For John McCarthy and the Union, the last year hasn't been great. (AP)

On this weekend a year ago, the Philadelphia Union was flying high. They had just handled Sporting Kansas City, 2-0 at home. With a record of 11-9-7, their 40 points were situated third in the Eastern Conference, three points from leaders Toronto and soaring over the red line for playoff qualification.

The question had ceased to be if the Union would end a playoff drought or even if they would break the franchise record for points in a season; needing just eight points from seven games, the Union would certainly blast through the 48 points they tallied in 2011 with even mediocre form.

Then the roof caved in. Seven winless to end 2016. Ninety minutes being comprehensively outclassed in Toronto on a Wednesday night in a gone-before-you-knew-it playoff berth. Then eight winless to start 2017 at so great a disadvantage that now, officially, has been deemed insurmountable.

For all the oddities of the MLS calendar, the schedule makers offer the Union symmetry. Saturday’s visit from Atlanta United marks the 34th regular-season game since that night 364 days ago against SKC.

Through all the ups and downs, what has this 33-game snapshot of Union existence shown? In short, it’s not good.

In that 33-game stretch of regular season, starting with the Sept. 3 loss at Chicago, the Union are 8-17-8. That includes the 0-5-2 stretch to end 2016 and the 8-12-6 mark they’ve stumbled to this year.

That’s 32 points in 33 games. There’s no result the Union can achieve Saturday against Atlanta to avoid falling short of the franchise’s lowest tally for a season, set in 2012 at 36.

A win Saturday is required to avoid falling short of the season-low set in the expansion year, when the club played four fewer matches. A loss Saturday would equal the franchise record of 18 set in 2012, which remains in play for the Union this year. (N.B.: I’m comparing this stretch to full calendar seasons, from the Union and other clubs, via MLS' Fact and Record Book. Even I’m not that much of a masochist to parse each team’s worst 34-game stretch across seasons, even if the info was complete enough.)

The Union in the last 33 games have a points per game average of 0.97. The sub-1 realm is where the truly terrible MLS campaigns reside. How bad? Well, bad enough that no Union team has ever been there before – the 2012 team came closest at 1.06 over a calendar season – and the Union have had some atrocious seasons.
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Saturday's draw for Alejandro Bedoya, right, and the Union
to Joao Pedro's L.A. Galaxy makes it 16 straight games without a win
for the club. (AP)

I made an attempt in Monday’s paper to hit whatever passes as positives with regard to the moribund 2017 Union season, and the dredging left me slightly spent. So in the constant drive for content and the absence of any positives on the team side, figured I’d steer into the skid as it grabs headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.

There’s ambiguity in the numbers that bothered me that I needed to get to the bottom of: I tweeted two weeks ago about the Union’s historical standing in the annals of MLS winless streak history. Those numbers weren’t cut and dry since I remained unsure if they factored in playoff games officially, since teams on historic winless streaks shouldn’t be making the playoffs, as I understand that concept. But the Union broke the mold with their slide last year somehow not precluding playoff positioning.

That led to a deeper dive to add texture and context to the teams the Union are chasing (read: praying to avoid). I was unsurprised – and you may be, too – to find a strong correlation between lengthy winless streaks and both missing the playoffs and low finishes in the standings. (You know, correlation vs. causation but in this case, just no.) By necessity this season, the Union have clung to the notion that they’re just one win away from a sea change in results like an ideological lifesaver. The truth is that there’s very, very little historical context to back that assertion, though the Union are bucking other trends.

Here’s the list of the eight most barren streaks in MLS history, annotated by the seasonal breakdown of those games and the team’s record in the streak. You’ll note that each winless gamut has bridged seasons.

Colorado Rapids, 18 games (July 30, 2014-April 4, 2015 – 14 to end season, 4 to start), 0-13-5
Real Salt Lake, 18 games (Aug. 10, 2005-May 6, 2006 – 12 to end season, 6 to start), 0-16-2
San Jose, 16 games (Aug. 8, 2014-March 7, 2015 – 15 to end season, 1 to start), 0-9-7
UNION, 16 games (Sept. 3, 2016-present – 7 to end season, 1 playoff game, 8 to start), 0-10-6
Chivas USA, 15 games (Aug. 12, 2012-March 2, 2013 – 14 to end season, 1 to start), 0-11-4
D.C. United, 15 games (Aug. 10, 2013-March 29, 2014 – 12 to end season, 3 to start), 0-11-4
Real Salt Lake, 15 games (Sept. 23, 2006-June 17, 2007 – 4 to end season, 11 to start), 0-6-9
Toronto FC, 15 games (July 28, 2012-March 2, 2013 – 14 to end season, 1 to start), 0-11-4

Quick accounting note: For weeks, I’ve excluded the Union’s playoff loss from the streak or added it with a caveat, unsure if the other streaks were just regular-season matches while similarly ignoring playoff contests. Since the Union are the only member of this ignominious octet with a playoff loss, I’m factoring it in now.

