The Philadelphia Union won the Supporters’ Shield in 2025 and will thus be much busier in 2026. The main reason Philly was able to take home some silverware last year was that they only had the MLS regular season and the US Open Cup to worry about. 34 regular-season games and four Open Cup games meant Philadelphia played only 38 matches. Other teams competing for the Shield had to play in the Concacaf Champions Cup (CCC) and the Leagues Cup throughout the year, totalling around 50 matches.
This year, the Union will be one of the teams playing in the CCC, the Leagues Cup, and MLS. They will have the potential to win four trophies: The Supporters’ Shield (Best team in MLS’s 34-game regular season), the MLS Cup (the winner of the MLS Cup Playoffs), the Concacaf Champions Cup (the winner of that intercontinental tournament), and the Leagues Cup ( the winner of the tournaemnt between the top MLS and Liga MX teams).
We addressed the opportunity of winning the MLS trophies. Now it’s time to shift focus to the Cup competitions.
With the chance of playing nine matches in the Concacaf Champions Cup between February and May, and six games in Leagues Cup through the month of August, Philadelphia could play a maximum of 49 games before the MLS Cup Playoffs. What can we expect from the Boys in Blue back on the international stage?
The Concacaf Champions Cup is grueling for MLS teams. It is a tournament that runs from the start of the season through late Spring. Clubs tend to put their effort here rather than in the League early in the season, as the benefits of this competition are vast. The Union has played in three iterations of it: in 2021 and 2023, they made the semifinals, and in 2024, they made the quarterfinals. In each of those tournaments, they played four to six games, which added on to their 34-game regular season.
The Leagues Cup is another monster: the top 18 teams from MLS and Liga MX make up a 36-team field, where group games decide which four clubs from MLS and Liga MX advance to the knockout rounds, starting with the Quarterfinals. Philadelphia has experience in this tournament, finishing third in the inaugural “full tournament” Leagues Cup in 2023 and fourth in 2024. That was back when every team in MLS and Liga MX competed.
Now Philly is in both competitions yet again, and their ambitions in year two under Bradley Carnell’s tutelage will be similar to last year's: go for it! Which makes setting expectations rather cut-and-dried.
Success in Cup competition’s for the Union is usually marked by making a run in a tournament. This will be the case in 2026 as well, with the baseline success set at reaching the Quarterfinals of the Concacaf Champions Cup and Leagues Cup. For both competitions, that will be a tough test, but one the club can get up for.
In CCC, Philly takes on Defense Force FC from Trinidad in the round of 32. Getting past that round is expected, but then the Union would face either the Honduran side CD Olympia or the Mexican giant Club América in the Round of 16. Getting past that round would likely result in an all-MLS quarterfinal, with Inter Miami getting a bye to the Round of 16, with Nashville SC the favorite to advance.
The Leagues Cup is largely unknown to the Union, as this format of playing three matches against Liga MX teams determines who will finish in the top four in MLS and make the Quarterfinals. We will have to wait and see whether Philly can compete in a late-summer tournament or if their focus shifts to finishing the MLS season. My bet is they go full force in both competitions, as not doing so would see Philly get knocked out early.
It’s not in the DNA of the Philadelphia Union to phone it in in a tournament competition, but could we see that in 2026? Philly will likely put all their chips in the Concacaf Champions Cup basket, as that tournament is well-known and offers more benefits. However, if players aren’t high-flying in the early stages of the season, then Philly could falter here. We can all agree that losing to Defense Force FC would be a huge failure, but I’d argue that losing or not being competitive in the Round of 16 would also constitute failure for this club.
Leagues Cup will be a different story. Losing the first game of three almost mathematically eliminates a team from the top four among 18 clubs fighting for the quarterfinals. If the Union is banged up after a long CCC run and a grueling MLS regular season, we may see them falter in this competition, whether they are playing their hardest or fielding mostly reserve players.
No matter how things playout, losing early in either tournament will look like failure, which isn’t something Philly usually shows early in tournaments. It’s more likely that they find the grit and determination to make a run in one or both of these competitions.
The Union is a club that loves a tournament run. They’ve made countless runs in the US Open Cup to the semifinals or finals, but never won. They have had semifinal chances in CCC in two of the three times they’ve played in that competition. Also, Philly has finished no lower than fourth in the Leagues Cup when they’ve competed in it. Because of this, the Union's ultimate success is to make a run in one of these tournaments to a championship game.
It is far-fetched to think this could happen right now, but it would be oh-so Union to replace big players with unknowns, play a breakneck pressing style of play, and somehow make it to the final stages of either CCC or Leagues Cup. With just eight days until their first CCC game, we will see how much emphasis the Union places on competitions like this.
Philadelphia takes on Defence Force FC in Trinidad on Wednesday, February 18th at 6 PM. Tune in to FS2 to catch the first Doop’in action of 2026.
