Philadelphia Union and Flamengo face off this Sunday afternoon, January 21, 2024, from 4pm, in an interclub friendly. The match will be played at the Al Lang Stadium, in the city of Saint Petersburg, Florida, in the United States.
Philadelphia Union
With the advantage of playing in their country, the Philadelphia Union team arrives for this friendly match aiming to test the competitive level of their squad against the most valuable squad in South America and even playing on North American soil they do not expect to have an easy life in this interesting challenge.
Last season the team managed to reach the Major League Soccer playoffs, but suffered a frustrating elimination in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
On that occasion, the Philadelphia Union team faced Cincinnati away from home and ended up getting the worst of it by losing by the minimum score of 1-0, interrupting the positive sequence it had enjoyed until then and, as a result, saw its season end earlier than expected.
However, the team had more than two months to plan its return and promises to come even stronger with its 2024 version.
They recorded 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats in the last 5 times they entered the field officially, beating the New England Revolution twice, in addition to drawing with Nashville SC, in addition to losing to Cincinnati and also losing to the New England Revolution.
Playing as home team, Philadelphia Union has a recent record with 5 wins, 4 draws and only 1 defeat in the last 10 matches played.
Flamengo
While on the other side is the Flamengo squad, which is led by coach Tite, who coached the Brazilian team in the last World Cup and now has the mission of restoring the confidence of the red and black squad after a dark season in 2023.
After all, despite all the high investment in its squad, the Gávea team ended the year without any titles, increasing the pressure on the squad.
However, Flamengo has already officially entered the field this season when facing Audax-RJ for the debut of the Campeonato Carioca and showed all its qualities by running over the opponent mercilessly with a score of 4-0, even going so far as to waste clear opportunities to enlarge the marker.
There were 3 wins, no draws and 2 defeats in the last 5 officially played matches, beating América-MG, Cuiabá and Audax-RJ, in addition to losing to São Paulo and Atlético-MG.
Acting as a visitor, the Flamengo team has a recent record with 5 wins, 3 draws and only 2 defeats in the last 10 matches played.
Despite playing away from home, Flamengo has a technically more qualified squad and tends to take this duel very seriously, making it an interesting preparation for a season that promises to be quite intense, as Fla is considered the favorite for the title of all the competitions they’ll compete.