In a class of their own
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This late season stumble by Andre Blake and the Union
at the hands of Montreal's Matteo Mancosu has become the norm
for the club in recent years. (AP)

There’s an exclusive club that the Philadelphia Union belong to, one they’d love to graduate from, one whose membership dues are being paid again this fall in accordance with a familiar and dispiriting pattern.

In MLS history, two clubs have never won more than 12 games in a season. One is Orlando City, which won 12 games in its inaugural season of 2015 and guaranteed in Saturday night’s drubbing by D.C. United that it will miss the mark for another year, sitting at seven wins with four matches to play.

The other is the Union, and the odds of the club escaping that miasma even in this resurgent season are getting slimmer with every passing non-win, even if Saturday's 1-1 draw in Toronto is objectively a positive result.

The Union’s season-best for wins ominously endures at 12, set not in the playoff season of 2011 but in 2013, when the Union accumulated 46 points yet finished seventh in the East (they could end up fourth this year and in the playoffs with fewer points, but that’s another story).

Looking at wins historically in MLS is fraught, given past practices like the shootout and vacillating schedule lengths. But if we narrow the scope to the parity-riddled expansion era of 34-game schedules since 2011, the Union’s lack of wins still resonates. Minus Orlando City and the Union, the other 18 extant MLS teams have not only won at least 13 games in a season at least once; they’ve all done so within the last four seasons. The longest such drought, beyond the Union, is Chicago and Colorado, each of whom won 14 games in 2013 and have struggled since.

That means 16 clubs have authored a better season in the last three years – including this in-progress campaign – than the Union ever have. (And by the way, MLS’s three extinct franchises – Miami, Tampa Bay and Chivas – all have at least one season of 13 wins or more.)

That may seem like piling on an undistinguished Union resume that needs no tarnishing. Edmund Burke never wrote about soccer, but the pertinence of this look back isn’t just trivial measurements. It’s the troubling trend it illustrates: The Union, as we’re seeing now, are atrocious at finishing seasons.
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Something unusual will happen Saturday evening when the Philadelphia Union host Toronto FC at Talen Energy Stadium: Of the 22 players chosen to start the game, nearly half will have experience playing for the U.S. National Team. And for once, the Union will actually contribute significantly to that tally.

The Union’s summer dealings can be characterized by many lenses. But one is the acquisition of players in Alejandro Bedoya and Charlie Davies, who’ve represented the U.S. internationally.

And so Saturday, using the Union and Toronto rosters, you can cobble together a fairly cogent starting XI of fully capped American internationals.



There’s some fudging position-wise. Chris Pontius is included, and while he has never appeared for the U.S., he’s twice been invited to camps and traveled internationally without getting in a game, and it’s reasonable to assume that had he not experienced such bad injury luck, he’d have that cap by now. (Consider this the start of the campaign for Pontius to play the role Ethan Finlay did at January camp and beyond last year.) There’s also no capped goalie, but Alex Bono, the former Reading United player, has played for the U.S. Under-18 team, so he’ll do.

The spine of the team is formidable. It features, when healthy, the U.S.’s top striker for the next World Cup cycle (Jozy Altidore), its captain (Michael Bradley) and arguably one of the first two or three names coach Jurgen Klinsmann pencils into the lineup in Bedoya.

That isn’t a bad team, if you could swap a forward for a truer fullback. It’s certainly a darn good one from a marketing standpoint, and it reveals a point about the Union’s direction.
Read more »

We’ve reached the juncture in the season where it’s time to deploy this little tidbit about the Philadelphia Union.

I think we all can agree – even Jim Curtin acknowledges the possibility, to a degree – that the MLS Cup Playoffs will likely commence for a fourth consecutive season season without the Union, the final nail of many likely being the 1-0 loss Saturday to New England. Officially, the percentage of the Union making the playoffs is listed as 4.0. (The journalist in me who won't allow me to state assertions as facts is the reason for the hedging, so apologies.)

