Game: Philadelphia Union vs. New York Red Bulls
Date: Wednesday, February 24th
Time: 7:00 PM
Venue: Clearwater, FL
Television: None
Streaming: Philadelphia Union.com
All Time Record: New York leads the series 10-2-6 in competitive matches, but Union handed them a 3-1 beatdown in the final preseason game last year.
How New York will look: RBNY will be playing their sixth preseason match, while this will be Philadelphia's fifth. Revving up to the beginning of the league season, they'll look to get a few more minutes out of their preferred eleven. Last match, their only loss from five exhibitions, every player was subbed for.
How the Philadelphia Union will look: Expect Union to play around a little bit with formation and tactics, using some players who did not feature Saturday vs Tampa Bay Rowdies. With just Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon left in the preseason, the trialists and Bethlehem Steel FC hopefuls have likely already been identified, and this may be a last look to see who becomes the best injury replacement for some time during the season. Unlike this past Saturday, they are playing another MLS side, so expect Union to play generally how they intend to going in to the regular season, with just a sprinkling of alternative players as experiments.
What to expect: I would normally say this is not about the score at the end of the match, but rather a look at how the Union are coming together and getting fit. However, this is against a division rival and Earnie Stewart's Union could do well to maybe make a statement in this match as a preview for the three regular season meetings. The visitors will be reminded by their manager Jesse Marsch of the defeat suffered last year in Florida, and come out to prove a point. The forecast is calling for cooler than normal temperature with rain, so I foresee goals being hard to come by for both sides.