{"id":295374,"date":"2026-09-28T05:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T05:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/295374\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T05:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T05:24:11","slug":"philadelphia-unions-next-gear-insane-comebacks-more-from-matchday-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/295374\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Union’s next gear, insane comebacks & more from Matchday 28"},"content":{"rendered":"

While MLS-reared kids balled out<\/a> for the US men\u2019s national team<\/a> in Orlando, league action continued from coast to coast as the 2026 season\u2019s hectic final sprint rolled on, with just six weeks and counting until Decision Day.<\/p>\n

If it felt like the nets were bulging around the league, you were onto something. Saturday\u2019s 13 matches averaged 3.69 goals per game, which is about half a goal more than the season average to date.<\/p>\n

A big factor in that: Teams struggling mightily to defend their hard-earned advantage as game after game blew wide open down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Here are a few games for which you absolutely, positively should invest, at the very least, the 11 minutes or so required to watch the extended highlights, because we can\u2019t do them justice in a couple of paragraphs. We\u2019ll start with San Diego FC<\/a> at Austin FC<\/a>, which remarkably was scoreless at halftime before exploding to life in the 50th minute.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s three goals in 15 minutes in one direction, followed by three goals in 14 minutes in the other thanks mainly to the eternally underrated Christian Ram\u00edrez<\/a>. In the end, the 3-3 draw was a neutral\u2019s delight, which doesn\u2019t much help either of these sides as they try to scramble into one of the Western Conference\u2019s final postseason slots.<\/p>\n

Now over to Carson, California\u2026<\/p>\n

Was that an epic Colorado Rapids<\/a> collapse to allow a 2-0 halftime lead to fizzle into a profoundly chaotic 3-2 road loss<\/a>, or a gutsy LA Galaxy<\/a> comeback to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?<\/p>\n

Probably equal parts of both, though we\u2019ll shade it in LA\u2019s direction given the scrappy nature of all three goals scored by a side often associated with glamor rather than grit.<\/p>\n

Having Jo\u00e3o Klauss<\/a> back makes them tougher, and what a moment for Justin Haak<\/a> to score his first goal in a Galaxy kit. Brute-forcing results like this will keep the Gs above the Audi 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs line.<\/p>\n

Vancouver Whitecaps FC<\/a> still lead the West. Their best performances remain the conference standard. They still have Thomas M\u00fcller<\/a>, who bagged a pearler<\/a> here. Yet it was striking to see them drop more points at BC Place in a wild 3-3 draw<\/a> with D.C. United<\/a> just a few hours after their former engine-room star Sebastian Berhalter bagged a goal and an assist for the USMNT in their 4-1 win<\/a> over Peru.<\/p>\n

With a league mark of 5W-4L-3D since the 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a> break, the \u2018Caps have basically fumbled away as many points as they\u2019ve claimed since Berhalter was sold<\/a> to English Championship heavyweights Middlesbrough. To be fair, his long-term successor Aleksa Cvetkovi\u0107<\/a> was pretty solid in his first VWFC start Saturday, notching his first MLS assist, and plucky, shorthanded D.C. were admirably resilient far from home too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jesper S\u00f8rensen\u2019s current group is simply nowhere near as dominant as last season\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Honorable mention goes to Atlanta United<\/a>\u2019s eventful 2-2 draw<\/a> with New York City FC<\/a>, another kiss-your-sister result which exposed those teams\u2019 flaws more than it helped either team\u2019s playoff prospects.<\/p>\n

Several of the leaky teams above might take note of how FC Dallas<\/a> did the polar opposite in a grinding 1-0 victory<\/a> over LAFC<\/a> at Toyota Stadium, Osaze Urhoghide<\/a>\u2019s corner-kick header the winner on a night when both attacks were missing difference-makers like Son Heung-Min<\/a>, Denis Bouanga<\/a> and Petar Musa<\/a> to international duty.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s FCD\u2019s fourth win in five, hauling the North Texans up to second place in the West. Meanwhile, the Angelenos have won just one of their last 10; they\u2019ve slid all the way down to sixth place. Late Sunday evening, we learned that this was the last straw for the Black & Gold\u2019s leadership: LAFC have parted ways<\/a> with head coach Marc Dos Santos less than a year into his tenure.<\/p>\n