With seven matches (four on the road) remaining, they sit last in the Eastern Conference with 27 points from 27 games. They’re just two points behind Orlando City for the sixth and final playoff spot, but there’s also the struggling Montreal Impact in seventh with four games in hand and a crowd of four teams to hop over to get back into contention. The Union also have to travel to four bona fide playoff contenders (New York Red Bulls, Toronto, New England and San Jose) among their four games, so the likelihood of summoning the form to get back into the playoff picture, especially around the Sept. 30 U.S. Open Cup final date, is remote.

If – and it is still, technically, an “if” – the Union miss the playoffs this season, it would be the fourth straight time that they have failed to qualify for the postseason. Where does that rank in the annals of MLS history?

Well, it’s a thorny proposition to put that into the appropriate context in a league where a minimum of two-thirds of teams made the playoff through its first decade. Eight of 10 teams making the playoffs strips the accolade of much of its prestige while hiding plenty of warts on teams that qualified via numerical necessity. It may not be until we see several seasons of a 20-plus team MLS that we can gauge just how devastating a four-season absence is. Or if, you know, something that rhymes with "go/fell" happens.

Even so, if the Union miss the postseason in 2015, they’d join very, very select company:

Toronto 8 (2007-2014)*
Chivas USA 5 (2010-2014)
Union 4 (2012-2015)*
D.C. United 4 (2008-2011)
San Jose 4 (1997-2000)

(Two of those streaks are active and can continue. But, terrifying as this may be to some in Ontario, Toronto is pegged as a virtual statistical certainty to end its playoff torment, while the Union are extremely likely to perpetuate theirs.)

That isn’t the group you want to be in, not least of which for what happened after the droughts ended. Read more »

Could John McCarthy be headed to the bench for Andre Blake?
Jim Curtin didn't rule it out Thursday. (Times Staff/TOM KELLY IV)

It should shock no one to state that the Philadelphia Union have an ignominious goalkeeping history. So it’s not surprising that the Union are on the verge of another inglorious distinction between the posts, potentially this weekend.

Jim Curtin strongly hinted Thursday at his weekly press conference that Andre Blake could be in line for his season debut Saturday against Montreal. The timing would seem to be right: Blake is recovered from surgeries on both knees in January, then May. He’ll leave for international duty with Jamaica for a two-leg tie with Nicaragua in the third round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying Sept. 4 and 8.

Here’s what Curtin had to say:

“We’re thinking about it. We’ll make a decision. Andre’s been called in to Jamaica three weeks from now, so there’s a possibility that it makes sense to give him a game or two.”

If Curtin plays the same loyalty card he did last year with Zac MacMath, it may be that he’s deemed John McCarthy as having earned the start in the Sept. 30 Open Cup final. That would position McCarthy to play a couple of games in late September to stay sharp.

In the meantime, Brian Sylvestre is on the shelf until his oft-reaggravated hand injury is fully healed. When the subject was broached two weeks ago, Curtin declared McCarthy the starter in Orlando. There was no such openness this week. Curtin also failed to conceal his disappointment with McCarthy in Sunday’s 3-3 draw with Chicago.

“Well, the game, not happy with how we executed at that 2-1, we had a lot of chances to get the third goal,” was how Curtin started his postgame press address. “Sean Johnson obviously had a very good night. He had a lot of key saves, a lot of big saves to keep them in it. I think we gave up four shots on goal and three goals. So, again, you know, you work so hard, you finally break through and get a goal.”
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Always a consistent performer, the Union's
Maurice Edu is becoming more and more of a leader.
(AP)

As training wound down next to PPL Park Thursday morning, the first question from the small group of media gathered was obvious: Was Maurice Edu hurt?

While other players worked on shooting drills or broke into small groups for games that double as first-touch lessons, Edu was off to the side with injured rookie Eric Bird, running timed sprints.

Outwardly, it appeared to be a sign of an injury, a minor tweak perhaps in the first half against AFC Bournemouth Tuesday.

But Edu wasn’t injured. With the defender suspended from Saturday’s game at Toronto, Edu was just putting in extra fitness work, voluntarily.

“I love seeing that,” Union manager Jim Curtin said. “I didn’t make him do that, but again, that’s a sign of his growth. That’s not something that he’s done in the past. For him to do that, I didn’t tell him to. I didn’t force him to. He did it on his own. It shows me that he has a real ambition even on a week where he’s not going to play.”

