and Milan Iloski for Alladoh.
Sery Larsen picked up Philadelphia’s third yellow card on a foul on Ricardo Monreal in the 64th minute. Necaxa kept pressing for a goal, including an attempt from Lorenzo Faravelli from inside the 18. While it was a strong drive on the ball, Rick made an easy save on the play.
Following the hydration break, Malik Jakupovic subbed on for Bruno Damiani in the 73rd minute. For Jakupovic, it was his first career Leagues Cup appearance.
“I thought he had some good flashes tonight,” Richter said of the homegrown’s performance. “But for him to get to his level where he’s really competing at the professional level, you can see he still needs to take some steps and things.”
When asked what he still needs to improve on, Jakupovic had this to add postmatch:
“I would say just getting stronger at the end of the day. Being in the weight room two times a day is really important because at the end of the day they’re playing grown men every single day, so this tough. But I feel like that’s the thing we’ve been working on the most, and also running in front post, back post. I’ve been working on that every single day, and just finishes.”
Necaxa did eventually find the goal in the 78th minute, with Matias Espindola, assisted by Carlos Vargas and Alex Pena, drawing Philadelphia’s lead back to within two goals with a great finish to beat Rick.
Necaxa continued to press for another goal, earning a few more opportunities to draw even closer, but Philadelphia’s defense and Rick stood tall in a few moments to keep the match within two goals.
With four minutes of stoppage time, Philadelphia buckled down and closed out the match, earning its first points of the 2026 Leagues Cup with a 3-1 victory over Necaxa.
“I give credit to my defense just because I think Jeff [Sery Larsen] made a few, Neil made a few, everybody made a bunch of like pretty good blocks. Nate cleared the free kick, but yeah, we knew what it was going to be like going into the game,” Rick said about the defensive performance on the evening.
“I think they (Necaxa) would have ranked if they were in MLS, they would have ranked first in shots just throughout the run of play. So we knew we knew it was going to be like that, and we knew it was going to be a grind. But I think getting two of the goals really helped that, and it kind of helped us build into the game a bit.”
While the Union picked up three points, their current position in the standings leaves much to be desired, and they will need a lot of help to advance to the quarterfinals of the Leagues Cup.
Currently, Philadelphia sits in 12th place. While the Union are not eliminated from the tournament, six teams currently sit at six points, so they will need to win their final match and get some help along the way if they are to make it into the knockout round.
Philadelphia will play its final Phase One match on Thursday against Santos Laguna at 7:00 p.m. at Subaru Park.
Jillian Almoney contributed to this article.
Main article photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union
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