HOUSTON — There’s a reason any dose of optimism sensed by Philadelphia fans is met with caution.
The words failure and letdown are common in the Philadelphia sports vernacular because those emotions have been experienced much more than the joy that comes from celebrations.
Take it from a Philadelphia Eagles fan who lives and dies with every snap on Sunday afternoons in the fall, there are few fan bases that can match the passion Philadelphia fans bring to every game.
But even with the internal warnings telling fans to drown out optimism with the worst-case scenario, there was plenty of reason to believe Wednesday afternoon, three hours before the 2018 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final, that the Philadelphia Union would leave BBVA Compass Stadium with their first trophy in club history.
“We’re always cautiously optimistic, but I think we can put a little bit of emphasis on the optimistic,” Sons of Ben supporter group member Kevin Leech said. “I really like that we beat Seattle and Kansas City (in the last two games) this week. I think that’s maybe a little bit of a clearing of the clouds.”
The mood at Jackson Street BBQ, a restaurant adjacent to Minute Maid Park in Houston, before the game was so positive that Union owner Jay Sugarman, who is normally portrayed in a negative manner by most supporters, was sitting in the middle of the room, chatting with fans and even taking pictures with the supporters gathered, along with a plane full of front office members who made the trip to Houston.
Jay Sugarman chatting with fans at the Union pregame party. pic.twitter.com/IJOOnTa75P
— Joe Tansey (@JTansey90) September 26, 2018
“I definitely have to give them respect for doing this for us,” Leech said. “We’re at this amazing location. They bought tickets for all these people. Jay is hanging out with us. They’ve taken a lot of stick from us over the years for player signings and different things. It hasn’t always been a rosy situation between the supporters and the front office, but they absolutely outdid themselves today.”
Ryan Bross, who puts together the tifos for the Sons of Ben, had a unique perspective of the much-maligned owner because of what he’s experienced postgame at Talen Energy Stadium.
“A lot of people don’t think he shows up to stuff, but a lot of games, I’ll be cleaning up the tifo after the game and I’ll see him come down from the press box,” Bross said. “He kind of hangs out until they do their press stuff, and he’ll walk by and stop to say hi. He’s not as far removed as people think he is. At the same time, he’s not very public about where he is.”
Wednesday’s tifo was delivered to Houston on the team’s charter, along with drums used by the Sons of Ben on a normal basis in The River End.
The tifo for the Open Cup final was the completion of an evolution that started with the fourth-round win over the Richmond Kickers, featuring pieces of Union history and jokes involving various players and the popular video game Fortnite.
“When we won the first one, we added the star burst that we’ve been doing for the last couple years,” Bross said. “Also, the same star burst was on the first Sons of Ben tifo from way back. Then we kept adding parts. There was a battle royale knockout part. Then we added one where [backup goalkeeper] John McCarthy is doing the ‘L’ dance. And then there was another portion added for the semifinal, and that had the storm encroaching from the side, and you had like a rolling hills and you had Schweinsteiger doing something, like when they cry for help in Fortnite. And the lamb was standing on his back.
“That all just comes from the old Sons of Ben guys play Fortnite with some of the younger guys on the team that don’t see a lot of playing time. We were like, ‘Hey, this is the time for these guys to play some.’ So we did that. It’s kind of been our running joke with John. And the portion we have for tonight has been painted on a piece of the old stadium. They re-did the outside of the stadium this year, and part of that material has been painted for tonight.”
As the Sons of Ben, accompanied by front office members decked out in various Union jerseys, marched to BBVA Compass Stadium, the mood was nothing but positive.
“We’ve been doing really well, even the away games this year,” Bross said. “Then we’ve also won seven out of eight games on a Wednesday. The fact that this game is on a Wednesday is another thing. It feels like it’s all lining up.”
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After the tifo unfurled in section 234, one of the few sections at BBVA Compass Stadium packed to the gills, the Union kicked off and started the match on the front foot.
As Fafa Picault’s header rolled into the back of the net, a sense of happiness sprung over the team and its supporters, but it was heartbreakingly taken away seconds later when the offside flag waved.
The only word to describe what happened after the third-minute disallowed goal is gut-wrenching.
Mauro Manotas finished the first of his two goals in the fourth minute to give the Houston Dynamo a 1-0 lead, an advantage the Union didn’t come close to challenging.
