Philadelphia Union are one win away from the Supporters Shield

Drew Smith
October 1, 2025
Union
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The Philadelphia Union walked into D.C. on Saturday night, dropped six goals on United’s corpse of a season, and walked out knowing the rest of Major League Soccer basically gift-wrapped them a chance at silverware.

After weeks of “they need to win out and pray for chaos,” the Union can now clinch the Supporters’ Shield this Saturday at Subaru Park against New York City FC.

From Needing Help to Controlling the Race

Last week, five teams were still technically in the Shield hunt. Then MLS did its thing and completely imploded.

Messi’s Miami: Drew at Toronto and then got carved up 5–3 by the Chicago Fire.
San Diego: Lost at home to San Jose despite having the ball the entire night.
Vancouver: Drew twice, maxing out at 66 points with fewer wins than Philly.
Cincinnati: Blew it at home Sunday when Orlando scored a stoppage-time equalizer.

That left Philly sitting four points clear with two games left. Destiny firmly in their hands.

Union Drops a Six-Piece in D.C.

Of course, none of that matters if the Union don’t handle their business and they did in hilarious fashion. D.C. actually came out swinging, hit the post twice, and looked alive for 30 minutes. Then Bruno Damiani opened the floodgates and it turned into a slaughter.

Final score: 6–0 Union.

Mikael Uhre was everywhere scoring, assisting, and forcing own goals. Indiana Vassilev bagged a brace. Milan Iloski had his fingerprints all over everything. It was less a soccer match and more a public execution.

That’s now 7–0–2 in their last nine against D.C., outscoring them 36–3.

Saturday Is Simple

So here we are. The Union sit at 63 points. Beat NYCFC this weekend and it’s 66 with 20 wins, mathematically untouchable. No messy tiebreakers. No scoreboard watching. Just a trophy on home turf.

NYC isn’t a pushover. They’re unbeaten in nine, sitting third in the East. If the Union somehow choke and stumble to a couple draws, things get ugly fast. Miami, Cincy, and LAFC all lurk with the potential to tie on points and play the tiebreaker game.

This Union team has smashed weaker opponents all year, and now they’ve got a chance to finish the job in front of the home crowd.

Win Saturday, lift the Shield. No excuses.