Phenomenal Philly fly onward<\/p>\n

Cavan Sullivan<\/a>, Neil Pierre<\/a> and Frankie Westfield<\/a> are away with the USMNT. Andre Blake<\/a> was captaining Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz and Danley Jean Jacques<\/a> was anchoring the Haiti midfield in Concacaf Nations League.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Union<\/a> still romped to victory at rain-soaked Subaru Park, racing out to a 4-0 lead over Orlando City<\/a> on the back of Milan Iloski<\/a>\u2019s hat trick, his second of the season, before the Lions clawed back a couple of late consolations for a 4-2 final score<\/a>. Philly\u2019s unbeaten run now stretches to 12 consecutive matches, a club record, and also their first-ever six-game winning streak. This win nudges them five points ahead of OCSC in sixth place in the East, with fifth-place Chicago<\/a> now in their sights.<\/p>\n

“We’re flying,\u201d said Iloski afterwards, going on to express his desire<\/a> to earn a USMNT call-up, which is notable given North Macedonia\u2019s reputed interest in recruiting him. \u201cIt was a big game for us. We knew we were close [Orlando] in the table and we knew we had a lot of guys missing tonight. It was a big performance, a lot of guys stepped up and kept the streak going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of dominance? This weekend brought another round of the league\u2019s most statistically commonplace result in 2026: Nashville SC<\/a> won in style at GEODIS Park. Toronto FC<\/a> were their victims in a 2-0 result<\/a>, revenge duly taken for the Reds\u2019 upset<\/a> in the reverse fixture in Canada earlier this month, via a Hany Mukhtar<\/a> brace, the 99th and 100th goals of his NSH career.<\/p>\n

The Coyotes are 10 points clear of their nearest pursuers atop the overall table, and are the only team with a points-per-game average above 2 \u2013 keep that up, and the league\u2019s single-season points record, currently held by 2024 Inter Miami<\/a>\u2019s 74, is theirs.<\/p>\n

Star striker Sam Surridge<\/a> ranks fifth in the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi race with 16 goals, and Cristian Espinoza<\/a> is tied for the league lead in assists (13). They are fearsome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been a really special team to be a part of,\u201d said goalkeeper Joe Willis<\/a>, the former starter welcomed back to the starting XI with Brian Schwake<\/a> away on USMNT duty. \u201cThe personalities that we have, the on-field technical ability and quality of the players is top; the way guys are committed to the system and the process. Everything is there for a recipe for success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, the playoffs will be a whole new ball game; they always are. But NSH are the likely Supporters’ Shield winners, and they’re eminently impressive.<\/p>\n

Even with star playmaker Niko Tsakiris<\/a> sidelined by an injury, the San Jose Earthquakes<\/a> pushed their budding unbeaten run to six, making straightforward work of Portland<\/a> in a 3-1 victory<\/a> at PayPal Park.<\/p>\n

The Bay side surged ahead 3-0 before half an hour had elapsed, thanks to two goals from Preston Judd<\/a> \u2013 who celebrated with a leap into the stands to \u2018fire the siren\u2019 \u2013 and 1g\/2a from vital summer reinforcement Eduard L\u00f6wen<\/a>, his first goal contributions in Quakes colors.<\/p>\n

San Jose coach Bruce Arena is a notorious skeptic of the expected goals metric, so he may appreciate the xG battle was dead even here (1.3 xG apiece), thanks in large part to seven solid saves from veteran goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr<\/a>. Quietly, the Quakes have crept up to third place in the West.<\/p>\n

‘A six-point week for Seattle Sounders FC<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n

That phrase made a welcome return to Puget Sound, where the concept had grown painfully unfamiliar to the Rave Green faithful as their team toiled along on a 13-game league winless skid this summer that ranks as one of the low points of the organization\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n

