MLS Mix 26: In Philadelphia, two failures find success.
Little was expected of the Philadelphia Union this year. On Saturday, an unfancied team was crowned Supporters' Shield champions.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday night, Bradley Carnell tried to sum up his first season with the Philadelphia Union, nine months on from his appointment as head coach.
“It was this combination of, I would say, two failures,” he explained.
Now, the impression is very different. Carnell was talking from a jubilant Subaru Park, having just seen his Union team wrap up the Supporters’ Shield with one game still to play. The Supporters’ Shield - awarded to the team with the most regular season points - is probably the MLS’ best gauge of consistent quality and the 2025 Philadelphia Union are worthy winners. But when the season kicked off in late February, few expected them to be challenging at the top of the table.
Both Carnell and the Union had endured chastening experiences in 2024. Carnell had been unceremoniously sacked by St. Louis City, less than a year after guiding the team to the top of the Western Conference. Philadelphia, meanwhile, finished the season outside of the playoff places for the first time since 2017. The club hierarchy decided that drastic action was needed and fired legendary head coach Jim Curtin after 11 years at the helm.
Failures unite
Replacing a long-serving manager is rarely easy and Carnell was a brave choice to step into Curtin’s sizable footprints. With just one full season as a head coach under his belt, Carnell was taking charge of the Union in a moment of flux.
The new man was tasked with revamping a team that had made it to MLS Cup just two years earlier. But any hopes of building from a position of strength quickly evaporated as young USMNT midfielder Jack McGlynn was sold to Houston Dynamo and all-time record goalscorer Daniel Gazdag was allowed to leave for Columbus Crew. After those exits the Union was left with the 7th-lowest wage bill of the 30 MLS teams, a squad that could realistically be expected to be scrapping around in mid-table.
But against the odds a failing team with a failing manager (his words - not mine) combined to put together an incredible regular season performance that ends with a Supporters’ Shield title.
Most impressively, they have done so without any real stars. With one game remaining there are no Union players in the top five for MLS goals or assists. There are, realistically, no MVP candidates in this Philadelphia squad. They don’t have the individual talents of FC Cincinnati. Or a goalscoring duo to match Nashville or LAFC. They certainly can’t call on the greatest player of all time to bail them out of tough spots, as Inter Miami frequently do.
They may not have the highest ceiling but this Philadelphia team is built with a very high floor, constructed on sturdy foundations. They have the best defensive record in MLS and have put weaker teams to the sword with unerring consistency.
In ten games against the Eastern Conference’s bottom five, Philadelphia have won nine and drawn one, swatting them aside with a ruthlessness that is rarely seen in MLS. Philadelphia have squeezed every drop of talent out of a well-constructed squad and now find themselves in a position to challenge for a first-ever MLS Cup championship.
Can Philadelphia go all the way?
Winning the Supporters’ Shield is a major achievement but Saturday’s celebrations will not have lasted for long. Attention swiftly turns to the all-important playoffs, where the No. 1 seed Union will have home advantage all the way to MLS Cup, if they make it.
However historical evidence suggests that it will not be easy. Philadelphia are looking to become only the fifth team in 20 years to win both the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup in the same season. In fact, two of the last five Shield winners were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, while only one has gone on to win MLS Cup.
Last year’s Inter Miami were a prime example. They cruised through the regular season, setting a new MLS points record in the process, only to be dumped from the playoffs by lowly Atlanta United in round one.
So are Philadelphia going to be the next team to suffer that fate, another regular season champion humbled by the chaos of playoff competition? No matter what they achieve from this point on, they have already proved one of soccer’s great truisms.
There are, essentially, no bad players, nor bad coaches; simply players and coaches in the wrong context. The Philadelphia team that topped the Eastern Conference in 2022 was remarkably similar to the one that finished 12th two years later. The Bradley Carnell that was sacked last year was the same one being showered with celebratory Gatorade last weekend, lifting the Supporters’ Shield with his team.
Fortunes change, nothing lasts forever. Two failures have combined and found success.