Bradley Carnell believes that he has introduced a winning mentality in Philadelphia Union prior to his first MLS match that is responsible against Orlando City.
The trade union missed the play -offs last season, despite the scoring of 62 goals (the most by each team to miss the late season) because they ended 12th in the Eastern Conference with 37 points.
Jim Curtin separated roads with the club in November, with Carnell, which was fired last July by St. Louis City SC and replaced him at the beginning of this year.
“We play to win games,” said Carnell. “We want to play with a certain energy, and we want to play to win if we play at home or away from home.
“So we are going to try to use every advantage that the opponent gives us. [Pre-season has] Good pre-relief for us, and we feel pretty good at home with whom we are dealing with.
“We focus on ourselves because we have a lot of work to do to ensure that we are ready for what we want to use and implement.”
It's (almost) time. #Doop pic.twitter.com/fdsyhx8nzj
– Philadelphia Union (@philaunion) February 19, 2025
In the meantime, Orlando hopes to imitate last season's success when they finished in the east before reaching the conference final, which they lost at the New York Red Bulls.
They have supervised great opportunities in the low season, in particular the departure of last season's top scorer Facundo Torres of last season, but they have also welcomed new additions, including Mario Pasalic, who is determined to run the ground.
“It is the mentality you have to do in the hard work. Everyone in Germany is like that,” Pasalic told the club's website.
“It's hard work, every day. Concentration, discipline. I am hardworking. I know nobody will give you a gift, you know? It's up to you. You have to work hard to get success.”
Players to watch
Orlando City – Duncan McGuire
With Torres that continues from Orlando, there is a hole to be filled, and Duncan McGuire hopes to swing if he plays, after he has undergone a shoulder operation in the low season.
Last season he delivered 10 goals in MLS, only four less than Torres, with his last goal that came against Philadelphia in October.
Working for the weekend pic.twitter.com/eh6jpb2dhs
– Orlando City SC (@orlandocitySC) February 20, 2025
Philadelphia Union – Bruno Damiani
Bruno Damiani was able to make his debut for the Union on Saturday and will try to have a similar influence on the person he made during his first performance for Nacional, with a 4-0 win in 2023.
Last season he scored 12 goals and five assists during the loan at Boston River, which ended the season as well as the second highest score of the competition.
Match forecast: Orlando City Win
Orlando City has won three of their last four games in the regular season against the Union (D1) after winning only four of their first 16 competition meetings with Philadelphia (D5 L7).
Orlando has never lost their season opening match (W3 D7), in which all 10 previous season openers are played at home. Orlando has not admitted since 2019 in their first game of a season, holding clean sheets in their last five curtain boots.
In the meantime, the Union won only nine games in the regular season 2024, the first time in club history she failed to win at least 10 times in a season of 34 games. The 15 losses from Philadelphia last season were the most since losing 17 games in the 2015 campaign.
Opta wins probability
Orlando City – 48.8%
Drawing – 25.7%
Philadelphia Union – 25.5%
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