United could be in for a hard time in the City of Brotherly Love

When United face off against Philly Union on Thursday morning they may not be in for as smooth a ride as expected.

I became aware of Philly through it’s boxing scene and the infamous term ‘Philly fighter’ where a boxer is deemed tough and prepared to go all out and leave it all on the line. The phrase was characterised by the likes of Benny Briscoe, Joe Frazier and probably most sadly Meldrick Taylor.

I spoke to Paul Metrinko from The Offside: Philly Union one of the leading Philly Union sites to get a run down of what the city is like and what our players can expect on field.

Last week Celtic came in, (whom we beat 1-0 if you hadn’t heard), and none of them could name a single Union player.  We wouldn’t expect them to considering this is actually the inaugural season for the club.  We were awarded a franchise late in 2008 but season number one is currently being played.

I don’t know how much you know about Philadelphia, but in general our fans are widely considered the most passionate, (usually to a fault), have the highest collective sports IQ and basically eat, breathe and sleep our sports teams.  Our teams have historically reflected the general attitude of the city which is a rough and tumble working class metropolis, (although in the last decade the city has gone through a massive amount of gentrification and is actually pretty trendy).  As a result we play rough, and have the reputation of being the bad boys of the sporting world, in much the same way you the EPL might look at a Newcastle.

Our teams rarely win championships, (our baseball team is the losing-est team in baseball history), and have a history of heartbreak.  Even so, sport makes up a majority of the lifeblood of this city.

The Union, only a few months old, has come to reflect a lot of what I was just describing.  They started the season with few well known players and in fact are the youngest team, (average age), in the MLS.  They played some sloppy, usually overly physical football the first month of the season and finished something like 3 of the first four games with 10 men.  They also had to start 9 of their first games on the road because the new stadium, PPL Park, wasn’t finished yet.  Man United won’t be playing Union there (as I’m sure you’re aware), instead  they’ll be playing at the Linc (Lincoln Financial Field) which is home to our American football team and seats about some 60 thousand plus people.  PPL Park is much smaller at about 18,000.

Things, as of late, have really seemed to turn around.  That in large part seems to be due to the fact that the team does not have to travel as much and having a majority of their games at home.  They also are starting to get some chemistry and finding a more consistent style of play.

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One of the players you should definitely be looking out for is Sebastien LeToux. He’s a French national, (although he’s never been capped and has said he would rather play for the US), who’s tied for fourth right now in the league for goals scored with 7, (in 12 games I think).  He also has a bunch of assists.  Usually he plays attacking midfield but sometimes Coach Nowak plays him up top.  He’s best though starting behind the forwards.  He’s really come out as the face of this young team and has shown a tireless work ethic on and off the pitch.