Julián Carranza is back from a hamstring injury and ready for Saturday’s quarterfinal

Perhaps the only good thing about the long wait between the Union's playoff games is that it has given Carranza time to heal.

Julián Carranza (center) tries to corral a loose ball during a game of soccer tennis at Monday's Union practice.Read moreJonathan Tannenwald

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Nov. 20, 2023, 5:13 p.m. ET

After returning from a hamstring tweak last Wednesday, forward Julián Carranza is on track to be just fine for the Union’s Eastern Conference semifinal playoff game at FC Cincinnati on Saturday (8 p.m., Apple TV, paywalled).

Carranza suffered the injury during the Union’s playoff opener at home against New England, which was way back on Oct. 28. He missed the second and final game of the series, Nov. 8 on the road.

Those were the Union’s 49th and 50th contests of the year. Carranza played in 44 of them. So it wasn’t surprising to hear him say he suspects the injury came from overuse.

“I was, I guess, tired of the accumulation of all the games that we have played,” he told The Inquirer after Monday’s practice. “I was just feeling tired, and my hamstring wasn’t feeling good. During the game against New England, I remember I ran twice and I felt the pain, so I came out.”

Carranza said a subsequent MRI found a minor tear.

Perhaps the only good thing about the Union having 17 days between playoff games is that Carranza had time to heal. Centerback Jakob Glesnes is making progress in his recovery from sports hernia surgery, too — speaking of injuries from overuse — but it’ll be a while before he can play.

Cincinnati, meanwhile, hasn’t played since sweeping the New York Red Bulls on Nov. 4. Carranza finds that as absurd as everyone else who doesn’t work for Apple TV or MLS headquarters.

“Obviously we don’t like to wait for these kind of games,” he said. “I think nobody likes that. I think we could do something better, the league could do something better next year. … I’m talking for myself, for my team, for other teams, that nobody likes this. It’s what it is.”

When the time finally comes, Carranza and his teammates will be ready for another grudge match against Cincinnati. It’s become quite a rivalry of late, with all the former Union players (Ray Gaddis, Alvas Powell, and Sergio Santos) and staff (manager Pat Noonan and general manager Chris Albright) over there, and all the tackles that have flown in recent games.

And Carranza hasn’t forgotten that the Union blew a 2-0 lead against that team in Chester in September.

“After we committed two mistakes, they scored their two goals,” he said. “I believe we are very strong as a team and that it’s going to be a nice and fun game. We believe that we can go and win it, so that’s our mentality, and that’s how we are going to Cincinnati.”

If the Union win Saturday, they’ll be in the Eastern Conference final for the third straight year. No MLS team has reached three straight conference finals since the Houston Dynamo in 2011-13. (Union fans with long memories know that 2011 team beat Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference semifinals, in the Union’s first trip to the playoffs.)

The Union would visit No. 2 seed Orlando or No. 3 Columbus in the conference final on Dec. 2. Win that game, and the MLS Cup Final would be at Subaru Park on Dec. 9.

In fact, the title game is guaranteed to be at the Eastern Conference winner, because all four remaining Eastern teams had better regular-season records than Western Conference quarterfinalists Seattle, Los Angeles FC, Houston, and Kansas City.

There’s a lot to do between now and then, but the prize is so big that it’s hard to avoid looking ahead. Unless, of course, you’re a professional athlete whose job it is to not look ahead.

“To be honest, we’re just thinking to play game by game,” Carranza said. “We did that the entire year last year as well. So we don’t think [about] what is in the future — we just think about the next game, in this case, Cincinnati.”

As he noted, that strategy worked just fine last year, including a conference semifinal win over Cincinnati at Subaru Park.

“And after we win, we have another final,” Carranza continued. “It’s not easy to win this type of game, so we just focus game by game. And if we get to play the final at home, there’ll be something extra for us — and then it’s going to be nice to play the final at home, yes.”