After winning the Supporters’ Shield in season one under Bradley Carnell, the new-look Philadelphia Union have started the 2026 MLS campaign with three consecutive losses for the first time since 2012, following their 1-0 defeat to the San Jose Earthquakes at Subaru Park on Saturday night.
Coming into Matchday 3 with no Olwethu Makhanya (Red Card vs NYCFC) and Club América paying a visit to Subaru Park on Tuesday (CONCACAF Champions Cup), Bradley Carnell was once again forced to rotate some of his squad and rely on the team’s youthful pipeline to fill out the starting XI.
Nate Harriel slid over to CB for a suspended Makhanya, while Frankie Westfield took control of Harriel’s usual spot at the RB position. Carnell swapped Milan Iloski and Agustin Anello’s positions from what we saw against NYCFC, putting Anello up top as the 2nd forward with Bruno Damiani, and Milan Iloski back at #10, which seems to be the position he thrives in.
20-year-old Giovanny Sequera made his MLS debut at Left Back for Bradley Carnell’s side on Saturday night as new signing Philippe Ndinga still gets acquainted with his new surroundings.
“We look a bit unfortunate when we get sliced up by a through ball from Timo, but I thought other than that he was brave, he defended forwards, he had some good moments with the ball, he showed some composure in possession, and he’s really tough to play against so I thought he had a really good debut for us and he’ll continue to grow with us and Union II.” -Bradley Carnell
It was San Jose’s goalkeeper, Daniel, who would be crowned Man of the Match after his 3 save night at Subaru Park. The first came in the final moments of the opening half when a ball laid off by Danley Jean Jacques found the foot of Indiana Vassilev in the box, but his attempt was put right at Daniel, who palmed the ball away and got a helpful clearance on the rebound by his defender to keep things scoreless.
He came up big once again just on the other side of half-time, when a free-kick into the box by Milan Iloski found Nate Harriel at the back post, but his diving header on net was denied by a well-positioned Daniel.
Indiana Vassilev got another opportunity to unload a shot from the top of the 18-yard box in the late stages of the game, but his attempt was once again pushed away by the gloves of Daniel, keeping San Jose in the lead with time winding down for the Union.
In the 59th minute of the game, despite being outshot 13-7 by the Union, it was San Jose’s Ousseni Bouda who broke the deadlock after a dazzling assist by Timo Werner put the 25-year-old in on net.
Werner, who came into the game at the start of the 2nd half for his first appearance in Chester, PA, only needed 15 minutes on the pitch at Subaru Park before the Philadelphia Union were punished by another former Tottenham Hotspur player.
Twisting and turning his way out of pressure from fill-in CB Nate Harriel, Werner found the open space across the field and laid a through-ball into the penalty area that found Bouda in on net with MLS debutant Gio Sequera out of position.
Bouda one-touched Werner’s perfectly weighted ball on the net, beating Andre Blake to his right side and giving San Jose the 1-0 lead an hour into the match.
Bouda’s goal marks the 3rd straight game that the Union has conceded the first goal to start the MLS season.
“I think in a league of parity, each team has their way in certain moments in a season. We don’t get our way now in these first three games, but I’m optimistic and very sure in the near future we’ll turn this around. I don’t get the feeling that anything’s wrong, I’ve felt we’ve been very competitive in all 3 games, all 3 games have been very tightly fought and contested battles that we fell short on, but with each game is another game of knowledge and experience and things to work on” -Bradley Carnell
It’s a drastically different start to the season than the one we saw last year for the U. 3 consecutive losses to start the year, and just 1 goal scored during those 3 games - zero being scored from open play. That’s 270 minutes of MLS soccer without finding the back of the net from the run of play, NOT great.
But Bradley Carnell, who struggled in his 2nd season with St Louis and was sacked after a 3W-10D-7L start to his sophomore campaign with the club, says he and the team aren’t panicking yet and thinks this was the best performance the young team has put together so far.
“Can’t fault the boys for the performance, it’s just unfortunate that things aren’t going our way right now. But I thought this was by far our best performance of the 3 [first games of the season], which is a step in the right direction. But again, another tight margin game where we fall short. Boys are doing everything in their power to resolve it during the game, and we’re doing everything off the field to resolve it in practice, so I did see this as a really good performance, and unfortunately, we have nothing to show for it.” -Bradley Carnell
Bradley Carnell and the Union don’t have much time to sulk on this loss, as another big game is coming up at Subaru Park on Tuesday night as Liga MX’s Club América pays a visit to Chester in CONCACAF Champions Cup play.
If the Union hopes to keep things from sliding further, they'll need a positive performance on Tuesday night in front of what will likely be a large contingency of Club América fans at Subaru Park.
“We’re going to be ready for that game. It’s an exciting experience for everybody here; it’s going to be a very full stadium, and it’s going to be a very competitive match. It’s time to right the ship on Tuesday.” -Bradley Carnell