Edu has long drawn praise from members of the Union staff, last year in his loan stint from English Premier League club Stoke City and this season in making the switch permanent and essentially being installed as the captain. But the plaudits have intensified lately, especially from Curtin, who sees Edu blossoming into the leader that a young team like the Union requires. Read more »

UNION (4-2-3-1)

McCarthy

Williams-Edu-White-Gaddis

Pfeffer-Lahoud

Ayuk-Maidana-Wenger

Aristeguieta

Bench: Blake, Marquez, Fabinho, Fred, McLaughlin, Casey, Le Toux

Toronto FC (4-4-2)

Konopka

Morgan-Hagglund-Perquis-Morros

Jackson-Cheyrou-Bradley-Findley

Giovinco-Altidore

Bench: Roberts, Creavalle, Zavaleta, Lovitz, Warner, Moore, Osorio

Preview  

- Whatever Jim Curtin’s plan was this week was likely scrapped Friday with news that CJ Sapong would be suspended indefinitely after a DUI arrest that requires entering MLS’ Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health (SABH) program. Curtin had tipped him to be an option on the win, but instead, the struggling Andrew Wenger will have to struggle through their issues on the field instead of on the bench.

- One absence was expected, the other a later fitness test. But the Union will be without two components of the team’s spine in Vincent Nogueira (ankle) and Steven Vitoria (groin). That leaves Ethan White to return to central defense while Zach Pfeffer pairs Michael Lahoud in midfield. Against Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco, that’s a tall, tall task for the Union.

- As anticipated, Chris Konopka gets the nod in the goal for TFC, his first appearance since 2012 … with the Union … against TFC. More on that here. The Union, meanwhile, go with John McCarthy for a fifth straight game. He’s given up eight goals in his first four starts.

- On the bright side, the Union are 6-2-4 all-time vs. Toronto, their last loss coming in May 2012, that game Konopka started. On the downside, they are beat up and in desperate need of a result, and desperation rarely breeds success in PPL Park.

- In addition to Toronto’s Big 3, Greg Vanney goes attacking with Robbie Findley as a winger in the 4-4-2. Union got torn up on the wings last week in Columbus, and even with Sheanon Williams back in the side, Vanney sees an exploitable battle.

There is goalkeeping news surrounding the Philadelphia Union’s meeting with Toronto FC, and for once, it’s not involving the Union.

While there’s a little intrigue in Philly – Jim Curtin said Wednesday that he’s leaning toward John McCarthy as the starter for a fifth straight game as Andre Blake continues his recovery from knee surgery – it’s the visitors to PPL Park that will have a goalie change, which involves a familiar face.

Toronto manager Greg Vanney said this week that if starter Joe Bendik, who is suffering from a plantar fascia strain in his foot, can’t go, Chris Konopka would be the starter.

Vanney: "Joe Bendik is questionable due to a foot injury. Chris Konopka would start if Joe can't go." #TFCLive

— Toronto FC (@torontofc) April 30, 2015

Well, Bendik is listed as out on MLS’ injury report, and while a post on TFC’s site has him officially questionable, the team’s probable lineup features Konopka in goal.

If Konopka gets the nod, it’ll be his second MLS appearance in his sixth MLS season. The 2007 SuperDraft pick and native of Toms River, N.J., spent three seasons playing for Irish clubs Bohemians, Sporting Fingal and Waterford United.

Konopka’s last MLS appearance came with the Union May 26, 2012, the final MLS match in Peter Nowak’s reign, against … you guessed it, Toronto. That game, a 1-0 loss at BMO Field, was the first win for Toronto after nine straight losses to start a season that featured just five wins, one of the worst in MLS history. The goal was provided by ill-fated designated player Danny Koevermans, who called time on his career after a litany of injuries. It’s worth taking a look at the lineups, which included the unforgettable left-flank pairing of midfielder Kai Herdling and back Gabe Farfan. Who would’ve imagined Nowak was losing the plot?
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Jim Curtin isn't one to mince words. The Union delivered a performance in Saturday's 4-1 loss that earned them no right to sugarcoating. And that's what they got in Curtin's postmatch assessment. Some quotes from Curtin in Columbus:

Jim Curtin

On the match:
I actually thought the first 15 minutes, our guys came out and played very well. From that point on, we got embarrassed for the rest of the first half. We came in at halftime, talked about guys showing more commitment, showing me who wants to be on the field and be with the group. I thought we actually pushed the game a little bit and had a decent second half. But credit to Columbus. They’re a great team. They’re in good form right now, they’re confident and I think they’re a top team in our league.

On what to take from the game:
We’ll look at the tape. We’ll probably have some changes to our XI, that’s for sure. Any time you give up four goals, there’s some issues in the whole group. So we’ll look at it from the forwards all the way back to the goalkeeper and we’ll evaluate everything in between and put the best group on the field to get a result against Toronto.

