CHESTER, Pa.—With the October international break now over and members of the Philadelphia Union returning home from their respective national teams, the Union return to action on Saturday evening as they host MLS Western Conference opponent Real Salt Lake, heading into the final push of the regular season.
Saturday’s match will feature the return of Cavan Sullivan, Frankie Westfield, Neil Pierre, Danley Jean Jacques, and Andre Blake, who return from representing their countries during the October international window.
And while interim head coach Ryan Richter sang the praises of the three homegrowns and fielded a lot of questions regarding Sullivan, he also praised those players on the team who did not go away with their national teams.
“I mean credit to the guys that were here, and we didn’t drop the focus or intensity in training at all,” Richter said when speaking with members of the media on Thursday. “That was pretty cool because, especially not as much the guys that were away from national team, but the fact of not having a game on the weekend where you’re you know you don’t have the end goal at the end of the training week. But they did a great job to push the intensity and the focus, and yeah, like we do, we train every day to try to get better and keep building in the way we want to play, building in our individual things that we need to get better, and building the levels of fitness.”
Richter hopes his team’s sights are set on Saturday’s match against Real Salt Lake after a week off.
Both teams are coming off victories in their last league matches. While the Union earned a 4-2 victory over Orlando City SC with the aforementioned players out, Salt Lake had an equally impressive win over Eastern Conference opponent New England Revolution, beating them 3-0 at home on October 4.
In their previous match, RSL took an early lead in the second minute on a goal from Aiden Hezarkhani, his third of the season. Salt Lake’s leading scorer, Sergi Solans, who has 11 goals on the season, completed his brace in the second half.
The 30th overall pick in the 2025 MLS SuperDraft from Spain, who scored 30 goals in 35 appearances over two years of NCAA Division I soccer split between Oregon State and UCLA, is someone the Utah club values after acquiring the selection from the LA Galaxy for $50,000 in GAM in this past year’s SuperDraft.
On the season, the forward has contributed 14 goal contributions (11 goals and three assists) and will be one of the players Richter and his staff hope to contain as much as possible this weekend.
“I really like his game,” Richter said of the young forward. “I really like how he plays off the shoulder of the center backs and the way that he positions himself between the two center backs and kind of makes these runs off the shoulder. And they have quality players that can give him the balls where where he likes them when he makes these runs. So for us, we have to be, yeah, we we can’t lose sight of where he is. We have to have good communication between our our back line and from Andre, and we have to make sure that these moments where we have to drop the line that we’re quick to recognize and moments that we can not let them get out, especially in transition. Then we have to be really aggressive in these moments, but he’s definitely not a guy that the center backs can get caught ball watching because he’s got great timing and knows how to position himself to get behind the back line.”
Prior to Saturday’s victory in Utah, the visitors had picked up only three points in league matches since the league restart, recording three draws, and are 1-9-3 on the road this season in league play. But despite their run of form, the club is only four points out of ninth place and will be battling to keep its playoff chances alive. It’s something Richter knows his staff and players will need to be prepared for to avoid a result similar to what happened in Kansas City.
“We have to prepare like we do of every game,” Richter mentioned to the press. “And to me, I don’t look at this like it. One, there are no easy games, but definitely don’t look at this weekend. Like there’s, you know, there is a team that you can just come out and not put your best effort and still get a result. We have to be at our best if we want to win, and we have to make sure we do that in the next couple of days that we prepare so we’re ready to step in and start the game the right way.”
Should the Union be able to pick up points tomorrow at home and continue this run of form, it will help them stay in the playoff hunt. Philly is currently five points behind fifth-place Charlotte FC and only seven behind New England, which currently sits in second place in the East.
With matches against Chicago, Charlotte, New England, Nashville, Cincinnati, and Toronto coming up, Richter’s squad will have plenty of opportunities to battle and climb up the conference table. But even with their current standing, teams like Cincinnati, which signed former Union defensive midfielder José Martínez today, are only six points back and sit in 10th place.
Looking at the status report for the match, the home side will be without Japhet Sery Larsen due to yellow card accumulation, following a booking in the last match, while Agustin Anello is out with an adductor injury. And while Salt Lake will be missing talented players such as Diego Luna, Lukas Engel, and Justin Glad, among others, as Richter mentioned, the Union need to make sure they do not take their opponent lightly.
The match is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff at Subaru Park and will also be available on Apple TV.
Main article photo credit: Emily Wallace-Sutton
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