Philly has been an interesting team so far this season. They’ve been excelling in the Champions League while being unable to win their first regular season match of the 2021 MLS season. Beyond this the club has only registered one goal throughout over 270 minutes of play while conceding four. If we look at the reverse of that, in the Champions League the team has scored nine goals while only conceding one. Now this can be fairly easy to argue when analyzing that essentially the Union’s B team has been playing in the regular season while they’ve been resting their starters for the Champions League. This night’s match was an odd one though.

The match was an uphill battle for Atlanta who were already three goals in the hole after the first leg. This meant they needed to perform if they had any chance of advancing to the next round. They certainly seemed to try and make it happen. The best chances for Atlanta would come off of long balls over the Union defense that Atlanta would try to break on. This was thwarted time after time until just before the half when Santiago Sosa would turn on the Union’s Flach to break into the box and with a tidy finish he finessed the ball into the bottom right corner to pull some life into Atlanta seconds before halftime.

The second half would be a defensive battle for the Union. The fatigue from the previous weekends crippling loss to a man up NYCFC squad was showing. Atlanta got chances and came close on a few attempts. It was only after Cory Burke would come in that the Union would get the boost they need. At the end of the match Cory would pick up a long ball that he would expertly slide across the box, dicing two Atlanta defenders as it fell right at the feet of a wide open Przybyłko who would make no mistake this time slamming the ball right past a slow reacting Brad Guzan. You could visibly see the weight lifted off the Union with this goal. It all but secured their ticket into the semi finals. Everything seemed to be well until after the final whistle blew and Atlanta’s head coach Heinze would display a shocking lack of professionalism not shaking hands with Jim Curtin while also berating him for his teams performance. This heated exchange culminated with a post game quote from Curtin stating that while he respects the man he could still be a “sore loser” and an “asshole” at the end of the match.

The Union will now take on Club America in the semifinals of the 2021 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League.

[Photography by ICONIC photographer Trey Madara]