2024 MLS opener vs. Chicago Fire
By Mike Shute
Starting off a season without one of the cornerstone players of your franchise isn’t ideal but it seems to be the predicament Jim Curtin and the Philadelphia Union face as they open the 2024 Major League Soccer campaign Saturday night (7:30 p.m., Apple TV) at Subaru Park in Chester, PA, against the visiting Chicago Fire.
The Union, which basically brought back everyone from from last year’s team that finished 2023 with 15 wins, nine losses and 10 ties (55 points), good for fourth place in the Eastern Conference of MLS. The Union were ousted in the Eastern Conference semifinals, falling to top-seeded FC Cincinnati. A large majority of the squad has been together for a few years now, including the 2022 Eastern Conference champs that fell to LAFC in the MLS Cup final, and has put together the best run of success in franchise history. So the team’s consistency and continuity should be a strong point for Philadelphia and that will be bolstered by the young players on the team gaining experience and physical strength, players such as Quinn Sullivan, Jack McGlynn and Julian Carranza.
Another Union starter who is out for some extended time is midfielder Leon Flach who suffered a torn pectoral muscle at the start of training camp. Flach, who turns 23 on Feb. 28, will be out for at least three months. But young(er) standouts Sullivan (19) and McGlynn (20) are ready to step in. In fact, McGlynn and Flach bounced in and out of the starting lineup, platooning at one midfield position, with McGlynn’s time increasing as Flach dealt with a sports hernia that caused him to miss eight games late in 2023.
But when it comes to bringing back their core, the Union most notably welcomed back captain and midfielder Alejandro Bedoya as well as left back Kai Wagner, both of whom were free agents entering 2024. It looked initially as if neither would return but both are back in blue and gold.
Meanwhile Chicago comes off of a 10-win, 14-loss, 10-tie season that saw the Fire finish in 13th place of the Eastern Conference. The team made some big splashes in the transfer market. They brought in forward Hugo Cuypers and, in the process, established a franchise-record incoming transfer mark when signing him for a reported $12 million A designated player striker, he signed from Belgian squad Gent for whom he recorded 51 goals to go along with 15 assists in 90 matches played. The Fire also brought in MLS veteran Kellyn Acosta (18 goals, 25 assists, 252 MLS matches) to bolster the midfield but did not bring back Kai Kamara after his one and only season in the Windy City. Kamara, who is third on the all-time MLS goals list with 144, had five goals and two assists last year. Fire manager Frank Klopas returns to lead the team after taking over in an interim role to finish out 2023. He has held the interim title two other times for the Fire while also having the head coach role from 2011 to 2013.
Philadelphia owns 16 wins and eight ties against Chicago in 34 all-time meetings.
Coming into the season, it was paramount for the Union to sign a capable back-up keeper entering 2024 because the team knew it would be without the 33-year-old Blake on at least a couple of occasions throughout the coming season as he is, of course, the starting keeper for the Jamaican National team. However, the plan did not consider Blake being unavailable for Saturday’s season opener as he enters his 11th MLS season. However, the three-time MLS Goalkeeper of the Year has a strained adductor suffered in Tuesday’s CONCACAF Champions Cup opening round, 3-2 victory over Deportivo Saprissa in Costa Rica. Blake sat down on the field and was tended to by members of the team’s athletic training staff for a couple minutes in the second half before ultimately remaining in the game. However, center back Jacob Glesnes took any goal kicks over the remainder of the game.
As of Friday, Blake was officially listed as a gametime decision, but given the cold temperatures expected and the fact that the team has the second leg of the Champions Cup opening round Tuesday at Subaru Park, it’s probably unlikely Blake plays.
And if that is the decision, step in newly signed Oliver Semmle, a 25-year-old German, who has never appeared in an MLS match. Semmle, who was officially signed by the Union on Jan. 31, comes from USL Championship side Louisville City FC, for which he made 72 saves and posted a league-high 13 clean sheets in 34 games played in 2023.
The other keepers in the organization include 2023 Union draft choice Holden Trent, a 24-year-old High Point University product who had an injury-plagued first season as a pro, and Union II keeper Andrew Rick, an 18-year-old who had two clean sheets in 19 starts in 2023.
“Oliver’s been an excellent goalkeeper in USL at Louisville for quite some time. He did a great job there. We see a guy who’s progressed and is ready for this next step. If he’s called upon (Saturday), I know he’ll be ready, the backline has full confidence in him, and he’s done really well in training getting acclimated to his team,” Curtin said. “He has to be Oliver, that’s all we’re going to ask him to be, and to do his job if he’s called upon. Just like any player, I want him to have a hunger to be on the field, and if that’s the case, we’re perfectly comfortable with that.”
Blake was expected to miss some time with the Union at the end of March as he’ll be representing Jamaica in the final four of the CONCACAF Nations League. He was also expected to miss time over a stretch from June to July for the CONMEBOL Copa America.
That first expected stretch without Blake was supposed to be a month away when Jamaica is scheduled to face the United States on March 21. So the timeframe for Semmle is hastened a bit, but being there to fill in for Blake is why the team brought him to Philly. Saturday could be his first opportunity.