Rate the U: Surviving New England to advance

Now that the games no longer count for the regular season, the motto of MLS is Back is surviving to continue living out of a suitcase in the bubble and play another day.

The Philadelphia Union survived the New England Revolution early Sunday morning by defending well as a team and a killer pass from Jamiro Monteiro to set up Sergio Santos for the game’s only goal.

The goal seem to be coming for Santos, who had his best outing so far in Florida, and who was sharper and more disciplined than he was in the first three matches if not as clinical as you want one of your two starting strikers to be before delivering the goal.

Andre Blake added to his MLS is Back-leading save total with five more stops, but he also got laudable performances from all four defenders in front of him — Ray Gaddis, Kai Wagner, Mark McKenzie and Jack Elliott.

Alejandro Bedoya and Brenden Aaronson had relatively quiet nights and Jose Martinez had a good kind of quiet night staying in the referee’s good graces and putting in another solid shift defensively despite being sloppy at times with the ball going the other way.

Jim Curtin was again conservative with his subs, replacing one player at a time with his three chances to sub: Ilsinho for Santos right after the goal, Warren Creavalle for Brenden Aaronson and Andrew Wooten for Kacper Przybylko who limped off the field with 7 minutes to play with muscle cramps. It was Wooten’s first minutes since 2019.

What did you think of the individual performances? Weigh in below.

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