May was supposed to break the Union. Instead, it has marked their best month in recent memory.

The team is now unbeaten in its last 10 matches in all competitions (eight matches in MLS), in a month that put them to the ultimate test. How? "It's our mentality."

Union defender Nathan Harriel celebrates his game-tying goal with captain Alejandro Bedoya in the team's 2-1 win over Toronto FC on Wednesday night.Read morePhiladelphia Union

by Kerith Gabriel

Published May 29, 2025, 10:00 a.m. ET

There’s skill, and there’s luck.

On a rainy night at BMO Field against Toronto, the Union found both.

Nathan Harriel pounced on a defensive letdown by Toronto on a corner kick in the 87th minute, followed by a 92nd-minute stoppage-time deflection off a shot from Kai Wagner. The Union were 2-1 winners on the road and still the class of Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference — in a year when many believed they’d be anything but.

So how exactly are the Union defying expectations?

“It’s our mentality,” Wagner said postgame. “We played a good road game today. I think everybody followed the plan. To concede a goal, but we didn’t drop our heads and were explosive right after. We’ve [shown] that we’ve been a good road team already this season, so I’m really happy about that.”

We’re talking about a Union team (10-3-3, 33 points) now unbeaten in its last 10 matches in all competitions (eight matches in MLS), in a month that put it to the ultimate test.

The last time the Union came up short was a 1-0 loss to New York City FC on the even narrower confines of the grass at Citi Field.

Let’s start with the fact that they are in the second straight week of three games in a seven-day span as the Wednesday night tilt against Toronto came on the heels of a battle that ended in a 3-3 draw against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami on Saturday and preceded their final match to end the month: another road test, this time against FC Dallas on Saturday (8:30 p.m., Apple TV, MLS Season Pass).

The win was the Union’s first in six years at BMO Field. You’d have to go back to before the pandemic to recall the Union’s 5-0 smackdown of Toronto, a loss so bad it seemed like TFC kept a dartboard with the Union’s logo in their locker room and made it a personal mission to ensure that the Union would never snatch three points at BMO Field again.

Well, until Wednesday night, of course.

It almost didn’t feel fair that Toronto got on the scoreboard first. But chalk it up to another defensive breakdown — perhaps the one thing that has plagued the Union at times. It occurred in the 75th minute when Ola Brynhildsen collected a long ball and took off down the right flank, right into Andre Blake’s 18-yard-box completely unmarked, and hit a rifle from just inside the six for the game’s first goal.

Admittedly, it would have been a miracle from Blake to even get mitts on Brynhildsen’s shot, as the Norwegian hit that ball like it owed him money. It looked as if Toronto might even bag its second minutes later after another defensive breakdown, but a shot from Theo Corbeanu sailed over the crossbar.

But in Bradley Carnell’s eyes, don’t call it a defensive breakdown. Instead, the first-year Union manager preferred to view TFC’s goal as a momentary lapse, once again rushing to the defense of his back line.

“I thought we were excellent defensively,” he said in his postgame statement. “We give up one moment and get caught with a long ball. … We go a goal down against the run of play and against the run of control. These things happen, but I’m really happy for the group that we could find a way to get back in the game.”

Considering the Union edged Toronto (3-9-4, 13 points) in virtually every statistic, it might be fair to look at it as a lapse.

And it matters little now, given that Harriel’s second goal of the season. The Union have a league-best 11 goals off set pieces, a testament to the “timing in the air” of players like Harriel, Tai Baribo, and Frankie Westfield, who have buried headers off restarts this season.

“Nothing beats a good set piece delivery,” Carnell said. “[It’s all about the] quality and the execution. And nothing beats the timing of the run. We dedicate a lot of time to it. We believe [that] 30% of our goals should come from set pieces. We’re trending a little bit higher than that this season, so we’ll take it.”

We’re talking about a team that has found success mainly through the security of a 19-year-old goalkeeper in Andrew Rick, who was just called up this week to the U.S. under-19 youth national team, undoubtedly for his six strong performances while Blake continued to rehab from a knee injury.

In his return, Blake looked strong and even came up with a massive save in the 42nd minute to keep the match scoreless entering halftime. After the save, however, Blake, who fell awkwardly to make it, appeared to need a second as he backpedaled into the goal, rubbing his legs.

Carnell seemed pleased with Blake’s performance, but he was somewhat cagey in his response when asked just how much.

“I thought he got better as the game went on,” Carnell said. “[Andre] is a routine professional, [and] it was important for him to get this game under his belt. He’s got a big month ahead of him. So, you know, we’re happy to have got him his [90 minutes].”

Bottom line: May was supposed to beat the Union up. But with a 10-game unbeaten streak, sitting first in the league’s Eastern Conference, a quarterfinal date in July in the U.S. Open Cup, and multiple players called up to various age levels for national team duty, it’s safe to say even with one match remaining this month, the Union already beat May.

“Things haven’t been perfect, but things have been great,” Carnell said. “We’ve still been very critical of where we’ve dropped points or where we’ve dropped moments. But … there’s a synergy, alignment, and a synchronization in everything we do. Sure, we kind of get lucky [at times], though I believe that the harder you work, those are the moments you create.”