Philadelphia Union kicked off their home opener with a 4-1 win against FC Cincinnati on Saturday night at Subaru Park. For the first time since 2011, the Union have won their first two games of a season. The Union also owns eight goals in the first two games to surpass their record for most goals scored in the first two matches of a season. Six minutes into the first half, forward Tai Baribo finished a cross from defender Kai Wagner to give the Union a 1-0 lead. Midfielder Daniel Gazdag capitalized off of a Cincinnati mistake and set Baribo up for his second goal of the night, extending the Union’s lead to 2-0. In the 51st minute, Baribo scored his third goal for his second career MLS hat trick. Forward Evander put one away for FC Cincinnati in the 58th minute, making the score 3-1. In the 93rd minute, forward Bruno Damiani scored his first goal for the Union in his debut for the club to make the final score 4-1.
The Union travel to Gillette Stadium to play the New England Revolution on Saturday, March 8 (7:30 p.m. ET / Apple TV).
Philadelphia Union 4 – FC Cincinnati 1
Subaru Park (Chester, PA)
Saturday, March 1, 2025
TODAY’S MATCH INFO
Referee: Allen Chapman
Assistant Referees: Corey Parker, Kyle Atkins
Fourth Official: Victor Rivas
VAR: Sorin Stoica
VAR Assistant: Tom Supple
Weather: 39 degrees and clear.
SCORING SUMMARY
PHI – Tai Baribo (Wagner, Q. Sullivan) 6’
PHI – Tai Baribo (Gazdag) 33’
PHI – Tai Baribo (Gazdag) 52’
CIN – Evander 58’
PHI – Bruno Damiani (Q. Sullivan) 90+3’
DISCIPLINARY SUMMARY
CIN – Nwobodo (caution) 75’
LINEUP
Philadelphia Union: Andre Blake; Kai Wagner, Olwethu Makhanya, Jakob Glesnes, Frankie Westfield; Danley Jean Jacques, Jovan Lukic ( Jesus Bueno 89’), Quinn Sullivan, Daniel Gazdag ( Indiana Vassilev 82’); Mikael Uhre ( Bruno Damiani 69’), Tai Baribo (Cavan Sullivan 82’) .
Substitutes not used: Andrew Rick, Ian Glavinovich, Olivier Mbaizo, Alejandro Bedoya, Chris Donovan.
FC Cincinnati: Roman Celentano; Deandre Yedlin ( Bret Halsey 58’), Teenage Hadebe, Miles Robinson, Gilberto Flores (Alvas Powell 70’ ), Lukas Engel (Kenji Mboma Dem 85’ ); Obinna Nwobodo, Tah Anunga (Pavel Bucha 58’ ), Evander; Kévin Denkey, Yuya Kubo (Corey Baird 58’ ).
Substitutes not used: Evan Louro, Peter Mangione, Stefan Chirila.
NOTES
- With the win tonight, the Union earned their first back-to-back wins to start a season since 2011.
- With eight goals in total, the Union surpassed their record for most goals scored in the first two games of the season (six in 2022).
- With four goals tonight, the Union tied their record for most goals scored in a home opener, set in 2023 with a 4-1 win against Columbus Crew.
- The Union improved to 8-4-4 record in home openers all-time with the 4-1 win tonight.
- With a pair of goals on Matchday 1 and a hat trick tonight, forward Tai Baribo became the fourth player in MLS history to score five goals in the first two games of a season, joining Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández (2021), Ayo Akinola (2020) and Brian Ching (2006).
- Defender Jakob Glesnes made his 150th career MLS start for the Union. Glesnes has become the sixth player in club history to reach this milestone.
- Defender Kai Wagner made his 170th career league start for the Union against FC Cincinnati. Wagner is fourth all time in starts for the Union.
- Daniel Gazdag recorded his 30th and 31st MLS assists with the Union, the fourth highest mark in the team’s history.
- Midfielder Indiana Vassilev and Forward Bruno Damiani made the matchday roster for the first time in their Union careers.
- Forward Bruno Damiani scored his first goal for the Philadelphia Union in his debut, coming on in the 69th minute.
- Midfielder Indiana Vassilev made his debut for the Philadelphia Union.
- Forward Tai Baribo is the league's leading goal scorer with five goals in the 2025 MLS season, he also scored his second hat trick in his MLS career.
- With his hat trick tonight, Tai Baribo scored multiple goals in back-to-back MLS games for the first time in his career, putting him at seven multi-goal games in all competitions for the Philadelphia Union.
- Homegrown midfielder Quinn Sullivan registered his second and third assists of the MLS season. This marks his third MLS game with multiple assists.
