Richter's Union went 13-2-4 but beat one team above them; New England beat them twice

The Philadelphia Union went 13-2-4 in league play after Ryan Richter took over at the World Cup break, a run that turned the team with the fewest points in MLS into the Eastern Conference's No. 6 seed. The catch is the opponent waiting in Round One: New England, the one East side that beat Philadelphia twice this season, bot/h times 2-1.

When MLS paused for the World Cup, the Union were dead last in the overall table with seven points and a single league win, a year after winning the Supporters' Shield. The club parted ways with Bradley Carnell on May 27, months after he was named 2025 Sigi Schmid Coach of the Year, and handed the first team to Richter, 36, who was coaching Union II in MLS Next Pro.

Richter brought Neil Pierre back from loan, welcomed Kai Wagner back from Birmingham City and paired Milan Iloski with Bruno Damiani up front. Iloski finished fifth in the Golden Boot race with 19 goals and seven assists, Damiani scored 13 (12 of them after the break) and 17-year-old Cavan Sullivan put up eight goals and 11 assists after the World Cup. Philadelphia closed the regular season with a 4-1 rout of Toronto at Subaru Park and finished sixth in the East, 11th overall.

The record comes with an asterisk the Philadelphia Inquirer spelled out this week: 12 of those 13 wins and two of the four draws came against teams that finished below the Union in the league-wide standings. The only win over a team ranked higher occured at Chicago last month, and it came with a man advantage in the second half.

New England are the clearest example of the gap. The Revolution won 2-1 in Foxborough in May, when Carnell was still in charge and Wagner was still in England, and then won 2-1 again at Subaru Park after Richter's arrival. That second loss is one of only two the Union suffered in league play under the interim coach.

Round One is a best-of-three series, with no extra time: a draw after 90 minutes goes straight to penalties. Game 1 is Saturday, November 21 at Gillette Stadium (2 p.m. ET), Game 2 is November 28 at Subaru Park and a Game 3, if needed, goes back to Foxborough on December 2.

Richter still carries the interim tag, and the club has not named a permanent coach since opening its search in May. He isn't treating the playoffs as a bonus. "Let's not make it now like, 'Guys, good second half of the season, this is a positive story for the year, and now it's over,'" he said. "When we have competed against the best teams in the Eastern Conference, I think that's exactly where we belong. We can beat any team, and we're going to approach te playoffs in that way."