Don't miss the Union's second leg of the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League against Atlas FC on Tuesday night starting at 10PM ET on FS1.
Since the start of the 2023 season, Head Coach Jim Curtin has said the club is going after every single piece of silverware. After grabbing a 1-0 lead in the series against Atlas FC in the first leg, the Union were going to do whatever it took to be in the best position to leave Estadio Jalisco with a ticket to the semifinals.
That meant heavy squad rotation on the road at FC Cincinnati in league play where the Union went 3-5-2 against the Eastern Conference leaders and nearly grabbed a point if not for a penalty kick goal in the second half. The silverware doesn't come until December for league play especially with the revamped playoff format. Long-term thinking is for the MLS regular season. The Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League Semis are just 90 minutes away. It's play well now or go home.
Going into a hostile environment in North America's biggest tournament will mean generating shots on the counter and making the final step into tackles in the defensive third. The Union are still immensely talented and can go blow-for-blow with an Atlas side that currently sits just below the playoff line in Liga MX with a 2-8-4 record. They'll need to bring their fearlessness and swagger.
The swagger comes through in combination plays at the top of the attacking third, and in the directness of the first pass after a turnover. It’s expressed in a willingness to make runs off the ball to test and tease a defense instead of waiting to make the run most likely to receive the ball. The speed and certainty of the team’s off-the-ball movement is a barometer of the Union’s confidence and a measure of the gap between their current and peak forms; on Wednesday night, Philly needs that gap to be small.
Fresh legs will be important against the Liga MX side that has proven they can quickly seize a match. In their CCL Round of 16 they returned home down 4-1 and rallied back for a 4-0 win to earn their showdown against the Union. Atlas will be down two starters after center back Anderson SantamarÃa was shown red in first half stoppage and midfielder Brian Lozana picked up his second yellow card of the tournament to earn an automatic one-game suspension.
Atlas is led by Julian Quinones and Jonathan Herrera. The former scores and the latter dishes out helpers while occasionally chipping in with one of his own. Over the past three weeks, these two have combined for 8 goals and an assist.
Kickoff from Estadio Jalisco is set for 10:00 p.m. ET and the match will be televised live on FS1 and TUDN.
