Breaking down the Philadelphia Union’s 2025 Schedule

The Philadelphia Union begins its 2025 MLS campaign this coming Saturday. The club will be on the road in Orlando to start the season before returning to Subaru Park for their home opener, taking on FC Cincinnati on March 1st. Let’s take a look at the schedule and break it all down!

Philadelphia Union’s 2025 Schedule

Like many of the last few MLS seasons, the Philadelphia Union will play every Eastern Conference team twice. That makes up 28 of their 34-game schedule. The other six matches are against Western Conference opponents; this year, those teams are St. Louis City, LA Galaxy, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Colorado Rapids, and Vancouver Whitecaps. For more facts on each individual matchup, checkout our article from when the schedule first dropped back in December:

When looking at the 34-game MLS season, it can be broken down into three main stretches. The first 12 matches usually will set the tone for a season, the middle 12 solidify a team’s status throughout the year, and the final 10 game-stretch defines the season for clubs. Looking at it this way for the Philadelphia Union in 2025, there is a pathway for this team to realize their expectations of starting a rebuild while also being a playoff-caliber team. Let’s expand on that.

7 of the first 12 matches are at home

Philly will play seven of its first 12 matches at Subaru Park. Six of those matches are against Eastern Conference teams, and only four of those teams made the playoffs a year ago. With 21 possible points up for the taking there, the Union will need to show well to set the tone to start the year.

Their away games in this stretch all come against Eastern Conference opponents, and four of those five games are against teams that were playoff teams in 2024. While being a playoff team a year ago doesn’t necessarily make for a tougher challenge, Philly has its work cut out for it early in the season on the road.

The first 12 matches of the season see the Union take on mostly successful Eastern Conference teams from a year ago, but more than half of those games are at home. These tone-setting spring-setting games will tell us what type of Union we will likely see in 2025.

A midseason gauntlet vs mainly playoff teams from a year ago

The middle of an MLS season is when things pick up. The midweek matches come into play as the calendar moves from spring to summer. For the Union, this stretch is defined by playing mainly playoff teams from a year ago and playing three of their six Western Conference opponents.

Philly plays four matches on Wednesday and eight-weekend matches over nine weeks in what will be the gauntlet of the season. During this time, the Union plays eight playoff teams from a year ago, including MLS Cup champs LA Galaxy and Messi and friends from Miami. In addition to playing LA Galaxy, Philadelphia will go on the road to play both Dallas and Houston.

At this point in the season, the Union will have played 24 matches. With only 10 left in their MLS campaign, we will really know how Philly fares in MLS. Will they be fighting for a playoff spot or making the improbable jump to being one of the top teams in the league?

The final 10 matches will define the season

The last 10 matches of an MLS season define it. Philly has an even split of five home and five away matches. They play eight teams from the east and the final two teams from the west. Six of the 10 teams made the playoffs last year, so the road will be tough.

Will this version of the Philadelphia Union have enough players to play above and beyond to compete with other teams spending more money than them? By this point of the season, we will know the answer to that question.

The way this roster is constructed at this point should be enough to make it into a top-10 spot in the Eastern Conference; however, MLS is always unpredictable. The team’s ability early in the season will likely set the club’s ambition in the later stages of the year. Luckily, the first ball will be kicked this coming Saturday, and we can put all of this speculation behind us and watch to see how things play out!

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Featured Image Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images