Club histories

Philadelphia Union

Also written as Philadelphia.

The club

Philadelphia Union were established on 28 February 2008 as Major League Soccer's sixteenth franchise, and began play in the league in 2010. The name was chosen through a fan poll held between 19 January and 6 February 2009, beating out alternatives including AC Philadelphia, SC Philadelphia and Philadelphia City, and refers both to the union of the Thirteen Colonies, of which Philadelphia was the first capital, and to the city's history as a centre of the labour movement. The club is owned by Keystone Sports & Entertainment, with Jay Sugarman as majority owner and chairman; the basketball player Kevin Durant holds a minority stake.

The Union play at Subaru Park, an 18,500-seat soccer-specific stadium on the Delaware River in Chester, Pennsylvania, near the Commodore Barry Bridge, designed by Rossetti Architects and ICON Venue Group and opened on 27 June 2010. The ground has carried three names on the same site: PPL Park from 2010 to 2013, Talen Energy Stadium from 2013 to 2021, and Subaru Park from 2021 onward. It was substantially upgraded, including new sound systems, premium seating and expanded hospitality areas, ahead of the 2025 season.

The club runs its own academy, YSC Academy, founded in September 2013 by Union investor Richie Graham as the first soccer-specific school operated by an MLS team, serving around seventy to eighty of the Philadelphia Union Academy's players across grades seven to twelve. This is Philadelphia Union the first team; it is a separate entity from Philadelphia Union II, the club's own reserve side in MLS Next Pro, and it is not to be confused with 1. FC Union Berlin, the German Bundesliga club that is also widely known simply as Union.

Bradley Carnell was head coach through the 2025 season and into 2026 but was dismissed on 27 May 2026 after a 1-10-4 start to the season; Ryan Richter, previously a coach with the club's development sides, took over as interim head coach. Carnell had replaced Jim Curtin, who left after the 2024 season having been in charge since 2014.

Recent seasons

Philadelphia won the Supporters' Shield in 2020, their first trophy, despite the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Jim Curtin winning the Sigi Schmid Coach of the Year award. In 2022 the Union reached the MLS Cup final for the first time, losing to Los Angeles FC. Under Bradley Carnell, hired in the 2025 offseason from St. Louis City SC and the New York Red Bulls, the club finished first in the Eastern Conference and first overall in MLS in 2025 with a record of 20 wins, 8 losses and 6 draws from 34 matches, 66 points, 57 goals scored and 35 conceded, taking a second Supporters' Shield and reaching the Conference Semifinals in the playoffs; the club also reached the semi-finals of the U.S. Open Cup that year, having entered that competition instead of the Leagues Cup because of its 2024 league finish. Tai Baribo was the club's top scorer in 2025 with 16 league goals, 17 in all competitions.

The 2026 season has been a marked reversal: as of 23 August 2026 the Union sit thirteenth in the Eastern Conference with a record of 5 wins, 10 losses and 6 draws from 21 matches, 31 goals scored and 38 conceded, a goal difference of minus seven and 21 points, twenty-sixth of all MLS clubs on the combined Supporters' Shield table.

Honours and landmarks

Supporters' Shield winners in 2020 and 2025. MLS Cup runners-up in 2022, the club's only appearance in that final. As Supporters' Shield winners in 2020 the club earned its first berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. Detailed U.S. Open Cup and Leagues Cup honours beyond the 2025 Open Cup semi-final were not established from the sources read here.

Notable scorelines

On 8 July 2022 Philadelphia beat D.C. United 7-0, a club record margin that also tied the all-time MLS record for the biggest winning goal difference in a single match. The 2022 MLS Cup final itself, against Los Angeles FC at Banc of California Stadium on 5 November 2022, finished 3-3 after extra time, Kellyn Acosta and Jesús David Murillo scoring for LAFC either side of a Dániel Gazdag goal for the Union, Jack Elliott equalising in the 85th minute and again in the fourth minute of the second period of extra time, before Gareth Bale forced a second period of extra time with a stoppage-time header; LAFC then won the penalty shootout 3-0, Andre Blake saving Cristian Tello's attempt but José Andrés Martínez and Kai Wagner both missing, with LAFC substitute goalkeeper John McCarthy named the match's most valuable player after saving two of Philadelphia's three spot-kicks in normal shootout order. In the difficult 2026 season the Union have also conceded heavily, losing 6-4 to Inter Miami on 24 May 2026 and 4-3 to Orlando City on 13 May 2026. The club's heaviest defeat in its history was not established from the sources read here.

Head-to-head notes

Philadelphia's most prominent rivalries in recent seasons have been with New York City FC and, on the older basis of regional proximity, the New York Red Bulls; a rivalry with FC Cincinnati has sharpened following player and staff moves between the two clubs. Specific aggregate head-to-head records against any of these three were not established from the sources read here.

Right now (2026)

Ryan Richter is interim head coach following Bradley Carnell's dismissal on 27 May 2026. The Union are thirteenth in the Eastern Conference with 21 points from 21 matches, 5 wins, 10 losses and 6 draws, 31 goals for and 38 against. Results have been mixed through the summer: a 3-1 win over the New York Red Bulls on 22 July 2026 and a 1-0 win over the Seattle Sounders on 25 July 2026 sit alongside earlier heavy defeats, a 3-1 loss at Atlanta United on 14 March 2026 and the 6-4 and 4-3 losses to Inter Miami and Orlando City noted above, plus scoreless draws with D.C. United on 18 April and Nashville on 2 May and a 3-3 draw with Toronto FC on 22 April.

The club has been active in the transfer market around the coaching change. Arrivals include the forward Ezekiel Alladoh from Ghana for a reported 4.5 million dollars, the defender Japhet Sery Larsen from Norway, and the defender Geiner Martínez from Colombia for close to 950,000 dollars, alongside the return of Kai Wagner from Birmingham City in July for a reported 4 million dollars. Departures have included the top scorer Tai Baribo, sold to D.C. United for a reported 4 million dollars, and the defender Jakob Glesnes, who moved to the LA Galaxy. The club's remaining 2026 playoff prospects were not established from the sources read here.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_MLS_Cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Philadelphia_Union_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Philadelphia_Union_season

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.