CHESTER — The Philadelphia Union will be tallying the air miles this week in one of the busiest and most consequential trips of the season.
It’ll be almost a week on the road for the Union, who meet Vancouver on Saturday night in a pivotal MLS encounter between Supporters’ Shield aspirants. The Union travel straight to Nashville on Sunday to prep for Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal.
Add into it a half dozen players coming back from international duty, and there are a lot of moving pieces. But so far, so good for coach Bradley Carnell.
“The travel is always challenging and tricky, but we get everybody in and all the guys seem fine,” he said at his weekly press conference.
The Union will depart Thursday for Vancouver, doing their pre-matchday training there. They’ll stay in Vancouver Saturday night after a 9:35 p.m. kickoff (AppleTV), then travel to Nashville for Tuesday night’s affair (8 p.m., Paramount+).
Both are high-stakes matches.
The Union (17-6-6, 57 points) lead MLS with five games to play. They’re one point ahead of San Diego and eight up on Vancouver, though the Whitecaps (14-6-7, 48 points) have two matches in hand and sit fourth on points per game. Inter Miami has 46 points in 25 games for third on ppg but face a huge fixture backlog.
The Union could conceivably win the Shield with something like three wins in their last five. They’re assuredly two wins away from lifting the U.S. Open Cup for the first time, though it would require beating a Nashville side that they’ve lost to twice this year to make the domestic cup final for a fourth time in club history.
The Union seized the Shield initiative by winning at FC Cincinnati last week in a 1-vs.-2 battle in the East. Vancouver had a sensational spring that led to the final of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. The Whitecaps are just 4-5-2 in the last 11, though.
“We’re excited about going west and then excited staying on the road as a group, because Tuesday comes around really quickly,” Carnell said. “So I feel we should take their confidence and momentum back with us, how we left it a week ago.”
Of the youth internationals away, Neil Pierre, Frankie Westfield and Cavan Sullivan trained Wednesday.
Tai Baribo, who scored for Israel in last Friday’s win over Moldova in Chisinau and logged 24 minutes as a sub in Monday’s wild 5-4 loss to Italy in UEFA World Cup qualifiers, returned Wednesday morning.
Ditto Nathan Harriel, who got six minutes in the U.S.’s friendly win over Japan on Tuesday in Columbus.
Danley Jean Jacques was expected to arrive later Wednesday. The midfielder went 90 minutes for Haiti in both last Friday’s 0-0 draw with Honduras in Curacao and the wild 3-3 draw in Costa Rica on Tuesday night.
The Union also got Andre Blake back on the training pitch. He left the Aug. 16 game against New York Red Bulls with a hamstring injury and has missed the last two games, both shutouts by Andrew Rick. Blake missed a chance to play with Jamaica during the international window.
“He’s started training with us this week,” Carnell said. “He’s had two good days of training. Today was probably his most intense day yet. … He ended the training in good spirits and no problems.”
The Union will also be without Olwethu Makhanya, who is suspended for Saturday’s game in Vancouver for yellow-card accumulation and next Saturday’s home date with New England in the league. He is eligible to play in the U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday.
