When the MLS schedule for 2025 was released, May rose like a mountain in front of the Philadelphia Union.
Seven games were scheduled in a hectic month. Four were on the road, and the Union would hit June 1 having played more than half of its home games for the season.
Add in the potential of two U.S. Open Cup rounds, and May could be a ramp that the Union used to launch into the back half of the season or a hillside into which they crashed and burned.
It has decidedly proven to be the former.
The Union navigated the month unbeaten at 5-0-4 in all competitions. The 15 MLS points gained is fourth-most in a month in franchise history. The Union proved an ability to rotate their way through a heavy workload, to take care of business at home, to gut out away wins.
The reward is a spot atop the Eastern Conference as the league exhales for the start of the international summer and a spot in July’s U.S. Open quarterfinals, a reachable trophy for a club that has just one in its history.
So what did we learn about the Union last month? Plenty.
Baribo’s 2024 not a mirage
Tai Baribo waited 18 months to get his chance with the Union.
He scored six goals in his first nine starts starting last June, then nine in the Leagues Cup, then slowed as the Union slumped out of the playoffs. There’s a gulf between “100 minutes in 18 months” and “16 goals in 18 games” to forecast where Baribo might fall this year.
Now, a year on, he’s on 22 goals in 30 MLS starts. That’s a Golden Boot pace and he leads MLS with 13 goals.
He’s proving to be an elite scorer in this league, something that Union history indicates doesn’t grow on trees.
3 stories of development
The Union are all about development, which looks great in a coaching PowerPoint and means what exactly? Let the last month tell that tale.
Frankie Westfield led the Union in minutes in May. His ligaments are only 19 years old, so nothing special there.
His should-have-been game winner against Columbus aside, he’s been a stalwart in owning the right back spot, which has allowed Nate Harriel to spend most of the month in central defense.
Center back depth was going to be the limiting factor for the Union this year. They entered the season with one center back with MLS minutes, and that one looked old last year.
They’ve survived nine games with two of their four ostensible center backs — Ian Glavinovich and Neil Pierre — injured, yet coach Bradley Carnell has still managed to rest Jakob Glesnes sufficiently to keep him fresh.
Harriel is a big reason why, excelling as an undersized center back with his defensive abilities and speed, earning a call to the U.S. national team. Westfield’s emergence helped make it possible.
The other developmental story is Andrew Rick. The Union missed the playoffs in 2024 because injuries limited Andre Blake to 13 starts. Backup Oliver Semmle wasn’t up to snuff. Rick was thrust into duty at age 18. He looked like a kid getting roughed up by his big brother’s friends.
Last year, he allowed 12 goals on 10.9 xG. This year, he’s allowed eight goals on an xG of 8. Being even on xG puts him 31st out of 53 MLS goalies. That’s fine, it’s improvement and it keeps the Union in games.
What is sustainable from midfield?
Jovan Lukic and Danley Jean Jacques have eight combined goal contributions, plus a goal each in the Open Cup. That’s high production from the back two in the Union’s 4-2-2-2.
Jean Jacques in particular has been outstanding, perhaps unsustainably so.
The flipside is that Quinn Sullivan has scored just twice in the first half, with seven assists and a deserved call by the United States.
Even if you bet the under on Lukic/Jean Jacques production for the second half, you would venture on the over for Sullivan, who had five goals and 11 assists last year. That should about even out, especially if the Union wring some production from the other No. 10. More on that later.
Seeds of worry on Bruno Damiani
In 2018, Borek Dockal had one goal and one assist in his first eight games. In the last 24, he accumulated four goals and 17 assists.
Daniel Gazdag signed in May 2021. In his first 20 games, he had one goal and three assists. He would score 22 goals the following season and 53 in his first three full seasons.
A slow start is no guarantee of lasting frustration. That said …
Bruno Damiani has played 796 minutes, not enough to render a verdict but enough to be concerned.
He has generated 6.0 xG, but has scored twice. He also scored a get-him-going penalty against Pittsburgh in the Open Cup that did not get him going.
A one-note attack with just Baribo firing is not enough. Especially since …
Ceiling on this team lower post-Gazdag
The least generous reading of May is this: The Union beat a bad Montreal, a beat-up Galaxy, a flailing Atlanta, a bad Toronto and drew at a bad Dallas. Against good teams, the Union managed only draws at home — Columbus and Inter Miami — albeit ones in which they outplayed the visitors and were undone by late equalizers.
The volume of results is more than the product of an easy schedule. It is a good team beating up on inferior sides. However …
The Union missed four big chances, as scored by FotMob, in letting Miami off the hook and four in not punishing 10-man Dallas.
They are not as good of a team without Gazdag, and unless the $4 million he was sold for is reinvested in the club this summer — or, more likely, achieves sentience and can suit up — they will not reach the same level without him.
Gazdag had two goals and two assists in 498 minutes this season. His replacements — Indiana Vassilev, Ben Bender, Cavan Sullivan — have a goal and three assists in 1,060 minutes.
The Union are atop the Eastern Conference because they’re playing at a high level more often than anyone in the East. But their highest level remains below that of several others in the conference.
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com.
Source: Berkshire mont