On how the team will react:
They’re professionals, so they’re embarrassed. We got our asses kicked tonight. It’s unacceptable. We have to get up off the mat, though. We want guys that are going to stick with this thing. I learned a lot about a lot of players tonight, and the guys that stuck with it and pushed and the guys who bailed out. You want to be able to look yourself in the mirror after the game and say that you gave everything. That’s what we talked about before the game, and I think we got a lot of answers especially in the second half, and guys stuck with it.

Brian Carroll
On the match:
I thought the guys kept fighting even though we didn’t start off well and we had to claw ourselves back. Everyone stuck together and kept on working for one another. Shows me we’re still together and we’re ready to pick ourselves up and do better going forward.

On preparing for Toronto:
Really, we’re just looking for a win any way we can get it. Whether that’s making our own luck, whether that’s luck that happens, we’ll take it. We just want to stick together, work hard and do what needs to be done to get a win.

Philadelphia Union (4-2-3-1)

MacMath

Williams-Edu-White-Gaddis
Okugo-Carroll

Le Toux-Maidana-Wenger

Casey

Bench: Blake, Fabinho, Berry, Fernandes, Ribeiro, Brown, Wheeler, Cruz

Toronto FC (4-4-2)  

Bendik

Bloom-Hagglund-Henry-Morgan

Lovitz-Warner-Bradley-Osorio

Moore-Oduro

Bench: Konopka, Orr, Richter, Hall, Dike, Gilberto, Wiedeman

- Vincent Nogueira picked up a small groin knock that rules him out tonight, meaning the question of how Jim Curtin flows together all his midfield pieces will have to wait for yet another week. Cristian Maidana slots into the central attacking role, and Maurice Edu slides back into defense temporarily to pair with Ethan White in the absence of Carlos Valdes (international duty). Andrew Wenger, fresh off his brace against San Jose last time out, gets another deserving start at right wing.

- Look for the Union to try to exploit a battered Toronto backline missing Steven Caldwell and Justin Morrow. This is a team that has surrendered 11 goals in its last four matches, so expect the Union to get at them, perhaps targeting Nick Hagglund and Mark Bloom on the same side of the field with runs by Sebastien Le Toux and Amobi Okugo bombing in from deep in midfield.

- New manager Greg Vanney shakes a few things up for Toronto. In comes Daniel Lovitz, while it appears as though Dominic Oduro will be up front instead of on the wing. Gilberto apparently picked up a calf injury that will allow him to be on the bench, but his absence along with Jermain Defoe’s ongoing injury drastically hurts the Reds’ firepower.

- The key battle today, it would seem, is in the center of midfield. Michael Bradley can tip a game on its quickly, especially when he has a speedy forward like Oduro ahead of him. That puts the onus on Okugo and Brian Carroll to limit his touches and close down his time and space on the ball.

In all good faith, I can’t really recommend watching the replay of the Union’s rather lifeless 0-0 stalemate with Toronto FC to close out the Disney World Pro Soccer Classic (unless you have absolutely nothing to do). As nice as it was to see Michael Bradley and Maurice Edu go at each other in the center of the pitch, there wasn’t much in the way of coherent attacking soccer or excitement on either side. So to save you the trouble, a few observations:


- The Union’s attacking choreography has a lot of work to do. A lot. That’s not wholly unexpected, but the season is right around the corner, so some comfort needs to be achieved quickly. Where to begin? The idea of playing through the middle is stymied by congestion in that part of the pitch, either from the presence of Brian Carroll stepping up or Jack McInerney drifting back. That hampers the amount of space Edu has to operate, especially with Cristian Maidana and Sebastien Le Toux inevitably drifting inside, and it left Vincent Nogueira dropping way too deep and wide for possession. For as much as Le Toux brings, there are times when it would be beneficial for the Union to have a winger on the opposite side as Maidana who stays wide instead of slotting in centrally.

- Negatives aside, there are also undoubtedly positives. The overlap play with the fullbacks courtesy of Maidana and Le Toux is already more developed than at any point last season. Even from deep-lying positions, the distribution of Nogueira and Maidana is obviously impressive. Edu seems to be adapting well to the free rein he’s been given in midfield. And McInerney appears to be settling in well to the fluidity and movement of the attack.
Read more »

Plans have changed for the Philadelphia Union over the last few weeks. With so many moving parts in the playoff race, it’s no surprise that the projections are a bit of a moving target. Some of the previous estimates, well, they’ve proven not to hold up too well, thanks to a variety of factors.

