Union’s playoff hopes dealt a big hit in draw with Atlanta United

With two difficult road games coming up and other results in MLS not going their way, the Union’s road to the postseason is now much more difficult.

The Union's Quinn Sullivan (left) on the ball during Saturday's game.Read morePhiladelphia Union

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Sept. 28, 2024, 9:54 p.m. ET

The Union’s playoff hopes took a major blow on Saturday in a 1-1 draw with Atlanta United at Subaru Park.

Nathan Harriel scored for the Union in the 61st minute, but Saba Lobzhanidze equalized in the 72nd, and the Union weren’t able to find a winner. It rarely looked like one would come, too, despite the Union having a 21-11 advantage in overall shots.

The Union (9-12-10, 37 points) are still in ninth place in the Eastern Conference with three games to go in the regular season, tied on points with 8th-place Toronto and 10th-place Montreal.

But with difficult road games at Cincinnati and Columbus in the next few days, and Atlanta (8-13-10, 34 points) and D.C. just three points back, the road to the postseason is now much more difficult.

Pushing early

Union manager Jim Curtin started Jack McGlynn and Quinn Sullivan in central midfield again to encourage his team to push the tempo, and that paid off. The Union had 62% of the possession and a 5-0 shot advantage in the first 23 minutes.

But unlike the last two games where that pressure produced early goals, this time the Union couldn’t score in the opening stages. Atlanta slowly grew into the game, and had four of the half’s last six shots, though none were on target.

At that point, it didn’t feel like the Union were too close to scoring, especially because just one of their shots had been on target. Of the seven overall, forwards Mikael Uhre and Tai Baribo had one each, as Atlanta’s defense focused on denying them the ball.

So it would take someone else to find the net, and someone else indeed did.

Harriel gives and takes

In the rare moments when Harriel has scored — this was just his sixth goal in 105 Union games — he has usually done so with his head. This time, he did it with a terrific swing of his right foot. Kai Wagner teed Harriel up with a pass that split two Atlanta players and swung back away from the four others who were waiting in the 18-yard box for a cross.

Harriel met the ball with a first-time hit that flew past Atlanta goalkeeper. The Subaru Park crowd that had waited all night to erupt finally did, and Harriel ran to the corner where the Union’s bench players were warming up to celebrate.

Wagner’s assist was his 51st with the Union, giving him the team’s all-time record. The record comes with a little bit of an asterisk, though. MLS counts hockey-style secondary assists, while the rest of the soccer world doesn’t.

Curtin made his first substitutions in the 71st minute, Danley Jean Jacques for McGlynn (who didn’t have a great game) and Alejandro Bedoya for Uhre. The moves shifted Leon Flach from the base of the midfield diamond to the spot McGlynn had been in, and Sullivan to the front line.

The newcomers were meant to be late-game closers, but they had barely settled on the field when Atlanta equalized. Harriel was caught twice in the buildup: backing off 18 on the left flank, then not properly closing down Lobjanidze when he ran to meet Brooks Lennon’s cross.

Flach exited in the 77th minute for Sam Adeniran, moving Sullivan back to the midfield. At that point, the only attacking options left to bring in were attacking midfielders Cavan Sullivan (who celebrated his 15th birthday on Saturday) and Jeremy Rafanello, forward Chris Donovan, and attack-minded right back Olivier Mbaizo.

Adeniran came closest to scoring the rest of the way in the 86th, with a first-time shot from close range that Guzan dove low to save.