The Union begin a defining stretch Saturday vs. first-place Cincinnati

After Saturday, the Union will have three straight weeks of midweek games. The good news is almost everyone is healthy, including recently-injured Dániel Gazdag and Jesús Bueno.

Dániel Gazdag on the ball during the Union's 1-0 loss at FC Cincinnati in April.Read morePhoto courtesy of Philadelphia Union

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Sept. 13, 2023, 3:13 p.m. ET

For the second time in less than a month, the Union are dealing with a stop and start to their regular season.

Last time, it was the Leagues Cup, which stopped regular-season contests from July 15-Aug. 26. This time, it was a FIFA international window over the last few days, which meant no game this past weekend.

It’s life in MLS, even if the Leagues Cup was widely viewed as unnecessary until Lionel Messi’s star power saved it. The Union got their share of benefit, too. Even though they got routed by Messi’s Inter Miami, they earned a Concacaf Champions Cup berth by winning the third-place game.

FIFA windows, at least, are something everyone’s used to. It’s good to not play MLS games during them, since ever more players head abroad to play for their countries. Everyone who doesn’t gets to slow down for a few days and rest sore muscles and minds.

Now it’s time to get back to business, and there’s big business at hand for the Union. First-place FC Cincinnati visits on Saturday (7:30 p.m., Apple TV, free) for a game that could be a preview of a playoff matchup.

And it’s not just the start of the race to the end of the regular season. After Saturday, the Union will have three straight weeks of midweek games: next Wednesday at Charlotte, Sept. 27 at home vs. Dallas, and Oct. 4 vs. Atlanta.

The good news is that five of the eight remaining games are at home. (The Dallas game was originally scheduled for Aug. 20 but had to be moved because of the Leagues Cup third-place game. The teams could have played this past Saturday but chose not to so they could be at full strength.)

“It’s cliché, but we’re going to need every guy to be ready,” Union manager Jim Curtin said in a news conference Wednesday. “Some games you might be called upon to close out a game and play three minutes at the end, some you might be called upon to start. But everybody has to be prepared and ready — fortunately for us, we’re relatively healthy.”

Cincinnati is as familiar an opponent as there is for the Union. General manager Chris Albright used to be No. 2 in the Union’s front office; manager Pat Noonan used to be one of Curtin’s assistants; and Ray Gaddis, Sergio Santos, and Alvas Powell played here. But that familiarity has bred quite some contempt, with crunching tackles and fierce words exchanged during recent games.

Unfortunately for the spectacle, both teams will have a star player suspended due to yellow card accumulation: Cincinnati’s MVP candidate Luciano Acosta and Union midfielder and captain Alejandro Bedoya. The visitors will still have U.S. national team striker prospect Brandon Vazquez, though, and a marquee new partner for him in a summer signing, Aaron Boupendza.

“It’s a shame a game of this — whatever word you want to use, magnitude, importance, significance — it’s a shame that it misses a player like Acosta from their side, it’s a shame that it misses a player like Bedoya from our side,” Curtin said. “They still are a great team that’s really hard to break down. They are missing one of their best players, but it will be a really difficult task to try to stop them.”

Bueno OK after injury scare

Jesús Bueno’s first call-up to Venezuela’s senior national team was cut short by a knee knock he suffered while in camp. There were fears that it might be a serious injury, but it proved not to be, and Bueno was on the field with the Union at practice Wednesday morning.

“Luckily, it’s recovered pretty quickly,” Curtin said, “and [he] was able to come back from Venezuela, return here and get some tests done, and felt good enough to train the past two days, which helps our group a lot.”

With Bedoya suspended, Bueno is first in line to start at that central midfield spot if he’s healthy enough.

Dániel Gazdag is back at full health after his own knee issue that flared up during his breakaway run to score against the New York Red Bulls on Sept. 3. Although the matter kept him from going to Hungary’s European Championship qualifiers, he seemed to be past it now, and Curtin declared him “100% healthy and fully training.”

Gazdag also said he was fine as he came off the field Wednesday.

There could be good news for Leon Flach, too, as he got a second opinion in Germany on his sports hernia and might not need surgery.

“We’ll try, I’ll just say, a different approach and a different procedure that could maybe get him back in about two weeks rather than longer,” Curtin said. “Once you have the surgery with the sports hernia, it becomes six to eight weeks depending on how you recover.”

He didn’t sound entirely convinced, though, so don’t get your hopes all the way up yet.

“We’ll try this procedure, see how he feels, see how he responds,” Curtin said. “But hopefully now, maybe, he can return and play a real significant role with us down the stretch of the regular season, and then into the playoffs — again, if all goes well.”

Remaining regular-season schedule

All Union games are broadcast on Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass streaming platform, which can be purchased for $29 for the rest of the season, or $25 if you’re an Apple TV+ subscriber. Some games are available for free, announced on a rolling basis.

Saturday: vs. FC Cincinnati, 7:30 p.m. (free)

Wednesday: at Charlotte FC, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 23: vs. Los Angeles FC, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 27: vs. FC Dallas, 7:30 p.m. (free)

Sept. 30: at Columbus Crew, 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 4: vs. Atlanta United, 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 7: vs. Nashville SC, 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 21: at New England Revolution, 6 p.m.