The streak finally died with Wednesday\u2019s 2-0 home win<\/a> over Real Salt Lake<\/a> thanks to surgical long-range strikes from Danny Musovski<\/a> and Albert Rusn\u00e1k<\/a>, both assisted by Paul Arriola<\/a>. The resulting relief clearly fueled Saturday\u2019s 3-1 defeat<\/a> of woebegone Minnesota United<\/a>, where Jordan Morris<\/a> bagged his 73rd career regular-season goal for SSFC to become the club\u2019s all-time leader<\/a> in that department.<\/p>\n

A quick scan of the names above tells you much of the story in Seattle \u2013 they\u2019re finally getting key contributors back out on the pitch, and their performances are duly improving. The Sounders are now back above the West\u2019s playoff line in ninth place, and thanks to a game in hand on most of their closest competitors, they\u2019re even higher on a PPG basis. Could they even emerge as an autumn dark horse?<\/p>\n

A messy night in Columbus<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve said it about a hundred times at this point: Whether they\u2019re thriving, troubled or somewhere in between, Inter Miami are never, ever boring. So it was again on Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire, as they scrapped contentiously with the Columbus Crew<\/a> in Ohio\u2019s capital city.<\/p>\n

When Lionel Messi<\/a> hits a flawless free kick like this, positive results usually follow for the Herons:<\/p>\n

But the hosts conjured up last-gasp drama \u2013 assisted by some sloppy goalkeeping from Rocco R\u00edos Novo<\/a> \u2013 to set ScottsMiracle-Gro Field alight deep into injury time for a 2-1 Columbus win<\/a>. Some of you may recall that Crew hero\u00a0Jamal Thiar\u00e9<\/a> was also the architect of Miami\u2019s stunning playoffs demise two years ago when he was with Atlanta United.<\/p>\n

\n Around the grounds<\/p>\n

\u2192 Three days after they enabled the end of Seattle\u2019s skid, RSL snapped their own 13-game slump, ambushing red-hot New England Revolution<\/a>, 3-0<\/a>, in Sandy, Utah.\u00a0You won\u2019t find a better demonstration of the influence of early goals: A Revs defensive error just two minutes in served up an inviting look for Aiden Hezarkhani<\/a>, allowing the hosts to soak up pressure from there on before Sergi Solans<\/a>\u2019 second-half double sealed the deal.<\/p>\n

\u2192 Much like the Revs got a painful lesson that anything can happen in MLS, FC Cincinnati<\/a> and Houston Dynamo FC<\/a> got sucker-punched by the last-place teams in their respective conferences, CF Montr\u00e9al<\/a> and Sporting Kansas City<\/a>.\u00a0Upsets like these are an established stretch-run occurrence, and rest assured, other playoff chasers will fall prey in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

\u2192 Amid all the chaos we\u2019ve detailed, we reckon the weekend\u2019s most \u2018MLSy\u2019 result unfolded at Bank of America Stadium. There, a historically dominant home team unbeaten in their previous eight games (Charlotte FC<\/a>) managed to lose 1-0<\/a> to a visitor riding a six-game winless skid (Chicago Fire FC) despite the absence of Robert Lewandowski<\/a> and four other Fire regulars on international duty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sure, CLT were missing a few of their starters, too. But with Pep Biel<\/a>, Allan Saint-Maximin<\/a>, Tim Ream<\/a> and Kristijan Kahlina<\/a> still in uniform, we did not see this one coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While MLS-reared kids balled out for the US men\u2019s national team in Orlando, league action continued from coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[122182,122191,122190,122183,122189,23442,122185,69,71,70,121418,122188,122187,10226,122186,122184],"class_list":["post-295374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-atxvssd-09-26-2026","tag-cltvschi-09-26-2026","tag-houvsskc-09-26-2026","tag-lavscol-09-26-2026","tag-mtlvscin-09-26-2026","tag-national-writer-charles-boehm","tag-nshvstor-09-26-2026","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-phivsorl-09-26-2026","tag-rslvsne-09-26-2026","tag-seavsmin-09-26-2026","tag-sendtonews","tag-sjvspor-09-26-2026","tag-vanvsdc-09-26-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295374","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=295374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}