With three weeks left in the regular season, the equation comes down to six teams vying for three spots in the playoffs (with New York already having clinched a spot and assuming Kansas City is essentially safe). Here’s what it would take for each team to reach postseason paydirt.

(Listed are all the relevant stats, including the top three tiebreakers, in order, of wins, goals scored and goal differential.)

Let’s start with the Union:

Union (12-10-9, 45 points); 38 goals scored, even
Remaining schedule: at D.C. United, at Montreal, vs. Sporting KC
The line for playoff qualification could be drawn by the Union. If they could somehow get two wins, then there’s really no way I see a team with 51 points missing out on the top five. They’ve managed results against each of the three teams they have left, twice beating D.C. (we’ll throw out the lackadaisical performance in the U.S. Open Cup), drawing at home with Montreal and beating SKC at home two weeks ago. If they could even get five points, they might be good, though two draws on the road and needing a win at home in the season finale against KC is quite the predicament. Could three points get them there? Conceivably. But two wins in the next three would all but guarantee it.

Houston (13-10-8, 47 points); 39 goals scored, plus-2
vs. Sporting KC, vs. Red Bulls, at D.C. United
Every MLS team’s worst nightmare is the Dynamo going into the playoffs with a head of steam. The Union, though not in a position to be picky, probably wouldn’t want to see a team that they’ve lost to twice this season and that eliminated them from their only playoff appearance in 2011. The Dynamo are 3-0-1 in their last four, but they don’t have a win against either of their next two opponents this season (0-3-1). Kansas City has a chance to clinch a playoff spot this week with a win, but New York is already in, so we’ll see how hard they push in a trip to BBVA Compass Stadium. Houston could run the table, but realistically two wins and a draw put them out of the reach of the teams behind them.
Read more »

Philadelphia Union (4-1-3-2)

MacMath

Gaddis-Parke-Okugo-Williams

Carroll

Fabinho-Farfan-Cruz

Casey-McInerney

Bench: Nikolov, Kassel, Daniel, Kleberson, Le Toux, Hoppenot, Wheeler

Toronto FC (4-4-1-1)

Bendik

Bloom-Caldwell-Henry-Morgan

Rey-Russell-Hall-Convey

Osorio

Dike

Bench: Frei, Agbossoumonde, Elmer, Earnshaw, Bekker, Lambe, Wiedeman

- No real surprises for the Union today. Knowing the stakes and their need to take the game to Toronto, you’d expect them to deviate from the two holding midfielders they used successfully last week against Kansas City. Brian Carroll sits back in midfield by himself, but the attacking trio of Kansas City – Fabinho, Michael Farfan and Danny Cruz – is preserved. Jack McInerney comes in for Michael Lahoud to pair Conor Casey up top.
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The Philadelphia Union made a personnel move Friday, trading reserve goalkeeper Chris Konopka to Toronto FC for a third-round pick in next year’s MLS SuperDraft. Perhaps the most stirring revelation of the trade is that what the Union got in return actually existed.

First, there’s Konopka, the 28-year-old ’keeper who joined the Union in 2012 and for whom Toronto is his fourth MLS stop. He made just one league appearance in nearly two years with the Union, a 1-0 loss to none other than Toronto May 26, 2012. Three days later, Konopka shut out the Rochester Rhinos, 3-0, for the Union’s first ever win in the U.S. Open Cup.

Konopka served as the backup for the first 24 league matches of the 2013 season behind Zac MacMath, who’s played every MLS minute and leads the league in shutouts. A knee injury kept Konopka out of the matchday 18 since Aug. 17, and he has been supplanted by veteran summer signing Oka Nikolov. 

Konopka, who was recently named one of the Philadelphia Daily News' Sexy Singles, was a bit of a fan favorite as backup goalies tend to be. He tweeted Friday morning:

I'd like to thank everyone at the @PhilaUnion for all the support over the past 2 yrs! Ill always look forward to coming back! #PhillyLove
— Chris Konopka (@ChrisKonopka414) September 13, 2013

As for the SuperDraft, which will be held in Philadelphia in 2014, the format has apparently changed. Instead of two rounds with a four-round supplemental draft, the latter has been eschewed for just a four-round SuperDraft this season, a fact that MLS never directly announced (there's even still info on the MLS site touting the supplemental draft).

However many rounds the league finally decides the draft will entail, the Union will be armed with an a bevy of picks. In addition to their four allotted picks, the Union have Chivas’ first pick thanks to the Gabriel Farfan trade, Chicago’s second-rounder in exchange for Bakary Soumare and a conditional pick acquired from Los Angeles in return for Chandler Hoffman.

