CHESTER, Pa.—After a two match road trip that saw the Philadelphia Union pick up six points, they return home on Saturday evening for a battle between the sixth- and seventh-seeded teams in the MLS Eastern Conference. With playoff positioning on the line, the Union will take on Orlando City SC at Subaru Park.

Both teams will be impacted by the international window tomorrow evening. Cavan Sullivan, Frankie Westfield, Neil Pierre, Malik Jakupovic, Andre Blake, Danley Jean Jacques, and Phillipe Ndinga are all away with their respective national or youth national teams for Philadelphia. Orlando will be missing Justin Ellis, Tyrese Spicer, Marco Pašalić, Wilder Cartagena, and David Brekalo under similar circumstances.

Looking at the statistics alone, the absence of Ellis, who has one goal and a team-leading nine assists, will certainly be felt. However, Orlando still has plenty of firepower available to make tomorrow difficult for the home side.

Martín Ojeda leads the club with 12 goals on the campaign, while Ivan Angulo has contributed eight goals and assists combined. Then there is the organization’s superstar summer signing, Antoine Griezmann, who has chipped in eight goals and three assists since coming over from Atlético Madrid.

While the former France national team forward missed last weekend’s game against New England, he is currently listed as questionable along with Griffin Dorsey. Braian Ojeda is the only player listed as out due to injury for tomorrow’s match.

Despite who will play and who will be missing, interim head coach Ryan Richter knows what type of team the Union are up against.

“If you look at the first half of the year, they were really open in the moments when they go to press high, it was a lot of space between the strikers and the center backs, and a lot of space through midfield that you can play,” the coach mentioned to members of the media on Thursday. “Now they look a lot more organized, comfortable defending deeper on the field, and keeping their lines tight, and making teams break them down, which is which is difficult for any team to do in this league.”

“And when teams organize and can pack like this, it makes it tough to break them down to get goals. So I think that that’s the piece that they, yeah adding a top quality player, but then also you know working in the organization defensively. I think’ that’s helped them kind of in the run that they’re on right now.”

Prior to back-to-back defeats — against the Revolution last Saturday and the Columbus Crew in the semifinals of the 2026 U.S. Open Cup — the Lions were on a five-match unbeaten run. That came after a slow start to the 2026 season before interim head coach Martín Perelman took over for former boss Oscar Pareja in May after Pareja was relieved of his duties.

For Richter’s side to pick up one or three points tomorrow night, they will have to do it without Cavan Sullivan and his 10 goal contributions during the club-record-tying 11-game unbeaten run. That doesn’t mean they won’t have firepower of their own, though, as Bruno Damiani and Milan Iloski, who have eight and seven goal contributions, respectively, during this run, are expected to be available.

Also, look for midfielders such as Indiana Vassilev, Quinn Sullivan, Agustin Anello, and Jesús Bueno to fill the midfield voids left by Jean Jacques and Cavan Sullivan.

The big puzzle will be what the Union staff decides to do with the back line with Westfield and Pierre away with the national team. Nathan Harriel has been playing center back alongside Pierre since coming off the World Cup break but, as we know, is also a very capable right back like Westfield.

Richter stressed the importance of consistency when asked about Harriel’s role tomorrow.

“We’re totally confident in the group that we’re putting out there, and Nathan is going to be a key piece, no matter what position he winds up in, and he’s really confident doing both those jobs,” he said. “But for us, it’s important that we keep some consistency in the team, and you’re not just changing everything and moving guys all over the place.”

If Richter decides to stick with Harriel at center back tomorrow, then who plays right back will be the question to ponder.

One interesting tidbit from last Sunday’s Union II match was that Geiner Martinez started at right back before being moved into his normal center back role. Martinez eventually picked up a second yellow card and was sent off in the second half of the second team’s 1-1 draw with NYCFC II.

That will be one of the big questions heading into tomorrow.

In net, look for Andrew Rick to get the call with Blake away with the Jamaican men’s national team. Rick played on Sunday as well and was impressive, making 10 saves, including two penalty saves.

“It was important for him to get a game and to get 90 minutes because you know you can’t you can never replicate the decisions that you have to make in a game situation in training,” Richter mentioned to the press. “You try to do your best, but it’s different when even if it’s a second team game, it’s different. When you have to keep your focus for 90 minutes, you have to defend the space behind your back line. You have to organize the players in front of you, defend set pieces. All these things that go into the decision making of the goalkeeper. You know, you need actual game time to train them properly. So, for him, it was really important, and and he was great. The performance that he put in was exactly what we’re asking for him.”

One other caveat to watch tomorrow: Orlando City has earned points at Subaru Park in each of their last three matches there, including two wins and a scoreless draw last April.

But if Philadelphia can manage to come away with a result tomorrow and avenge this past May’s wild 4-3 defeat in Florida, things could get interesting by the end of Saturday evening, with the Union now trailing the Chicago Fire by only three points.

The match is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff from Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania. If you cannot make it to the match, it will be available on Apple TV.

Main article photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union.