The circus is officially coming to the Chester Waterfront. The Philadelphia Union defeated Querétaro FC 2-1 in the Quarterfinals of the Leagues Cup tournament Friday evening at Subaru Park, setting up a Semifinal match on Tuesday against Inter Miami and Lionel Messi, the most popular athlete in the world today and arguably the greatest to ever play the sport. The hottest sporting event ticket in the Philadelphia area this summer will have the attention of celebrities trying to score tickets for Instagram moments, members of the press scrambling for credentials, and fans around the world ponying up for Apple TV+ subscriptions. Jesús Bueno and Chris Donovan scored for the Union and Ángel Sepúlveda had the goal for Querétaro.
The Boys in Blue got things started early this time after conceding early against the Red Bulls on Tuesday. An early chance came in the 10th minute when Jack McGlynn fielded a cross just inside the box and sent a pass towards the net which glanced off a defender to find Jesús Bueno in the center of the box to get a shot into the bottom left corner of the net to take an early 1-0 lead. As with most of the Leagues Cup matches so far, the officials started to lose control of the escalating tensions around the 20th minute leading up to a bizarre incident where Pablo Barerra of Querétaro slapped Damion Lowe in the back of the head near the end line on the river end, but no fouls were called and no cards issued even though players needed to be physically separated. The match remained tense but the rest of the half passed mostly without incident with the halftime score remaining at 1-0.
The second half quickly returned to sloppy fouls with José Martinez and Oscar Mazanarez quickly earning yellow cards in the first five minutes of the half. In the 65th minute Jaime Gómez sent a long cross from about 25 yards out on the right side, landing perfectly in the center of the box for Ángel Sepúlveda to kick the ball out of midair and past Andre Blake into the bottom right corner of the net to tie the match at 1-1. Carranza was knocked into the goal post by a Querétaro player and was injured, again with no foul called. Carranza had to exit the game for Quinn Sullivan in the 80th minute for the Union’s final substitution. Marco García earned a yellow card in the 86th minute and the ensuing free kick by Jakob Glesnes sailed high into the river end seats. In the 90th, Emanuel Gularte earned another yellow for Querétaro, setting up a Bueno free kick that went high.
A whopping ten minutes of stoppage time were added on due to all of the injury stoppages in the second half. At 90+7’ Joaquín Torres was on the attack just outside of the penalty area when he was clotheslined in the neck by Omar Mendoza, earning Mendoza his second yellow card of the night and an early trip to the locker room. Sepúlveda earned another yellow a few minutes later during the stoppage before Kai Wagner’s ensuing free kick went through the pack and went off the left post. In the waning moments of the game in the 10th minute of stoppage time, Torres sent a through ball up to Kai Wagner just outside the box on the left side, who found Chris Donovan coming into the box on his right. Donovan fielded the pass in the center of the box and sent a shot past Fernando Tapia. Replay footage was reviewed to see if Donovan was offside at the time of Wagner’s pass but the video showed Donovan as so close to even with Wagner that it was a very difficult call to overturn, so the goal stood and launched the Union into the Leagues Cup Semifinals. Right after the final whistle a massive brawl broke out between the two teams with players and staff from both teams screaming at each other and trying to physically separate players from each other. The affair took several minutes to sort out and several postgame red cards appeared to be issued to Querétaro players, so Liga MX and possibly MLS are sure to issue disciplinary fines and possibly suspensions once they review the footage.
In the postgame press conference, coach Jim Curtin said the team started with intensity, but got a bit too comfortable after that:
“Give the guys credit for continuing to fight and having a response. I love this group because they do play to the absolute final whistle…We look forward to hosting the greatest player in the history of the sport in our building. It will definitely be the loudest Subaru Park will ever be. It’s a great matchup and one that If we play like tonight we’ll be in big trouble.”
Curtin praised Inter Miami and the league for how this has come together, but he’s confident his squad is up for the challenge:
“As you start to look at what Miami and their ownership group has done to make this happen, it’s amazing. It’s perfect for the league and the way that Messi has lived up (to the hype), and almost done even more, is what superstars do. Jordan, Messi, whoever it is, these are guys that have pressure on them every second of every day and they still produce every time. It’s going to be an honor to play them, but once the whistle blows our guys are going to give it their best and I know we won’t be scared, we’ll be brave. In this building, I’ll just say anything can happen. At Subaru Park we’ve been pretty damn good over the last 50 games, and we know it will be tough but we look forward to the challenge.”
Curtin sent another message to the Union supporters, “It’s a big game, I know our fans are going to show up. Please don’t sell your tickets no matter how much money they’re offering.” Chris Donovan was unfazed by the high pressure situation of this match, almost relishing the opportunity: “For me it’s never about pressure, it’s just about an opportunity to go ahead and make a difference. So Jim told me to go in, do my thing, and get behind their back line and thankfully I was able to make it happen.” Kai Wagner echoed his coach’s sentiments, confident in his team and the fan support next week: “Of course it’s a great thing for everybody to play Messi now, but we just have to play our style, we should not see who’s coming or who’s not coming and we play at home, we know what we can do at home, and that’s what we have to do.”
News and Notes:
- Daniel Gazdag missed this match after suffering a Grade 1 knee sprain in the last match against Red Bull. Jim Curtin was optimistic he will be available for the Miami game on Tuesday along with team captain Alejandro Bedoya who has missed all of the Leagues Cup matches so far after getting injured in the match against NYCFC on July 15.
- Jim Curtin said in the press conference that Julián Carranza injured his hamstring in the second half but it did not appear to be major. An MRI will confirm the damage, and his availability for Tuesday is questionable.
- With Monterrey’s victory over LAFC on Friday, the Union are the highest seed remaining in the tournament, so they are guaranteed another home game Saturday August 19 in either the Leagues Cup Championship or the Third place game depending on Tuesday’s result.
- The semifinals schedule for Tuesday August 15 is set for Inter Miami at Philadelphia at 7pm and Monterrey FC (the last Liga MX team standing) at Nashville SC at 9:30. All Leagues Cup matches are streaming on Apple TV+.