On Wednesday night, the Philadelphia Union will face Liga MX giants Club América in the 2nd leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup Round of 16 in Mexico City, with their backs against the wall.
After losing the first leg by a score of 1-0 thanks to a Raphael Vega goal on the banks of the Delaware River at Subaru Park, the Blue and Gold will have to go down to Mexico and defeat Club America while scoring multiple goals in order to punch their ticket to the CCC Quarterfinal.
Union fans come into Wednesday’s pivotal second leg with what might be the lowest amount of confidence they’ve had in their team since Bradley Carnell took over before the 2025 season. After losing 3-1 in Atlanta this past weekend, the Union have lost their previous 4 matches across all competitions and have lost their opening four MLS matches for the first time in club history. During that span, the Blue and Gold have managed to score just one goal from the run of play - a garbage-time goal for Agustin Anello in the weekend’s loss to the 5 Stripes in the ATL.
Club América comes into Wednesday’s match with three wins on the bounce, coming against Querétaro, your Philadelphia Union, and Mazaltán in that order, outscoring their opponents 5-1 during that span. It’s a good response for André Jardine’s side, who lost consecutive games to Tigres (4-1) and Juárez (2-1) directly before their current win streak.
The vibes coming into Wednesday’s match are…not good from a Blue and Gold lens. This Union team looks much different - both in personnel and play on the field - and the results are almost the complete opposite from the start of life under Bradley Carnell a season ago.
And now, amidst a four-game losing streak, the Union have to go down to Mexico to try and save their CCC tournament in a tough environment (though not as tough as it normally would be, with Club América playing their games at the Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes while Estadio Azteca is under major renovations for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup).
The Blue and Gold were in a somewhat similar situation during the 2024 season, when they traveled down to Mexico for the 2nd leg of the CCC Round of 16 and lost 6-0 against Pachuca, the U’s worst defeat in club history.
Later that season, the Union missed the playoffs for the first time since 2017 and sacked longtime head coach Jim Curtin as a result.
Despite a bad start to the season, Bradley Carnell still thinks his team is in a good position to get the job done on Wednesday.
“I thought the game that we played last week, the boys did an excellent job, we kept the score line very narrow, and I thought we had the better 2nd half, and we created lots of chances. This gives us hope and positivity to go up against a really big and talented squad. We’re going to be brave, and we’re going to be committed to what we do, and we’re excited about the game tomorrow.” - Union head coach, Bradley Carnell.
The Union know they’re the underdogs going down to Mexico on Wednesday night, needing to win and score multiple goals to advance, but that might be the position Bradley Carnell’s team performs best in, like they did through so much of last season
“This is the game for us where we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We didn’t start the season as well as we should have, and this is a game where we can put everything aside and only focus on a game where everyone expects us not to proceed. So this is a perfect game for us to play free, to play open and brave. It’s all up to us tomorrow." - Union head coach, Bradley Carnell.
