A beautiful and sunny March afternoon at Subaru Park was quickly turned to gray skies as Tayvon Gray’s 99th-minute winner handed Philadelphia Union a late 2-1 loss in the team’s MLS home opener, their 2nd consecutive to start the 2026 season.
After starting last season 3-0 and winning the Supporters’ Shield in year 1 under Bradley Carnell, the Union has now lost the first two games of the season for the 1st time dating back to 2019 in Carnell’s 2nd season in charge. Coincidentally, 2019 is also the last season the Union failed to score from open play through the first 2 games of the year.
“If you look at all our chances today in transition that we created, all the moments we’ve had, all the shots we took, I think it’s just about getting that sort of chemistry, I thought there was some nice transitional moments out there, and just that final pass, the final execution, but I thought it was way better than it was in DC and I didn’t see that as the major problem today” - Bradley Carnell on failing to score from open play.
NYCFC’s Hannes Wolf opened the scoring in the 36th minute when a rebound from an Andre Blake save was left unattended in the middle of the penalty area. The play originated down Union’s right flank, where Bradley Carnell started Frankie Westfield and not the usual Nathan Harriel, who was playing out on the left.
NYCFC worked through Union’s high press with a number of quick passes and really opened things up with a flick that beat Japhet Sery Larsen just behind the midfield line and pulled Union’s backline out of position. Nicolás Fernández’s shot on net was palmed away by Andre Blake, but the rebound was left at the top of the 6-yard box with no one but Hannes Wolf to get to it. 1-0 NYCFC before half-time.
Down 1-0 at home in the early stages of the season, Ben Bender and Stas Korzeniowski were the first two names off the bench for Bradley Carnell’s side on Sunday night. Korzeniowski, a U-Penn graduate and Union II promotee, made an immediate impact off the bench with his size and presence in the box.
Just after coming on, Korzeniowski forced former Union goalkeeper Matt Freese into one of his 3 saves after Milan Iloksi sent the 6'4" striker in on net with a flick over the defense. In the 76th minute, Korzeniowski just missed leveling the game with a glancing header that surprised Freese but skidded off the post and out of play. A few moments later, Stas’ strong play in the box presented Nate Harriel with an opportunity to level the game, but Matt Freese once again made a strong save against his former team to keep NYCFC up 1-0.
Korzeniowski’s physical presence finally paid off for the U late in the game when a ball played into the box from Makhanya found him with a defender on his back. With his back to goal and the ball coming to his feet, Korzeniowksi was dragged down by Thiago Martins and was immediately awarded a Penalty by referee Chris Penso.
“I think everyone can see what he can contribute. I think everyone can see what he brings to the table. He’s really difficult to play against. He uses his body really well. He’s pretty savvy with his decision-making, and he’s worked his socks off. He came into pre-season really sharp, really healthy, really fit, and that gave him a jump over other guys, and the rewards start to come with him and you can see, the more confidence he gets, the more exposure he gets, the more minutes he gets - he plays a real contribution here tonight and it’s just unfortunate with all the effort that we don’t earn at least a tie.” - Bradley Carnell on Stas Korzeniowksi.
Indiana Vassilev stepped up to take the PK with a number of Union’s primary penalty takers already off the pitch, and made no mistake with the opportunity presented to him by his teammates with a blast right down the middle that sent Matt Freese the wrong way. His first goal of 2026, Union’s first goal in MLS play, and an important equalizer at home just before the 90th minute.
With a level game and 10 minutes of stoppage time awarded by the referee, the Subaru Park crowd was finally making noise and pushing their team to find a late winner at home, but all of that momentum was sucked out of the building when Olwethu Makhanya was shown a second yellow and was sent off by Chris Penso for dissent following what the centre back believed to be a missed call from the referee.
Makhanya’s sending off is the 2nd of its kind for the Union in the early stages of the MLS season after Philadelphia’s record signing Ezekiel Alladoh was shown red against DC in matchweek 1 for “offensive, insulting, abusive language/actions” against his opponent, per WTOP’s José Mauricio Umaña reporting.
“There is a little bit to say about veterans trying to lead the younger guys, but I also think there comes a stage where maturity comes into play, and we had a red card last week due to the same reasons, and it really should be that one red card and everyone learns from it…Makhanya knows better. I think he’s a fantastic player who is very, very important for us, and I happen to be close with him. He’s going to learn from it, and he’ll be fine.” - Indiana Vassilev on Olwethu Makhanya’s red card.
With the man advantage, it was NYCFC’s Tayvon Gray who found the game-winner in the 99th minute to steal all 3 points away from the Union in their MLS home opener. Agustin Ojeda whipped a dangerous right-footed ball into the penalty area that found the head of Tayvon Gray, being marked by makeshift left back Ben Bender, who beat Andre Blake in the dying moments of the game to hand Union their 2nd consecutive loss.
So here we are, 2 games into the MLS season and zero points to show for it, the season after winning the Supporters’ Shield and selling 3 MLS all-stars and a number of other important names to last year's success in the off-season. Is this team just not good? Or is this a case where they’re just not good yet?
If you listen to Bradley Carnell and the players inside the locker room, the feeling is that this team needs time to gel together, and that a lack of offensive creation - and failing to score from open play - wasn’t the main problem in Sunday night’s game and will come to them eventually.
“There will always be a demand for results, that’s the nature of high performance competition, but I’m extremely optimistic and I feel really good about the group, and while some pieces may have been lost, some have been gained and there’s a lot of familiar faces in the locker room still that were apart of that spectacular season last year and I see no reason why we can’t emulate that” - Stas Korzeniowksi.
“I hate saying I think we did enough, but I think we created enough turnovers today, we just need to be better with the turnovers and I’ll be the first to put my hand up…there was like 4 or 5 chances where we do turn the ball over but we just need to be cleaner with that turnovers, that’s what made us good last year, we were clinical.” - Indiana Vassilev.
And while it’s hard to go through change and the growing pains that come with them, I think Union fans should at least wait until Game 10 of the MLS season to truly judge what this team is capable of. Give them time to gel, give them time to find chemistry, give them time to figure out how to work together in a way that highlights everyone’s game to the best potential. And after game 10, if the Union still looks bad - just remember that 60% of the league’s teams qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs because…It's Major League Soccer.
“We know there’s quite a bit of work to do, we know we’re not quite where we need to be, and it’s totally understandable, but it’s no excuses either. Obviously, the team’s not happy, and a lot of it is self-inflicted - over the last 2 weeks, 2 red cards in 2 games, and when one guy is disconnected, and one red card happens, then we’ve created a mountain ourselves to climb. We have a young, hungry squad and sometimes the moment gets to us a little bit, and we have to learn, we have to grow, and we have to have these experiences, and some guys have to step up a little bit in their leadership, in their composure.” - Badley Carnell on losing the opening 2 games of the season.
GK: Blake
RB: Westfield, CB: Sery, CB: Makhanya, LB: Harriel
CDM: Danley, CDM: Lukic
CAM: Vassilev, CAM: Anello
ST: Iloski, ST: Damiani
59th - Ben Bender -> Frankie Westfield
59th - Stas Korzeniowski -> Agustin Anello
83rd - Cavan Sullivan -> Milan Iloski
83rd - Sal Olivias -> Bruno Damiani
90th - Geiner Martinez -> Indiana Vassilev
36th - Hannes Wolf (unassisted)
89th - Indiana Vassilev (PK)
99th - Tayvon Gray (Agustin Ojeda, Talles Magno)
March 7th vs San Jose Earthquakes (2W-0D-0L) - Subaru Park @ 7:30pm
