Rate The U: Jack Elliott got the votes for another player of the week honor

For the second week in a row and third time this season, Philadelphia Union defender Jack Elliot received the most votes in our Community Player Ratings poll with an average rating of 4.63 out of 5.

Elliott has played every minute of every match so far this season and has earned the starting position. He was awarded a new contract this week that will keep him with the team through 2021 with a club option for 2022.

The Philadelphia Union faced a tough opponent last Saturday night against the Seattle Sounders and ended up tying the game 0-0. The points dropped were tough to swallow since the Union was able to keep 67.9% of the possession and kept constant pressure against the bunkered Sounders. The Union were unlucky to put on past Stefan Frei, who would end up having 6 saves by the end of the night.

Ilsinho (4.42), Brenden Aaronson (4.17) and Jim Curtin (4.1) are in the top 4 this week behind Elliott. Ilsinho was subbed in to play for 33 minutes and was able to use his footwork to dance behind a few defenders at the end of the game to create a couple of chances. Aaronson started over Marco Fabian in the number 10 role with Marco recovering from a re-aggravated ankle injury. Curtin is still impressing the masses and hopefully a strong candidate for coach of the year since his club remains in first place in the Eastern Conference.

At the bottom of the listing is Sergio Santos (3.02), who had his first start. This was a highly anticipated start for the pacy striker, in a game where the Union could have used some help scoring. In the end it was a disappointing performance for the Brazilian, who was only able to manage one shot off in 57 minutes before being subbed off for Ilsinho.

I don’t believe that you should be too harsh on judging Sergio for this performance, it was clear that Seattle came to play a defensive game and keep 11 players back and to keep the final third of the field crowded. I look forward to seeing what Santos can do with more of an open field.

The Union will stay home this week and face The Portland Timbers this evening at 7:30 p.m. at Talen Energy Stadium, then will return home Wednesday and face off against Keegan Rosenberry and the Colorado Rapids.