“Difficult for us, obviously, going from the emotion of thinking maybe we had scored a goal to conceding,” Union head coach Jim Curtin said. “Never really rebounded from that. Our mentality maybe wasn’t there on the night.”
Despite feeling the heartbreak of an early consolation, Union fans still relentlessly chanted, their noise only matched by the cacophony of drums and horns from the Dynamo supporters behind the opposite goal.
Sadly, it never got better for the Union, as Manotas added a second by cruising past centerbacks Auston Trusty and Jack Elliott in the 25th minute.
The lasting image from the Union perspective was Trusty, a 20-year-old Homegrown player starting his first full season in MLS, clutching his head in agony after he scored an own goal in the 65th minute.
“It’s not all his fault,” Union captain Alejandro Bedoya said. “Obviously, it’s a whole team. We attack as one. We defend as one. Sometimes the youth needs to have games like this and they learn from it. It’s all about gaining experience, It’s what we’re all about. You get it from playing the young guys who are maybe able to grow from their mistakes. We talked about not being too naive.”
As the final minutes ticked down and the orange-clad fans throughout the stadium began to celebrate, the traveling Union supporters were left dumbfounded by their team’s performance.
All the players could do postgame was thank the fans for making the trek down to Texas and promise to get better for Saturday’s MLS match at Columbus.
“Thank you to the fans that came and made the travel,” Curtin said. “Apologies for letting them down. It starts with myself. On the night, it just didn’t seem to be that we were clicking on all cylinders.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Union midfielder Haris Medunjanin said. “Thanks to the supporters who came today. It was great. We could not pay them back, but hopefully in the playoffs, we can reach the playoffs and do some good things.”
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As Union fans waited to depart the stadium on a bus that would take them back to their hotel, most sat or stood in disbelief.
The team that produced so many positive moments over the last few months, the team they rallied behind in some cases more than ever, fell short in the biggest game of the season.
“This might be worse because this is the one we were favored, even on the road,” Sons of Ben president Matt Gendaszek said. “After all the bad juju on the first two, we thought this was the one, with the way this team is coming in as hot as they’ve been, playing the B team and winning. And you’re thinking, ‘This is the time we’re going to bring a trophy back. It’s 2018 and we were going to bring a trophy to Philadelphia,’ and we didn’t do it. That’s probably the hardest part about it.”
Despite all the understandable doom and gloom that came from the emotion of watching their team lose a cup final, the same optimism from before the game flashed, if only for a few seconds, before reality attempted to creep back in.
Trusty, who has emerged as the central figure of the Union’s youth movement, slowly walked over to the right corner of the field, hands over his head in applause for the fans.
Immediately, the fans, who had been quiet for at least 10 to 15 minutes prior, rose to their feet as one and chanted the centerback’s name.
Auston Trusty went over to the fans to applaud them.
The Union fans in section 234 applauded right back in support of the young center back. pic.twitter.com/0y1guKzUxl— Joe Tansey (@JTansey90) September 27, 2018
“He’s 20 years old,” Union fan Kevin Sieben said. “No one expected him to be starting every single minute of this season, and he’s proven everyone wrong. He’s showed it on the U.S. level as well. He’ll be on the U.S. men’s national team coming soon.”
“He’s 20. He’s coming out here and playing his hardest. That’s all we can ask for,” Union fan Dakota Kelly said.
After the players quickly walked on and off the stage to receive their second-place medals, the team, led by Picault, walked in the same direction Trusty had minutes before and also thanked the fans for their support.
https://twitter.com/PhilaUnion/status/1045426239924817920
Unlike after Philadelphia’s last two U.S. Open Cup final defeats in 2014 and 2015, there’s a tangible goal to be reached in the MLS postseason. The specter of a home playoff game lingers, and a win Saturday in Columbus would turn it into a real possibility.
That optimism, which seeped through all the disappointment of defeat, provides some silver lining to a season not completely lost, even though a trophy isn’t returning to Chester, Pa.
“It sucks coming all the way to Houston to watch us lose, but at the same time, that’s what fans do,” Kelly said. “We’re out here to support the team through thick and thin. Even though we lost, we still came out here. They put in their best effort. It sucks, but at the same time, we move forward. We have the playoffs to look forward to. There’s so much more to this season, and we’ll be back next season. It’s as simple as that.”