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Happy Friday, friends. Hopefully you’ve cleansed your feed from the annual tradition of April Fools content (I do highly recommend the Duolingo cruise ad, however) and are ready for the first weekend of April and the return visit from an Orlando City team the Philadelphia Union opened the season against in an entertaining 4-2 win.

In the email today:

1. 🎬 Orlando Again Already

The Philadelphia Union are back home tomorrow to face Orlando City for a second time this season. As they showed in their six-goal game Feb. 22 to open the MLS season, both the Union and the Lions are not having much trouble scoring goals.

Orlando leads the league with 15 goals while the Union are tied for second (with Chicago Fire!) with 13 goals in their favor. Marco Pašalić, who had a brace against the Union, is tied for the team lead with 4 goals with Martín Ojeda, while Tai Baribo - the reigning MLS Player of the Month - leads the Union and the league with six goals despite not finding the back of the net the last two matches.

"They are very creative and very dangerous in the final third,” Carnell said of Orlando. "I think Pašalić, [Iván] Angullo -- these guys, they're really tough to stop if you give them time and space. So that's going to be the order of the day,"

Kai Wagner, who missed the game in Fort Lauderdale, is still questionable, according to head coach Bradley Carnell, but the rest of the team should be available for selection. It will be interesting to watch if Carnell makes any additional changes to the starting XI, something he didn’t do the first four games of the season prior to the international break.

His philosophy, which he talked about in detail on Thursday, is to plug and play - emphasizing performance in training with a payoff from earning a start - and showed against Inter Miami he is willing to swap Indiana Vassilev for Jovan Lukic at halftime and sub in fresh legs at the forward position in order to up the tempo and intensity. Theoretically this means we could see Olwethu Makhanya back in the starting XI, Bruno Damiani in the starting lineup or Vassilev getting big minutes either starting or off the bench.

While it’s obvious to everyone - Orlando City especially - how the Union are going to play under Carnell, the wrinkles in how he lines his team up and tweaks he makes utilizing his bench do add an element of unpredictability and an understanding that there’s a commitment to putting opponents under and making them uncomfortable through the full 90 minutes.

While the score line didn’t necessarily show it, Orlando jumped on the Union early and looked the better side before their own defensive sloppiness and passiveness turned the game upside down in the Union’s favor. The rematch promises to be an entertaining affair.

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2. 🎂 15 Years, 15 Union Players

By Evan Cohen

Last week marked the 15-year anniversary of Major League Soccer officially beginning in Philadelphia. A 2-0 loss in Seattle may not be the most memorable outing 15 years later, but it felt like a good opportunity to dive back into the club’s archives. With the help of some Philadelphia Soccer Now colleagues, I put together a list of the 15 most influential players in Union history. There is no fundamental metric for this outside of our own opinions; however, I analyzed a few basic stats like appearances, goals, and time spent at the club to help round out the list. Without further introduction, here are the 15 most influential players who wore the blue and gold in chronological order.

Read about the rationale each on the website.

1 – Danny Califf
2 – Sébastien Le Toux
3 – Sheanon Williams
4 – Brian Carroll
5 – Ray Gaddis
6 – Andre Blake
7 – Alejandro Bedoya
8 – Ilsinho
9 – Jack Elliott
10 – Mark McKenzie
11 – Brenden Aaronson
12 – Kai Wagner
13 – Jakob Glesnes
14 – Dániel Gazdag
15 – Julián Carranza

3. ⚾️ Social Post of the Day: NYC on Deck

4. 💧 Water Cooler: Player Ratings Result

5. 🔗 Link Roundup

• Delran, N.J. native Peter Vermes is out at Sporting Kansas City after a dreadful start to the season. It’s the end of an era in Kansas City and in MLS.

• Jillian and Kyle of The One Team We Agree On caught up with Union II goalkeeper and Widener goalkeeper coach Mike Sheridan.

• Harrisburg Heat ended the season on a sour note, wrapping up the MASL wooden spoon.

• La Salle and St. Joe’s lead their respective groups with the final group games this weekend in the Philly Soccer 6 Cup.

• WC Predators showed little wear and tear from a gauntlet of matches, blowing out Alloy SC last Friday in a battle of the top two teams in the APSL Delaware River Conference. Oaklyn United, meanwhile, overcame an early red card and scored a late equalizer to pick up a key point in the playoff race.

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