The Supplemental Draft has been pretty friendly to the Union, as they've managed to extract the likes of Antoine Hoppenot in 2012 and Leo Fernandes in the final round of 2013. (Konopka, it should be noted, was picked in the third round of the 2007 Supplemental Draft by Kansas City.)

The league has jockeyed back and forth with the Supplemental Draft, twice dropping it then reinstating it, the last time being in 2011 after a two-year hiatus. Among the players to come through the Supplemental Draft process through the years: Adam Jahn (2013); Aaron Schoenfeld, Greg Klazura, Brian Rowe and Andy Rose (2012); Ryan Richter (2011); Chris Tierney (2008); Steve Purdy, Kosuke Kimura and Daniel Woolard (2007); Jordan Harvey, Andy Gruenebaum and Daniel Paladini (2006).

It seems that every week, the perception of MLS’ Eastern Conference changes. One week, Kansas City is up and Houston is down. The next week, the Impact are left scrambling, the Red Bulls are flying high and the Revolution’s upward trajectory is slowed. The Union know it well: From title contenders by beating Vancouver in Canada to falling behind thanks to a visit from Chicago.

The collision of Kei Kamara, left, and
Sporting Kansas City with Roy Miller's Red Bulls
Saturday provided more confusion than clarity
in a crowded Eastern Conference. (Associated Press)

Nothing stays stable in the conference, and this week seemed pretty tumultuous, just another disorienting flex of the Eastern Conference accordion, where teams seem to come together and separate at random.

Take the matchup of the top two teams, New York and Kansas City. The Red Bulls, who I’m still not fully convinced are as good as their point total indicates, get a rare contribution from Lloyd Sam to take it to SKC, 3-2. That puts the Red Bulls at the summit with 38 points, two points ahead of KC.
Read more »

Union boss John Hackworth had plenty to say today at his weekly press conference. Here are some odds and ends...

On evaluating talent in Ocean City:
There were a couple of guys. I think anytime you look at a PDL team like that, you’re looking at amateur players that are looking to be pros, and there’s certainly a lot of talent out there. There were, I would say, three guys that we liked and that we’re going to continue to track and maybe even bring in on trial. I think that’s one of the great things about the Open Cup is that you get these amateur clubs to play professional teams and whether it’s meant to or not, it becomes almost a scouting opportunity for the professional teams and a chance for these young players to really impress and get a chance.

On playing a PDL team:
It’s different, and we obviously with our staff know the PDL very well and we value that whole process. We think it’s invaluable for scouting and preparation for the draft and things like that. But in this case, there is really an opportunity to get a hands-on look at a guy.

On what he's looking for from Toronto Saturday:
My hope is that the game is a little different, but my expectation is that it’s not going to be really any different. I think they have some new players. They added some very quality players on the field, so it’s a different team a little bit for Toronto. I think that makes this a little interesting. I still think you’re going to have two clubs who are really fighting for points, and they’re going to try to go out and get a result and hopefully it’s a better soccer game than it was here, but that’s all we can ask for.

On the midfield chemistry between Michael Farfan and Kleberson:
With Kleberson and Michael, we’re happy with both of them. We think they’re continuing to develop a relationship, and I think that being able to play Michael on either side of Kleberson has been advantageous for us to try to figure out a better matchup for us. So we’ll look at that for sure. We were able to rest both in the U.S. Open Cup for the most part – Michael came on at the very end – but to those guys that have fresh legs and will be available, we always hope that you can continue to get better and those guys that are really important can continue to step up.

On the defense's recent play:
I would be lying to you if I told you that I was really happy with the last couple performances of … I wouldn’t call it our backline though. I’ve said this to our guys in the locker room: We have to be a team in every sense of the word. We have to make sure we do things on both sides of the ball that complement each other, so for me it’s not just the backline that shares that burden. In Montreal, it’s a little bit of a hard one to take when you give up five goals because we certainly were going for it from about 60 minutes on, so that leaves us very vulnerable, very stretched, and we put ourselves in a great position to get back in that game at 3-2 and then gave up a restart. That’s not necessarily our backline’s fault, that’s on our team on a restart like that. And obviously the fifth one – to me, if you lost 3-2 or 5-3, it doesn’t matter at that point. It matters on the stat sheet so people can pick you apart for that, but the bottom line for us is that we’ve got to be a better team defensively in all areas. Our backline certainly takes a lot of pride in that and we have to improve, but it’s our midfield too, our forward, we have to do it collectively.

