Joe Chatz of On Tap Sports Chicago<\/a>, as\u00a0Zinckernagel\u00a0deals with an oblique injury.\u00a0<\/p>\nUhre and Westfield in, Baribo and Harriel to the bench?<\/p>\n
As mentioned above, and as Union manager Bradley Carnell reflected after the match, soon-to-be free agent Uhre and homegrown standout Westfield were the difference-makers. They finally unlocked a stubborn Chicago defense and brought a sense of urgency and \u201cimpetus,\u201d as the manager put it.<\/p>\n
The question now is whether Carnell will bring them off the bench again or start one \u2014 or both \u2014 of them.<\/p>\n
The more likely scenario is that only one gets the nod, with Westfield being the prime candidate. His consistent minutes throughout the season, combined with his strong run at the most recent U-20 World Cup, where he earned a spot on SofaScore\u2019s Team of the Tournament, make him a logical choice to start.<\/p>\n
As for Uhre, it\u2019s a tougher call. Carnell will not only want a win \u2013 as he would in any other match \u2013 but he\u2019ll also be looking to reignite Tai Baribo\u2019s form. The Israeli striker finished the regular season with 17 goals across all competitions, six of which came in the first three matches, but cooled off significantly. Baribo is without a goal since the Aug. 23 match against, well, Chicago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By comparison, in 34 appearances (17 as a substitute), Uhre contributed six goals and eight assists. This supports the idea of him coming off the bench, because beyond the numbers he adds crucial verticality to the Union\u2019s attack \u2014 something players like Jovan Lukic and Danley Jean-Jacques thrive on as they look to break forward against tired opponents. That transition game has been the cornerstone of Carnell and the Union\u2019s success this season. Based on Thursday’s press conference, Uhre suffered a knee knock ahead of the first match in the series, sidelining him to start the match this past Sunday. However, as for Uhre, Carnell also shared that, \u201cMika is ready\u201d should he want to start him from the rip.<\/p>\n
Who truly has the momentum going into Game 2?<\/p>\n
In a best-of-three series, conventional wisdom suggests that the winner of the first match carries the momentum, especially considering Chicago\u2019s 6-6-5 home record. However, former longtime Philadelphia Union defender Jack Elliott and Gregg Berhalter see it differently, and I agree.<\/p>\n
Chicago should feel good about its chance going into this match. The Fire went punch-for-punch with Philadelphia, held the Union scoreless for more than 70 minutes, and even after going down, clawed back with two goals from set pieces before ultimately losing in penalties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This performance was already an improvement, given that Philadelphia had shut them out in both regular-season meetings, including in Chicago, where 38-year-old veteran Alejandro Bedoya completely neutralized big-money signing Jonathan Bamba.<\/p>\n
Elliott, who played at Subaru Park with a thick bandage covering the wound he suffered in the play-in game against Orlando City, made it clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good confidence for us,” Elliott said. “I mean, I think we matched them very well throughout the game and, you know, really limited the chances they had.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Berhalter echoed that sentiment, noting that the match was very different from the first two meetings of the season, when Philadelphia \u201ckicked our butts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Union snuck past a stubborn Chicago Fire side that kept things scoreless for over 70 minutes last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11616,69,71,70,10227,11868,4500],"class_list":["post-21504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-mls","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-union","tag-soccer","tag-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}