{"id":22227,"date":"2025-11-02T03:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/22227\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T03:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:53:09","slug":"mls-cup-favorites-philadelphia-union-advance-with-flying-colors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/22227\/","title":{"rendered":"MLS Cup favorites? Philadelphia Union advance with flying colors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in August, the Philadelphia Union<\/a> became the first team to clinch<\/a> an Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs berth. On Saturday, they became the first team to clinch a spot in the Conference Semifinals.<\/p>\n

\n Baribo breaks out<\/p>\n

After a torrid start to 2025 that earned him an MLS All-Star selection over the summer, Baribo suddenly went cold in front of goal, enduring a scoring drought of over two months.<\/p>\n

The Israeli international put it all behind him in a matter of minutes on Saturday, giving Philadelphia an early 2-0 lead that the visitors would never relinquish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was excellent with his national team [during the October FIFA window], and the way he came back felt like a weight off his shoulders,” head coach Bradley Carnell said of Baribo. “The way he has been playing has been very productive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of things about Tai\u2019s game that are getting back to usual, so I am really happy he\u2019s struck at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baribo himself was happy to establish the tone early and set the Union on their way to the next round.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that today they would come to press high, come to play because they are in front of their fans,” he said. “We knew that the team that would score first would probably be the team to win the game. So, this is what we did.”<\/p>\n

\n Lights-out performance<\/p>\n

Going into Saturday’s match, Gregg Berhalter and the Fire had plenty to feel good about. They’d taken the Union to the brink in Game 1<\/a>, rallying from a two-goal deficit to earn a 2-2 draw in regulation before falling in a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n

However, any chances of another Chicago rally were squashed in the 32nd minute, when legendary Union goalkeeper Andre Blake<\/a> saved Brian Guti\u00e9rrez<\/a>‘s penalty kick.<\/p>\n

Damiani, for good measure, put the game beyond reach three minutes later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is momentum and swings and sways of a game that determine the outcome, and if you concede a goal there, we are under pressure even at two to one,\u201d Carnell said of Blake’s heroics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last game, we scored a goal, and five minutes later, we are two up. When they scored a goal, five minutes later, it was two to two. These five-minute increments of the sway of the game are vitally important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Onto the next challenge<\/p>\n

With Round One taken care of, the Union will have plenty of time to prepare for the Conference Semifinals. As Supporters’ Shield holders, they’re guaranteed to host the match on either Nov. 22 or 23 at Subaru Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys seem to be galvanizing in a really good way, positive energy,\u201d said Carnell. \u201cUnderstanding roles, responsibilities, as they should by now.<\/p>\n

“\u2026 These guys empty the tank every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in August, the Philadelphia Union became the first team to clinch an Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14194,11896,10225,69,71,70,10227,10226],"class_list":["post-22227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-chivsphi-11-01-2025","tag-match-reaction","tag-mls-cup-playoffs","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-union","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22227","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=22227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}