Union concede two golazos in 2-0 loss to Inter Miami

On Saturday night, the Philadelphia Union took on Inter Miami down in south Florida at the DRV PNK Stadium. The match was similar to the opener for Philly. They started slow and conceded an uncharacteristic goal in the first half. The only difference between week one and week two was that the Union failed to take their chances to get back into the match. It took two golazos to beat Philadelphia on matchday two, but the real story lies in how Miami made Philly uncomfortable for 90 minutes.

A match to forget early in the Union’s MLS campaign

The Union rolled out the same starting eleven as they did in the opener against Columbus, which may have come as a surprise due to their upcoming Concacaf Champions League (CCL) match on Tuesday. Inter Miami also rolled out the same starting eleven as they did from their 2-0 win over CF Montreal.

Philly’s use of the same starting eleven from matchday one was an interesting choice by Jim Curtin. His side looked outclassed on the night, rather than dominant. Phil Neville’s Inter Miami side produced two spectacular goals from striker Corentin Jean and midfielder Robert Taylor to knock off the Union, who fell to 1-0-1 on the season with the 2-0 defeat.

Even though the Union was able to develop a few shots and some decent chances, they were not able to put any of those chances past Inter Miami goalie Drake Callender. Callender finished the night with four saves, and he had an overall great game in net.

A Slow start, and missed opportunities, turns into a road loss

One of the most important factors to look at from this game was the fact that the Union opened the match slowly just like they did against the Columbus Crew last weekend. But unlike the last match, Philadelphia was not able to bounce back from the rough start, and instead just looked slow the entire match.

From what everyone could tell, Philly did not seem like their normal selves on matchday two, and Jim Curtin expressed that in his press conference by saying:

“We’re disappointed with tonight’s performance. It wasn’t us, it wasn’t a Philadelphia Union performance but the good news is we have a quick turnaround and we get to go again on Tuesday.”
Head Coach Jim Curtin

As it showed against Inter Miami, starting slow could affect the whole match, causing the team to not have a “Philadelphia Union performance,” as Jim Curtin would call it. The credit for this has to go to Inter Miami as they made it very difficult for Philly to expose them on counterattacks.

After going up they clogged the midfield and wide areas the Union loves to exploit. This frustrated Philly and led to them missing the few chances that did fall to them. Curtin and his coaching staff will definitely want to fix this issue for the upcoming matches for this week.

A quick turnaround to Concacaf Champions League (CCL)

Matchday two was an extremely poor performance by Philadelphia, but as Jim Curtin says, they will need to have a quick turnaround. Philadelphia will face Alianza in the first leg of the Round of 16 in the Concacaf Champions League (CCL) on Tuesday at 8:00 PM. This will be the Union’s first appearance in CCL since 2021, where they ended up losing in the semifinals against Club America by an aggregate score of 4-0.

Alianza will be returning to CCL for the first time since 2020, where they lost in the Round of 16 to eventual champions Tigres. Overall, your Philadelphia Union will have two important matches this week, one being Tuesday away against Alianza and the other being next Saturday back at home against the new look Chicago Fire.