On Saturday, Philadelphia Union traveled to Orlando and did what hardly any team does at the Inter & Co Stadium to Orlando City Soccer Club: they shook the net four times to win 4-2 against the 2024 Eastern Conference Champions. However, the scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story—even though all that matters in soccer is who has a higher number when the final whistle blows and woe to them who tiki-taka but can’t score —for in the first twenty minutes, it seemed Union would leave sunny Orlando and return to chilly Philly with a loss as they looked disjointed, lacked communication, and could not hold the ball long enough to make any threatening plays.
Orlando opened the scoring in the 8th minute with a goal from Marco Pašalić and continued to control much of the ball, but in the 23rd minute, Tai Baribo converted a cross from Kai Wagner to make it 1-1, which remained the score at half-time.
In the second half, Union capitalized on Orlando’s lackluster mistakes to make it 4-1 by the 70th minute with goals from Daniel Gazdag, Mikael Uhre, and Baribo’s 64th-minute second goal of the match. Marco Pašalić’s 79th goal wasn’t good enough to ensure a comeback.
Orlando’s coach, Óscar Pareja, acknowledged that the game was lost on avoidable mistakes, “When we had the opportunities, we let them go, but they didn’t. We made mistakes that don’t belong to this game at this level.”
Union may have started the first half unsure of themselves, but they won. The team’s new coach, Bradley Carnell, was not only proud of his team’s accomplishment but also acknowledged that Orlando SC isn’t an easy team to play at home, saying, “Not too sure how many teams come to Orlando and feel comfortable and confident.”
Union will be at Subaru Park for their home opener against FC Cincinnati. If last week’s duel in Orlando is anything to go by, Union’s fans should look forward to a gritty squad that won’t go down easily. Furthermore, they ought to be better because Carnell holds that he’s seen improvement from one match to the other since the pre-season, “With each game, we’ve become incrementally better.”