Union Fall 6-0 at Pachuca in Worst Loss in Franchise History

The Philadelphia Union went down to Mexico in Concacaf Champions Cup (CCC) play tied with Pachuca 0-0 after the first leg. All Philly needed to do was find a way back to their roots; defend well as a unit, and nab an away goal to hold the tiebreaker. It was a bend-don’t-break situation; however, this Union side hellbent on “running it back” for a third year in a row faltered in their biggest moment of 2024 so far.

Union vs Pachuca Leg 2 recap

Philly‘s game plan for big games on the road, as it has been with this group of players for the past few seasons now, is to defend, defend, defend, and fight to convert a chance of their own. This was the plan heading into this match against Pachuca, but it failed almost from the opening whistle.

Pachuca came out flying; the top attacking team in Liga MX was at home in front of their ruckus crowd. Just four minutes in, Kai Wagner stepped on the foot of a Pachuca player and pushed him in the back inside Philly’s box. This led to a PK that Salomón Rondón smashed home. It was 1-0 in the 7th minute, but all Philadelphia needed to do was get reorganized and find a way to find opportunities to make the game tied at one apiece.

If Philly was able to hold Pachuca, and somehow grab a goal to make it 1-1, it would be the Union advancing to the quarterfinals thanks to the away goal tiebreaker. For 43 minutes Philly defended well enough to keep it at 1-0 but their attack faltered. Their lineup did not create the attacking sequences they liked. With Bedoya as the right shuttler and Sullivan as a second number 10, the right side of the field was clustered. There wasn’t a good option in the middle to allow the build-up to flow inside, and back outside.

nonetheless, it looked like Philadelphia was going to be down one at halftime. Then the defense that was bending, broke entirely. Pachuca’s interplay pulled Jakob Glesnes and Damion Lowe out of position all night; outside backs, Kai Wagner and Nate Harriel were always too far up the pitch when Pachuca attacked. Rondón played some smart passes with Sánchez at the Union’s 18-yard box and lasered his second goal of the match past Blake. It was 2-0 heading into halftime, and it would get much worse.

A historic loss

Being down 2-0 to start the second half, Philly needed a spark. They were hoping Julian Carranza would give them that spark. The Union brought on the striker but for defensive midfielder Jose Martinez. A lot of fans thought the logical change would be to bring on Carranza for Bedoya to move Sullivan to the right shuttler spot in midfield. This was not the case, Bedoya stayed in and shifted to defensive midfield, Sullivan back into midfield with Carranza up top. Down two goals, Philly needed the attack to do something, but they failed to do anything of consequence. Then it was 3-0 Pachuca.

In the 53rd minute, Rondón got his hat trick, just four minutes later Nelson Deossa made it 4-0. Three minutes after the hour mark, Oussama Idrissi made it 5-0. After the match, Jim Curtin said the attacking quality of Pachuca came alive and killed his team in the second half. That was the truth as they smelled blood in the water and attacked. They wanted to put this game away without any doubt and they did that.

The Union’s worst losses ever came when they conceded five goals, in the 85th minute of this match, Pachuca became the first-ever team to put six past Philly. Some nice passing saw Idrissi and Bautista toying with the Union defense. They walked the ball into the box with swift passing pulling defenders out of position, and Idrissi backheeled a pass to Bautista who smashed a shot past both centerbacks and Blake to make it 6-0.

The beatdown was complete, and Philly crashed out of the Concacaf Champions Cup. The team that was able to go on two runs to the semifinals in this competition in 2021 and 2023 fell at the Round of 16 stage this year. Some would say this downfall of the Union has been coming for a while now.

A not-so-surprising fall

Coming into this season, it was clear that the thought process of this team was to “run it back” for a third consecutive year. Ernst Tanner and Jim Curtin had created a competitive perennial top team in MLS by playing Moneyball. They won a trophy in a shortened 2020 season, were plagued by Covid in 2021 and fell a game short of MLS Cup, made it to MLS Cup in 2022 but agonizingly fell short of winning it, and then last year the team fell short in every competition they competed in failing to play for a trophy.

Philly has been close to winning a trophy in the last three seasons, but in those season’s they made no big signings to help get over the hump to win. When looking at the rest of MLS, you can see teams gearing up to try to get over that hump. Now especially with more consistent games against Liga MX (thanks to the creating Leagues Cup,) MLS sides need to be creative in their ways of getting the best players to compete for domestic and international trophies.

The Union has made no big signings other than re-signing key players already on the team over the last few seasons. They now have crashed out of the Concacaf Champions Cup earlier than ever before, and will not be allowed to play the US Open Cup thanks to MLS’s absurdly congested schedule they created. Philly’s only shot at trophies this year lies in the Supporters Shield (highly unlikely,) MLS Cup, and Leagues Cup.

The team does not feel constructed at this point to compete for any of these trophies. That is the ambition the club has stated they want to strive for, but they have not put that investment into the first team. Will this historic loss in the Concacaf Champions Cup finally be the wake-up call needed to foster change?

Where does Philadelphia go from here?

The Union is at a crossroads now. The work for the team on the field is clear; they get to focus on their league schedule now. Curtin and his men will get a more normal schedule to train to work on their problem areas on the field. Hopefully, they will figure some things out after this historic loss, and the not-so-great start to the season defensively. The work off the field needs to be done; but how will Tanner and Curtin be able to bring in new difference-makers?

As many pointed out after this loss, the main problem for this team has always been their inability to spend money on difference-making players. Majority Owner Jay Sugarman will take the blame for the way this team is constructed, and he should take that blame. He is the head of a team that is getting beat because they don’t want to splash some cash.

Philly has been “one attacking difference-maker away” from competing for and winning trophies according to pundits and fans across MLS. This is the consensus across the league, but ownership has not opened the wallet. I’m not trying to say that throwing cash at players is the only way to solve the issue, just look at Tai Baribo sitting on the bench. However, the mindset is the problem.

So where does the Union go from here? The fans are outraged at ownership of the product on the field; we saw this before years ago when Sons of Ben carried the club’s casket around Subaru Park calling for then-CEO Nick Sakiewicz to be fired. This eventually happened paving the way for the club’s success years later. Is it time that supporters demand that Sugarman sell the team to a more ambitious owner? Will that solve the problem? Either way, Philly has a lot to think about as they move past this historically bad period in club history.