Philadelphia Union – Inter Miami FC – The Philly Soccer Page

Photo by: Marjorie Elzey

In front of a crowd with a considerable smattering of pink and black, the Philadelphia Union fell to a 9 man and Messi-less Inter Miami FC on Saturday evening.

The Flamingos were also without one of Messi’s former Barca cronies in Luis Suarez. Though, both Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba both featured in the starting XI for Inter Miami.

Meanwhile, the Boys in Blue were without their own prolific Argentinian. With the recent news that Philadelphia had agreed to terms for the sale of Julian Carranza to Feyenoord in Rotterdam, Carranza was not in the lineup for the match ahead of his imminent departure.

And so, in the 8th ever matchup between Philadelphia and Inter Miami, the Union would look to Mikael Uhre to fill the void.

Right on cue, his number was called.

Just 3 minutes into the match, Jakob Glesnes found a dashing Mikael Uhre in behind the Miami backline. The Dane finished it coolly with his weaker foot around Miami’s Drake Callender – imparting a jolt of quality and liveliness into the side.

Shortly after, Jeremy Rafanello found a scampering Quinn Sullivan into the wide channel who was close to making it a two goal advantage. Tomas Aviles was there to meet Sullivan and bodied Sullivan to throw his shot off target.

Philly held strong throughout the first half an hour, not leaking many chances through to Semmle.

Just after the half hour mark, Alejandro Bedoya and Quinn Sullivan each had chances to extend the advantage.

Bedoya headed a high cross down to Callender’s right – just missing the frame. Sullivan had a chance fall to him around the penalty spot that he fired into the body of a Miami defender – one he will want back.

The second half began with some tough luck  for the Union. Julian Gressel smashed home a chance that fell to him inside the box, and Miami were level.

Around the 65th minute, Leon Flach tried to spring a counter attack the other way and was fouled in the process by David Ruiz who was issued his second yellow and a red card.

Tai Baribo was summoned in the 81st minute and was immediately thrust into action. He found himself face to face with Drake Callender after falling to the ground in the box, but he put it directly at the Miami keeper.

Another Miami player suffered their second yellow card sending off after Thomas Aviles was sent off in the 85th minute for delaying a restart.

Yet the team found a way to blow it.

In stoppage time, the Union ganged forward in search of a winner. Jack McGlynn played an errant pass around Miami’s 18 yard box that was intercepted and brought the other way by Miami. Leo Afonso, who was subbed on in stoppage time, ran past both McGlynn and Glesnes and tucked it past Oliver Semmle for the lead.

That is how the match would end –  a truly heart breaking finish.

Onto the next one where the Boys and Blue head to Cincinnati on Wednesday where they will meet some familiar faces for a midweek duel.

Three Points

• A strong first 45 – The first half was quite possibly the best and most complete 45 minutes exhibited by the team in the 2024 season. The Union led the expected goal battle by a staggering 1.08 to 0.03 at half time.
• Lapses in concentration – The two goals against were indicative of just small lapses in concentration that the team paid for. The Union did have opportunities in the second half, but their lack of ability to finish can be summed up to, you guessed it, lapses in concentration that continue to bite this team.
• Another bad result – The Union looked poised to take the match to Miami after a strong first half. The team went from the driver’s seat to chasing the game and couldn’t quite find their footing in the second half.

Lineups

Philadelphia Union 

Oliver Semmle, Kai Wagner, Jakob Glesnes, Nathan Harriel, Olivier Mbaizo (Tai Baribo — 81′), Alejandro Bedoya (Jesus Bueno — 53′), Leon Flach, Jack McGlynn, Jeremy Rafanello (Chris Donovan — 71′), Quinn Sullivan, Mikael Uhre

Unused subs: Andrew Rick, Olwethu Makhanya, Sanders Ngabo, Markus Anderson, David Vazquez

Inter Miami FC

Drake Callender, Tomas Aviles, Jordi Alba, Sergii Kryvstov (Noah Allen — 90′), Sergio Busquets, Julian Gressel (Ryan Sailor — 90′), Benjamin Cremaschi (Franco Negri — 90′), David Ruiz, Marcelo Weigandt, Leo Campana (Leo Afonso — 90′), Robert Taylor (Yannick Bright — 78′)

Unused subs: CJ Dos Santos, Ian Fray, Lawson Sunderland, Shanyder Borgelin

Scoring Summary

PHI: Mikael Uhre — 3′

MIA: Julian Gressel — 47′

MIA: Leo Afonso — 90′

Discipline Summary

MIA: David Ruiz — Yellow card (foul) 32′

PHI: Alejandro Bedoya — Yellow card (dissent) 34′

PHI: Kai Wagner — Yellow card (foul) 63′

MIA: Tomas Aviles — Yellow card (tactical foul) 66′

MIA: David Ruiz — 2nd Yellow (Red card issued) (tactical foul) 69′

MIA: Leo Campana — Yellow card (foul) 75′

PHI: Leon Flach — Yellow Card (dissent) 82′

MIA: Tomas Aviles — 2nd Yellow (Red card issued) (delaying restart) 85′

MIA: Sergii Kryvstov — Yellow card (delaying restart) 88′