Bradley Carnell guided St. Louis SC through his first two seasons as an expansion team but he was dismissed in July when he could not follow up a surprising first season.
Six months after his shooting, Carnell was hired by Philadelphia Union, and his new team is on his way to a strong start on Saturday’s visit from St. Louis in Chester, Pa.
“I will welcome many faces and people I keep in touch with all the time,” Carnell said. “There are special memories for sure, but at the end of the day there are three points on the line and another game.”
Philadelphia (3-1-0, 9 points) dropped Carnell to succeed Jim Curtin after 11 seasons after it won nine matches last season and missed the mail season for the first time in 2017. Carnell monitors the most productive crime in MLS when the Union scored a league-best 11 goals through the first four weeks.
The Union scored 10 goals during the first three weeks when they served victories over Orlando, FC Cincinnati and New England Revolution. Last week they gave up two goals for the first half and a penalty kick in a 3-1 home loss to Nashville. Jovan Lukic scored, but Tai Baribo was kept speechless for the first time this season and held his league leader in a total of six.
Baribo will be among seven players missing for the Union because of participating in the Israeli national team as part of FIFA’s international windows. Missing for Philadelphia comes Jesus Bueno, Daniel Gaz Day, Danley Jean Jacques, Neil Pierre, Frankie Westfield and goalkeeper Andre Blake.
St. Louis (2-0-2, 8 points) is undefeated despite the fact that they have so far scored four goals due to a defense that band 2007 New York Red Bulls and Vancouver Whitecaps 2012 for the longest suspension to start a season. If it keeps Philadelphia aimlessly for 68 minutes, St. Louis to surpass 2012 Whitecap’s land in 427 minutes for the longest shutdown to open one season.
“We are really focused on us,” said St. Louis defender Kyle Hiebert. “I think there is a sense of knowledge between what we should do, and we know what he will try to do too.”
After opening with speechless draws against Colorado and San Diego, St Louis received a 3-0 road victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy and followed it up with last week’s 1-0 victory over the visitors Seattle Sounders. Eduard Lowen scored in the 15th minute and Ben Lundt just had to save after starting goalkeeper Roman Burki injured his hand before the match.
-Field Level Media
