{"id":261097,"date":"2026-08-07T17:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T17:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261097\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T17:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T17:02:14","slug":"match-thoughts-cruz-azul-1-philadelphia-union-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261097\/","title":{"rendered":"Match Thoughts: Cruz Azul 1, Philadelphia Union 0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!-qcD!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F48d96f72-3f73-445f-bab6-2423a0be7411_1680x1120.jpeg\" data-component-name=\"Image2ToDOM\" class=\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/48d96f72-3f73-445f-bab6-2423a0be7411_1680.jpeg\" width=\"1456\" height=\"971\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/48d96f72-3f73-445f-bab6-2423a0be7411_1680x1120.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:193782,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/unionsoccerblog.substack.com\/i\/210230758?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F48d96f72-3f73-445f-bab6-2423a0be7411_1680x1120.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}\" alt=\"\"   fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"sizing-normal\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>CHESTER \u2014 It\u2019s difficult not to look at the totality of the Philadelphia Union\u2019s performance on Thursday night against Cruz Azul and not come away with positive thoughts. <\/p>\n<p>The Union lost 1-0 to one of the best teams on the continent to start off Leagues Cup, but they deserved at least a draw inside Subaru Park. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis team has gone from last place in MLS to playing one of the best teams in Concacaf and being the better team,\u201d Union interim head coach Ryan Richter said. \u201cThat\u2019s a step forward. I hate to lose, but the push at the end and the way we adjusted in the second half, I\u2019m really proud of.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHESTER \u2014 It\u2019s difficult not to look at the totality of the Philadelphia Union\u2019s performance on Thursday night&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-261097","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\/261097","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=261097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}