5 Things to Watch Ahead of Philadelphia Union vs San Jose Earthquakes

Last time out the Philadelphia Union fought their way back from behind to beat CF Montreal 2-1, even after going down to 10 men after Julian Carranza’s red card. This time out they’re up against San Jose Earthquakes at Subaru Park in what I consider a game they should take all 3 points. Let’s take a look at 5 things to watch heading into Saturday’s game.

5 Things to Watch

Mikael Uhre Set for Full Debut

Record signing Mikael Uhre made his debut for the Union against CF Montreal when he replaced Sergio Santos in the 68^th minute and I’m pretty sure everyone agrees that it’s dead set for Uhre to make his full Union debut in front of the Union faithful on Saturday.

I wasn’t expecting Uhre to really show much when he made his substitute appearance in the Montreal game, especially after Carranza’s red card a few minutes after Uhre entered the field of play. However, he really showed his quality in those 20 minutes, constantly found himself breaking through Montreal’s defense, and could argue he should have scored both times he got through.

It won’t be the be-all and end-all if Uhre doesn’t shine in his first full game for the Union, that should be obvious, but I really do believe Uhre has a good chance of scoring at least once on Saturday because San Jose’s defense really isn’t all that.

Earthquakes Tough to Examine

As you may know, if you’ve been reading any of my pieces so far this season, I like to get into the nitty and gritty of the Union’s opposition tactical setup but the Earthquakes have thrown a curveball. Usually, a team has a set formation and system they like to play and they’ll stick with it, well San Jose pretty much does the opposite.

Going through their match history they played a 4-2-3-1 in their heroic 3-3 draw against The Crew but played a 3-4-3 in their season opener against NYRB. Going back to the last 3 games last season, they played 4-2-3-1, 4-1-3-2, 4-2-3-1. It’s most likely the Earthquakes go with a 4-2-3-1 system but the unpredictability behind their system and formation could pose a weird threat to the Union given they can’t train on specific ways to break down their ways of playing.

San Jose’s Key Players

In my opinion, San Jose has currently had two standout players in the opening two games of the season, those are central defender Francisco Calvo, and central midfielder Jan Gregus. While San Jose has struggled defensively to start the season, allowing 3 goals in both of their opening two games, Calvo has impressed with his overall defensive play and he also got two goals in the heroic 3-3 Columbus draw last weekend, including the 96th-minute equalizer. Calvo will be the main issue for Uhre if he wants to score on his home and full debut.

Jan Gregus on the other hand has been very impressive in every aspect of the game for San Jose this season. He added two assists to his name during the Columbus draw and overall, just has been the guy to control the game for the Earthquakes. He’ll be the one that will challenge Gazdag when the Union is pushing forward and the one who will cause Martinez headaches when San Jose attacks. Winger Cristian Espinoza also deserves a very honorable mention.

Composure Will be Key for the Union

I said it in my preview for the CF Montreal game and I was hoping I would be speaking about it in a different light after that game but unfortunately, I didn’t see a big enough change with the composure of the Union players when on the ball. Wagner once again shined for me in the Montreal game, and some others did too, Harriel seemed to be an improvement over Mbaizo but there was still a lack of composure from the team when they found a spell of possession.

67% pass accuracy as a team against Montreal, a drop from the average 74% in the season opener against Minnesota and that needs to improve if the Union are to control games and show the quality they have going forward. We’ve seen flashes of this in both games, especially the ten-minute period around the two quickfire goals against Montreal, but they need to now consistently do that and this game is the perfect chance to do so, given the lack of true quality in the San Jose team

No Miro Return

The Union made a few big moves in the offseason, notably the signings of both Julian Carranza and Mikael Uhre, but there was a major departure in the sale of Jamiro Monteiro to the San Jose Earthquakes. Miro had been a huge part of the Union’s style of play and a consistent starter in a Union shirt, but with the move to a 4-1-2-1-2 his services weren’t required and the Union moved him on.

Fans were excited to see Miro return to Philadelphia this weekend as an opposition player, some so they could properly say goodbye whilst others love to just ridicule a former player (I’m definitely the second one) but unfortunately, Miro will not be playing in the game at the weekend because he was sent off in San Jose’s 3-3 draw with Columbus Crew, so here’s hoping we all see Miro down the road.