24-year-old Brazilian Sergio Santos comes to us from Audax Italiano in the Chilean League. He’s swapping Chile for Chester.

The rumor popped up a few weeks ago on Twitter, with Santos apparently breaking the news on a radio station down there. He also had interest from Mexican side Necaxa but preferred to play in MLS.

I don’t know much about the guy. He scored ten goals for Audax across all competitions last season and Transfermarkt has him listed as a left-footed center forward who can also play as a left winger and second striker.

Here’s a blurb from the Union website:

Santos boasts speed and strength, and it’s the directness of his game that should prove to be a good fit in the Union’s transition-oriented system next year. The 181 pound Brazilian is a mismatch for fullbacks with his size, and he presents huge problems for center backs with his speed. In short, he has shown the kind of raw ability that can make him a versatile option up front for the Union as they seek to flexibly adapt their tactics throughout the 2019 season.

6’0″, 181 is pretty solid. That’s the type of build for a tweener forward who can play up top but also do some damage on the wing or play in a pressing system. Houston’s Alberth Elis I think is a good comparison in the size and weight department.

Sporting Director Ernst Tanner spoke to the media today and said this, after the jump:

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Both of these reports come from a foreign outlet that I’m not too familiar with, so there’s your disclaimer.

Ghana Soccer Net says the Union are set to move both David Accam and C.J. Sapong.

From the article on Accam, who the club traded for less than a year ago:

FC Cincinnati, who begin their MLS play in 2019 as a club in the Eastern Conference, have targeted the Ghana international.

Accam, 28, has been identified as one of five current players in the Major Soccer League to help shape the core of their inaugural roster and could be selected during the Expansion Draft, expected to be released on Monday, December 10.

…

FC Cincinnati will likely take the gamble and engage in a draft-trade with Philadelphia Union for his signature.

And here’s the relevant information from the Sapong story:

Major Soccer League side Philadelphia Union are likely to trade Charles Nana Kwabena Sarpong to FC Cincinnati in a major trade, GHANAsoccernet.com understands.

The 29-year-old is among three players including compatriot David Accam who are being considered for the draft-trade.

If there’s any truth to these stories, it sounds like the Union are going to pull a pre-draft deal that would send one player to Cincy on the condition that they select the other in expansion.

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I wrote a somewhat rambling and cathartic diatribe after the Union bowed out of the playoffs with a feckless 3-1 loss in Yankee Stadium a few weeks back.

The crux of the story was how a major market team continues to perform like a small market team, and that just so happens to be the theme in a Forbes story published today that values Jay Sugarman’s franchise at 175 million dollars.

That sounds like a lot of money, especially considering the fact that Sugarman paid somewhere around 20 to 25 million dollars as an expansion fee when the team began playing back in 2010. That fee is now up to $150 million, so the value of the Union has grown by something like 500% just based on league-wide MLS expansion alone. Sugarman, the New York City businessman, could cash out now and make a very nice chunk of change on his investment.

The $175 million number places the Union in the bottom six in total MLS team value, ranked 18th of 23 franchises.

Here’s the top 12:

Philly is way down near the bottom, trailing traditional powerhouse sports markets like Portland, Orlando, and San Jose:

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You may or not care about soccer, but if you’d like to see a Philadelphia team play for their first trophy in franchise history, turn on ESPN 2 at 8 p.m. to watch the Union take on the Houston Dynamo in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final.

The Open Cup is a side competition that takes place concurrent with the MLS regular season. Think of the latter as your normal American sports season: the Phillies play the Mets, Nationals, and other teams and compete for the World Series. Now add a separate competition in the summer that involves the Phils, Mets, Nats, Augusta Green Jackets, and Toledo Mud Hens, and that’s basically what the Open Cup is. It’s just a competition that allows teams from all levels of the sport to compete for a separate trophy during the same calendar year.

Hopefully that makes sense. All you really need to know is that the Union get a chance to lift their first piece of hardware tonight, which would go a loooooong way towards getting them some respectability in town. This is a team that has underachieved dramatically from day one, and maybe they turn a corner and do the city proud by putting a piece of silverware in the trophy case.

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It doesn’t get much more Union than the past five days.

OF COURSE this team would find a way to concede four goals to Montreal at home in a must-win game, jeopardizing their playoff seeding and postseason hopes in general.

Then they turn it around in bizarro world fashion by going out to Seattle on short rest and shutting out the Sounders 1-0 with a 93rd minute smash and grab goal, ending the opponent’s MLS record nine-game winning streak in the process.

This Union season just continues to distort reality and redefine everything we previously knew about space, time, and human existence. It really does. This team was dead and buried not three months ago. The final nails were being driven into the coffin as the sporting director took off for greener pastures. The stadium was mostly empty and fans were fleeing the sinking ship without a second thought.

Fast forward to September 20th, and this group is now the winningest in franchise history.

“Winningest” isn’t a word, but whatever – thirteen victories is a franchise record, eclipsing the twelve-win mark John Hackworth’s squad put up in 2013. In more simple terms, no Philadelphia Union team has won more games than this squad of overachievers.

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Meet the Philadelphia Union’s very first mascot.

It’s a blue snake with a gold mohawk named “Phang.”

They hatched Phang out of an egg at the Philadelphia Zoo this afternoon:

The Philadelphia Union’s new mascot is a blue snake with a gold mohawk. Meet Fang the soccer fan pic.twitter.com/ZOXmC6xG84

— Anna Orso (@anna_orso) September 10, 2018

“It’s a snake! Doop doop doop.” 

Anyway, some Union purists are fundamentally opposed to having a mascot because I guess it’s a sidebar topic that detracts from the true goal of spending money and winning playoff games.

I personally don’t see what the big deal is. Families take their kids to the ball game and you get a picture with the mascot and have fun and do family things. Think about going to a Phillies game without the Phanatic. He/she/it is a local hero. Who doesn’t love the Phanatic?

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They’re actually the hottest team in town, if you can believe it.

They’ve won five games in a row and are now pushing for a home playoff game while also getting a crack at the U.S. Open Cup trophy next month. They beat the brakes off D.C. United last night and are putting together passages of play where they look more like 2004 Arsenal and less like the perennial underachievers that have slogged through eight underwhelming MLS seasons.

The midweek road win put the Union 10 points clear of the playoff line and prompted this quote from goal scorer Fafa Picault:

Fafa Picault: “We proved to people we don’t suck. Everybody thought we sucked.”

— Joe Tansey (@JTansey90) August 30, 2018

I’m floored, seriously, because this team looked like total trash for the first three months of the season. They couldn’t score, the defense was okay, David Accam and C.J. Sapong looked like they forgot how to play soccer, and the Sporting Director left for greener pastures after bringing in zero players during the summer transfer window. Really the only positive thing happening in Chester was the usage of a bunch of academy kids, which connected the youth pipeline from YSC to Bethlehem Steel and on to Talen Energy Stadium.

The reality of the situation is that the Union are now one point behind Columbus for 4th place in the Eastern Conference, a seed that would see them host the 4/5 wild card game at Talen in October. Last night’s win was the 12th of the season, tying the 2013 squad for most wins in a single year. The five-game win streak (all competitions) sets a new franchise record and they also haven’t allowed a goal since August 11th.

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