On preparing for a different Toronto team:
Of course we’re looking at the game film. They’re different as I said earlier because they’ve added a lot of different pieces, and they can literally field a lineup that is 50 percent of guys that weren’t even here when we played earlier at PPL. I think we have to be ready for both, and certainly we’re going to try to play a little different style against them this time. And we’re studying how they played then and also how they’ve played recently. It’ll be an interesting game because it’s a little bit difficult to predict how they’ll play.

On the lack of Union players going away for international duty:
It’s good. Toronto lost a lot of guys midweek to Canada, and a lot of those guys played. I think (Darren) O’Dea went for the Ireland team. They have guys that are coming back, and it’ll be interesting. We played the Open Cup game. For us it’s just the matter of having the full selection from our roster, and that’s good. ... Not for me. I like those choices, because I think that it makes our job tougher, but it means that we have better quality.

On A.S. Roma being named the opponent for the 2013 MLS All-Star Game:
I think it’s really cool. I’m glad that Roma’s going to be the opponent particularly because I have a long relationship with Michael Bradley and to see him come play with Roma here in the states, I think it’ll be fantastic for him and a great opportunity for our All-stars.

The long-awaited departure of Bakary Soumare, whether it’s a habit among the Philadelphia Union to admit it or not, leaves a hole in the backline in terms of depth. For a team that has just navigated a stretch of three games in eight days, has another such streak looming and faces several more should the progress as deep in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup as they did last year, reinforcements are needed.

With Soumare headed to Chicago in exchange for a second-round SuperDraft pick and allocation money, the third-string center back appears to be Sheanon Williams, the starting right back. Paired with the trade of Gabriel Farfan to Chivas last week, that leaves the fullback options as Chris Albright (36 appearances in the last four-plus years), Matt Kassel (two career MLS appearances) or a converted midfielder like Michael Lahoud. So here are three possible options for the Union. Read more »

Toronto (4-3-1-2)
Bendik
Russell-Agbossoumonde-O’Dea-Morgan
Silva-Hall-Lambe
Ephraim
Braun-Earnshaw Philadelphia Union (4-3-1-2, I’m assuming)
MacMath
Gaddis-Okugo-Parke-Williams
Cruz-Carroll-Daniel
Le Toux
Casey-McInerney

- Buckle up: These are two attack-minded squads. Toronto names a squad with Hogan Ephraim, normally a forward tucked in behind single frontman Robert Earnshaw, in the side behind Earnshaw and Justin Braun. The Union meanwhile choose to employ Sebastien Le Toux, Jack McInerney and Conor Casey. We’ll see if that’s a 4-3-3 or it holds as a midfield diamond with Le Toux in the hole behind the forward pair.

- The flip side of this: It’s a narrow formation. Ray Gaddis and Sheanon Williams will have to get forward, especially if Le Toux tucks in instead of playing the wing. There are a lot of offensive players on the field, but it could easily descend into bombing long balls if there’s not enough midfield continuity.

- The Danny Califf homecoming story will have to wait. Though he is listed as being over the flu that kept him out of last week’s game against Dallas, he starts on the bench with Darren O’Dea and Gale Agbossoumonde preferred in central defense.

- The Union again name a defender-less bench, the closest thing to one being Gabriel Farfan. Kleberson joins the usual cast of Michael Lahoud and Roger Torres as well as Michael Farfan.

- The Union name the same back four: Gaddis and Williams at fullback, Amobi Okugo and Jeff Parke in the center. Also, the sky is blue.

- Both Gabriel and Michal Farfan start on the bench today. The last time that happened in an MLS game? July 2, 2011, though Gabriel came on as a sub in the 66th minute. The last time neither played in an MLS game was June 25.

- Some changes on the Toronto side. John Bostock isn’t in there as usual. I’m interested to see what Luis Silva can do in the midfield.

- Should be mentioned that former Union player and Southampton native Ryan Richter is on the bench for Toronto.

- I see like a 3-2 game here, Union on top. There will be some offense.

For your pre-game reading convenience, all my weekly coverage in one place.

Danny Califf, right, will make his return to PPL Park today
when his Toronto F.C. Team takes on the Union.
(Associated Press)

The story this week is the return of former captain Danny Califf, who will make his first appearance at PPL Park since being banished by former coach Peter Nowak 11 months ago. Califf is excited to make his return in front of the Philly faithful.

Speaking of last year, the 1-0 loss the Union suffered at Toronto last May seems a long time ago, for both clubs, each of which has undergone some serious changes from top to bottom since then.

And finally, the nuts-and-bolts preview of a game between a Union team trying to parlay road success into a home win and a transformed Toronto team riding high after drawing FC Dallas.