{"id":257173,"date":"2026-08-01T14:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/257173\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T14:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:32:08","slug":"match-preview-philadelphia-union-vs-atlanta-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/257173\/","title":{"rendered":"Match Preview: Philadelphia Union vs. Atlanta United"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There\u2019s absolutely zero glitz and glamour around a 14th-versus-15th-place battle from a league-wide perspective. <\/p>\n

For the Philadelphia Union, Saturday\u2019s game with Atlanta United carries a ton of significance. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it\u2019s out of line to call it a must-win game for the Union. <\/p>\n

It seems silly to slap that tag on a match featuring the Eastern Conference\u2019s two bottom feeders, but from the Union\u2019s side, if they are seriously about contending for a playoff spot, they have to beat the worst team in the conference at home. <\/p>\n

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The post-World Cup break has been kind to the Union. They produced back-to-back home wins out of the gate against Red Bull New York and the Seattle Sounders. <\/p>\n

Atlanta is at the end of a four-game road swing that has featured one point from a draw in Charlotte.<\/p>\n

The Five Stripes took a walloping from the New England Revolution last weekend, a match that is more indicative of the team\u2019s quality at the moment. <\/p>\n

Atlanta hasn\u2019t won a game since May 2 and its roster is a complete mess. <\/p>\n

The Georgia side is trying to find a way out from under Emmanuel Latte Lath\u2019s failed transfer. It wasn\u2019t the right league for him, but I can almost guarantee he\u2019ll go back to the Championship and pick up a double-digit goal tally. <\/p>\n

The rumor mill\u2019s been spinning with potential striker additions for Atlanta, but that\u2019s not relevant for Saturday.<\/p>\n

Miguel Almiron and Alexey Miranchuk are the danger man in attack. The Union have to be wary of the threat both of them pose coming off the flanks. <\/p>\n

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As for the Union, they are trending in the right direction, but a third win in three games would further legitimize the job Ryan Richter is doing as interim head coach. <\/p>\n

The Union have a full complement of players available for Saturday. Japhet Sery\u2019s hamstring issue isn\u2019t serious and he trained for most of the week.<\/p>\n

The question around Sery, though, is if he\u2019s already been replaced in the first-choice center-back tandem by Neil Pierre and Nathan Harriel. <\/p>\n

Philippe Ndinga is still on the roster and off the injury report. He was listed as out with a hamstring issue for the Seattle game. <\/p>\n

Kai Wagner and Frankie Westfield will start at full-back, but there isn\u2019t any depth behind them at the moment.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question for next week, but with the Leagues Cup starting next week, the Union might be a little thin on the back line. <\/p>\n

Anyway, for Saturday\u2019s game, the expectation is that the Union create an abundance of chances through Cavan Sullivan and Milan Iloski.<\/p>\n

If the Union get anything else out of the other forwards, it\u2019s a positive, but right now, they have to rely on Iloski to score and the younger Sullivan to create some chances with his work on the ball. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s nowhere close to a perfect product, but the Union are at least in good position to take three points and continue the slow climb up the Eastern Conference table.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s absolutely zero glitz and glamour around a 14th-versus-15th-place battle from a league-wide perspective. For the Philadelphia Union,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-257173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257173","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=257173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}