Happy First Day of 2025!

In the email today:

1. 🦝 The Year of the Raccoon is Over

That a raccoon nicknamed Raquinho was one of the biggest stories of the 2024 Philadelphia Union season says just about everything you need to know about how the year that is now mercilessly behind us transpired.

Unfortunately for the Union faithful, the headline to Hunter Firment’s wonderful recap of the game that mid-May evening turned out to be a harbinger of things to come: “Slow start, elusive raccoon too much to overcome as Union drop fourth straight at home.”

Everything that the Union had gradually built - minus the un-ending hype around their academy - seemed to crumble in 2024. Their once stingy defense sprung multiple leaks and the building where they so seldom lost became a place opponents wanted to play. Jakob Glesnes own goals, Oliver Semmle chips, the 3-1 lead that wasn’t safe in Chicago and that damn bell that wouldn’t stop ringing at Saputo made the season almost unlike any other before.

You can blame it on Jim Curtin wearing a suit again or Union Yards opening on Reaney Street - Ernst Tanner and Jay Sugarman ultimately put all of the blame on Curtin in firing him - but there were a number of factors that went into the Union’s no good, terrible season.

From his playing days to his early struggles as a manager, Curtin learned many a valuable lesson in how quickly MLS can humble teams and while he was always quick to point out how inevitable failure is in this goofy league we call top flight he was the casualty of his own success that set the bar higher than an ownership group was willing to fully fund.

As we await the official announcement of Bradley Carnell or some other student of the Red Bull Way to be announced with preseason days from starting it’s easy to be Negadelphia about things but in the same way “running it back” was a bad idea in 2023 getting too high or too low about anything MLS is generally a fool’s errand.

It’s hubristic to think that replacing the manager and a veteran center back with a successor who is already behind the 8-ball and a South American prospect is enough to right the wrongs of 2024 but it’s also short-sighted to think that replacing the manager and making a few more smart signings isn’t enough to compete.

Realistically, the Union have a better chance of winning a trophy in 2025 than they did in 2024 simply because they are more likely to compete in the U.S. Open Cup and the guy who seemed to be cursed from winning it is waiting for the opportunity to go to the club where he’ll win his first MLS Cup. They also don’t have Champions Cup or (it looks like) Leagues Cup to weigh them down.

Beware the team with everything to prove and nothing but MLS and the Open Cup to do it.

2. Top Stories, Favorite Photos & More

While the Union were a disappointment in 2024, there was plenty of local soccer to keep busy with and celebrate.

Photographers Carl Gulbish, Don Robson, Mikey DeAngelis, Chris Coletti and yours truly captured a lot of great moments in 2024 collected in the video below. Tim Lutz also recapped some of the year’s top stories in the short video that follows.

Look for more rewind content and year-end awards coming soon on Philadelphia Soccer Now.

3. 🐍 Tweet of the Day: Union Fans

4. 💧 Water Cooler: Favorite Storyline

While the lowlights were all too plentiful (two midfield goals, own goal bookends, Chicago and Montreal disaster classes, Pachuca Pain, etc.) and personally gut-wrenching (the death of Holden Trent), there were still some highlights from the Philadelphia Union season.

The two biggest stories were unrelated to performance (Raquinho and Cavan) and most of the fun was being had by Philadelphia Union II in the third division but there was a time when the Union were the last unbeaten team left in MLS, Tai Baribo emerged as a real goal-scoring threat and beating Red Bull away simply never gets old.

5. 🔗 Link Roundup

• Philadelphia Soccer Now is still accepting nominations this week for year-end awards. Look for an announcement and coverage of the awards this week.

• West Chester United and Christos FC kicked off their third annual Pro Combine last weekend at YSC Sports and paid tribute to the memory of their former coach Roger Tucker, the father of Philadelphia Union II midfielder Kyle Tucker.

• Todd Lewis of The Free Kick breaks down of his goals of 2024 in his latest video.

• Jillian Almoney of The One Team We Agree On shared her and readers’ highs and lows from 2024.

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