Twenty-one days later the Philadelphia Union and Seattle Sounders will retake the field at Subaru Park tonight to continue a game that was suspended by heavy rain on an unplayable pitch in the sixth minute. In a season that has already had several twists and turns this will be one of the more unique matches in team history.

In the email today:

1. 🪤 Processing Another Home Loss

Processing what transpired in Chester last night earlier this morning I found myself going into my large brain catalog of memorized lyrics and came upon one from the band Foxygen:

“Well, that was weird.”

Dreadful first 45, promising stoppage time followed by two minutes of pure bliss, the crowning of a new Philadelphia Union goal-scoring record holder and a pesky crossbar determined to make Andrew Thomas look like a Man of the Match.

In the end the Philadelphia Union didn’t deserve to win but they didn’t exactly send fans screaming for the exits either (minus maybe that really loud screamer that was picked up on the MLS Season Pass broadcast). The attack that has been so fun to watch in spells this season and that almost Monty Python-esque “a mere flesh wound” failure to quit showed up with the Union down three goals and they very nearly pulled it off.

The fact that they didn’t and essentially handed the Seattle Sounders their first road victory and second win of the season still stings but as I realized writing my recap last night DC United is often the cure all for the Union’s woes. Nevermind that it’s on the road, a complete performance as they’ve been known to have against their conference rivals would go a long way in proving this two-game losing streak is merely a blip.

That the Union can lose to a bottom of the table team at home in April and still make a legitimate return to the MLS Cup final is the dichotomy we have to live with as fans of an MLS team. MLS isn’t about being the best; it’s about being the best when it matters most (and that’s not during the month off for Leagues Cup).

Yes, there’s reason for concern seeing that the Union have already conceded more than half the number of goals they let up in 2022 but that season was always going to be an outlier. As long as Gazdag and company keep firing the way they are this team will continue to be a team no one wants to see line up against them when the leaves start to change colors.

2. 🏆 Dániel Gazdag Stands Alone

57th goal in the 57th minute. With his head.

That’s how Dániel Gazdag passed Sebastien Le Toux to become the all-time Philadelphia Union goal scoring record holder last night in a game that tested the patience of even the most Posedelphia of fans.

Le Toux was on the local radio call with Dave Leno for the match. He does still lead Gazdag by four goals in MLS league play (50-46) but that record likely won’t hold for long either.

3. ☝️Tweet of the Day: Look Up

4. 💧 Water Cooler: Gazdag Record Breaker Results

Re-running this to point out that it was dumb not to include header in the poll and that whoever had other probably deserves credit.

5. 🔗 Link Roundup

• Does some weird cryptic social media post from a player always have to show up when the Union lose or is that they don’t do it often enough for it to be a trend?

• Brian White, who won a GA Cup with Jim Curtin as coach of the Union U17 team back in 2012, recently became the all-time leading goal-scorer for the MLS era Vancouver Whitecaps.

• The Philadelphia Soccer Now recap of last night. And the Sounder at Heart one.

• Free pickups are happening on weeknights at the WSFS Bank Sportsplex by Subaru Park in Chester. Join the Meetup group for updates.

• If you are interested in local lower level soccer and fan culture there’s a newsletter launching soon called For the Love. Subscribe at forthelove.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

Celebrate Philadelphia Soccer heritage with shirts available at OldSchoolShirts.com.

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