CHESTER, Pa.—With the MLS playoff race tightening in the Eastern Conference, every point matters as the Philadelphia Union prepare to welcome CF Montreal to Subaru Park on Saturday.

With Philadelphia heading into the match on Saturday, the team currently sits in 12th place in the MLS Eastern Conference, just one point below the playoff line and only four points behind seventh-place NYCFC entering Friday’s contest with Nashville SC, sitting at 28 points.

Overall, the battle for playoff position remains tight in the East, with just 10 points separating the sixth seed, FC Cincinnati, from 14th-place Montreal.

But the standings are not the focus of Philadelphia Union Interim Head Coach Ryan Richter, who is more focused on the day-to-day preparation of the squad than where his club is in the table.

“It’s not important to me,” Richter mentioned to reporters. “There’s no psychological balance of being above that line, and it’s. I’m not just saying this. And when when you guys ask, it’s like the the reality is there’s too much work to do on a game to game basis to to worry about you know the big picture stuff and where we’re at in the league and what the next 10 games might look like.”

“There’s too much to focus on today and what we want to see out of training, and then the environment that we want to create to to get the best out of the guys, and like I really mean that,” Richter said. “Like there’s too much to focus on here that takes all the attention away from what could be type of thing. So we’re totally focused on Montreal, like we would be if it were a game to get out of last place, or it’s a game to make the playoffs, or is game to go into first place. We’re focused just on this game and putting the best performance possible into this game.”

Saturday’s opponent, CF Montreal, is heading to Chester in the midst of a busy three-game travel schedule. Montreal first traveled to face Inter Miami last Saturday and then went to Vancouver on Wednesday for the Canadian Championship, where they drew 1-1 against the Whitecaps. Daniel Pereira scored the opening goal of the match in the 15th minute, only for Ryan Gauld to equalize in the 72nd minute.

Despite that, the Union head coach knows their performance against the Whitecaps showed that their opponent is still dangerous despite the travel.

“It’s a tough week for them,” he said. “That’s a reality of the schedule, and it’s a… I don’t want to say it’s a break for us, but it makes it a tough week for them playing in Vancouver last night. And sometimes you need these breaks in your schedule, but we know that doesn’t mean it’s going to be an easy game.”

“You know, I’m sure when Vancouver looked at that game last night, coming off of the big loss in Miami, they didn’t think they were going to get the version of Montreal that they did, and they got a good version of them. So, if that’s the energy that they play with against us, then we’re also going to have a tough team that we have to play against, regardless of the week they had. But we can’t we can’t worry about that. We need to worry about our energy and making sure that we attack them from the start.”

“And if anything, we use that, yet don’t need that as motivation, but we use that as the way that we want to start the game and make sure we’re the ones that are controlling the tempo from the start. Every game is important to win, especially the home game.”

Philippe Eullaffroy’s squad heads into the match having picked up points in four of their last five matches. Despite the loss in Florida, Montreal does have a road win against the Columbus Crew during this recent stretch, which was their second road win of the season.

The club also had a busy summer transfer window, bringing in Dani Pereira from Austin FC. The Venezuelan midfielder has five goals and 14 assists in 150 MLS matches. Montreal traded for defender Brayan Ceballos from the New England Revolution and brought back Dante Sealy, who returns to the club after 20 matches in Colorado, where he had two assists. The winger scored nine goals and added one assist in 30 matches with the Canadian club prior to his departure. Montreal also picked up defender Viktor Radojević on loan from the Chicago Fire.

Alexis Sánchez was probably the club’s biggest move, with Montreal picking up the Chilean striker as a free agent after years of playing for European powerhouses such as Manchester United, Inter, Arsenal and Barcelona, among others. Overall, the 37-year-old has 51 goals in 168 matches with Chile’s national team.

“It’s going to be interesting to see what they decide to do, given the short rest and the long travel and the midweek game following this,” Richter mentioned. “So for us, it’s a little unpredictable of what kind of lineup they’ll go with. We’ll see where Alexis Sanchez is exactly fitness-wise, if he’s ready to start a game, if he’s available for that, but they’ve added some quality pieces, so it’s it’s a dangerous team. And and Sealy played last night and looked good and looked like he can make an impact. So yeah, there’s a couple moving parts, and it makes it a little unpredictable for us of exactly how they’re going to approach it lineup wise.”

Overall, Philadelphia has six wins, nine draws and two losses all-time in league play at Subaru Park against Montreal.

Philadelphia will currently have a busy schedule of their own coming up. Following Saturday’s showdown, Philly plays FC Cincinnati on Wednesday before heading on the road next Sunday again San Diego FC and then back on the road the following Saturday against Sporting KC.

“Of course, you know there’s a busy week after for us,” Richter shared to the press. “But we have to attack this one and and really go for a win. And also with the short week, it’s not like the last time that we had the short week. I think we played Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday. So it was the just two day rest between both games. This one we play Saturday, Wednesday, Sunday. So we we have the extra day between the games, which is huge for recovery, and yeah, gives us also the time to prepare like we normally would for the opponent.”

On the Union side, defender Nathan Harriel eclipsed 10,000 MLS minutes after Saturday’s match against the Red Bulls. The Tampa native has seven goals and nine assists during his time with the first team.

“Yeah, more than anything on the field, you know, his impact on the culture and the environment is so positive because you know he has the perfect balance of a great guy and teammate, but also a fierce competitor,” the interim head coach mentioned to the media. “And this is exactly the environment that we want to try to create, but that only happens when you have people like Nathan involved, and you know I’ve probably seen, I don’t know how many games he’s played, but I guess it’s just shy of 200 around I would think, and to see the way that he’s grown when he’s just making his breakthrough in ’22, and and then being a national team level player to now being, you know, a real leader and captain at times on this team.”

Looking at the MLS Player Status Report for Matchday 24 ahead of tomorrow’s match, Agustin Anello is listed as out for the Philadelphia Union with an adductor injury. For CF Montreal, Frankie Amaya, Josh-Duc Nteziryayo and Dani Pereira are all listed as out.

We will see on Saturday if the Union can keep their run of form and their climb up the table going.

In other club news, the Philadelphia Union announced today that Roberto Giménez has been named Technical Director. Giménez returns to the club after spending the past two years with U.S. Soccer, where he served as Talent Identification Manager for the West Region.

According to the club’s press release, Giménez will oversee key aspects of the club’s professional player pathway, including the identification, development and progression of top young talent across the Academy, Union II, U22 Initiative players and the first team.

Additionally, he will support scouting, recruitment and player development efforts while helping align the club’s game model and methodology across all levels.

The move for Roberto was first reported by Jose Nuñez back on July 6. Giménez returns to his former club after joining the Union in February 2020 as Academy Scouting Coordinator before being promoted to Head of Academy Scouting in August 2021.

Main article photo credit: Emily Wallace-Sutton.