Philadelphia Union begins a marathon May across the border, taking on CF Montreal on Saturday night. Tune in with MLS Season Pass on Apple TV to watch the action!
In their most recent two-match homestand, Philadelphia Union secured back-to-back shutout wins in front of home fans at Subaru Park, moving up to third place in the Eastern Conference with 19 points. This weekend, they'll look to add another three to their total as they start a marathon month of May which will feature at least eight games in 29 days.
Montreal, now led by interim Marco Donadel after the club parted ways with Laurent Courtois in March, hasn't enjoyed nearly as fruitful a start to the season as the Philadelphia Union, entering matchday 11 at the very bottom of the table with just three points. They haven’t won any of their 10 matches so far this season, but after creating some energy with a shootout win against fellow Canadian MLS side Toronto FC in the Canadian Championship on Wednesday, there could be more positivity within their squad heading into Saturday’s match.
In MLS play, they’ve only scored four goals – the least amount in the entire league, while the Philadelphia Union are tied for most goals scored by an Eastern Conference team with 19. Head Coach Bradley Carnell’s group has only conceded nine, making for the best goal differential in the conference through the first 10 games of the season.
That being said, Saturday’s match could be one that sees the club’s new head coach lean on rotation in anticipation for the strenuous schedule ahead. For the first time this year, the team has a three game week, as they’ll begin their US Open Cup campaign at home Wednesday against Indy Eleven, then host Columbus Crew in the return of the club’s all-time leading goal scorer, Daniel Gazdag, on Saturday.
“I think the way we train and guys that have been getting minutes at Union II – I think the two groups are so aligned together. There's such a connection between their coaching staff and our coaching staff, with the first team and Ryan Richter’s group with the second team,” Carnell said on Thursday.
“All those guys train with us anyways, they go and play their minutes on the weekend. If they're not in our roster, they go and accumulate their minutes. We want them to play just as intensely as they train, we want to, despite the opponent or regardless of the opponent, maximize the effort. We want to maximize the intensity when they train with us and play with us and have games with us, so I think we prepare the guys in a good way to be ready for this month of mayhem.”
