Kai Wagner

You can't let Miller cut inside there on that play.

And then Kai Wagner and Neil Pierre both get called ball-watching.

You've got to defend the back line, the back post, a lot better.

just watching the ball the whole way, not aware of the run by Turgeman, and it's a free header, and nothing Andre Blake could do there.

And the Union go and change their formation to try to get at least something out of this game.

And so you go to three in the back.

And at that point in the game, you have Frankie Westfield, Kai Wagner.

You take Nathan Harrier off.

There was a year, I think it was 22, because you could only nominate a couple players to be finalists.

And Philly had Kai Wagner, Jacob Glesnis, and Jack Elliott.

All three of them deserved it.

They could have been the three finalists.

What is going on with this attack? What's clicking in this moment? And what do the Rebs have to be weary of when they come to town this weekend?

Well, I think, first off, Kai Wagner coming in is huge.

It really is just different personnel, right? So Wagner on the left side gives them such attacking thrust on the left side that for as good as Nathan Hariel is, he's not a left back who actually provides much in the way of attacking prowess.

Whereas Wagner has been, for me, the best left back in the league probably for five years with only a brief trip to Birmingham in between.

But then there was a moment.

Kai Wagner got sort of stuck in on a challenge, I think, and was jawing at somebody the way that Kai Wagner does.

And Damiani came and stood up for him.

And then I thought, okay, they're not dead.

I wouldn't want to move him out, out wide.

Uh, if Frankie got hurt now, that doesn't mean Frankie's going to get hurt.

I'm just that you look at that back line and that's where you, I mean, I, well, gosh, Kai Wagner is the same.

I suppose, you know, if, if either of the fullbacks got hurt, we don't really have perfect replacements for them.

He's back.

And the first one in that category is back also, Kai Wagner from left back, and Frankie Westfield is one of the best servers of the ball from right back.

So they have elite service coming from both outside back spots.

They have now Sullivan, who is a player they've never had before in this team, at least not since they really have leaned all the way into this Red Bull-esque model of playing soccer.

It's just, can they continue to go at this run with this form? someone will inevitably cool off, especially once they start playing or continue to play some of those top end teams.

But the one thing I also don't want to forget is how nice is it to not have to see a Philadelphia union team that solely single-handedly has to be carried by Kai Wagner in terms of the assisting, right? Kai's still doing his thing, but how great is it for the union to come up with other ways to score than a Kai ball being pumped in from 35 yards out, right? It's so good to see that the union have dimensions to their play versus their one dimension.

Rudy Damiani actually said it to you.

We play too predictable.

And we've talked about it, obviously, in the past on the podcast.

And Frankie Westfield continues to grow, become a better player, and he'll continue to become a better player offensively.

I mean, let's not forget, Jose, when Kai Wagner came back to Philadelphia Union, he talked about Frankie Westfield, or maybe he even said it on the show to us too back in January, that he sees a lot of himself in Frankie Westfield.

And I think that's so obvious to see with how well he crosses the ball, how well he times his runs, how he's always a threat on the right side of the field.

Milanoloski I think is a more reliable center forward than they've had in the past.

Uh, Kai Wagner is as good as he's ever been.

He's not missed a, a single step after, uh, going to Birmingham City for a six-month sojourn.

Neil Pierre could be, uh, obviously a, a unique threat on set pieces, but the other side of that he's an 18-year-old center back.