It’s in the title, folks. Every week during the MLS season, Backheeled will dive into the biggest Winners and Losers from around the league. This week, we’re diving into the Philadelphia Union’s Supporters’ Shield victory, the Colorado Rapids’ struggles, very different stories in Texas, and more.
Winner: Ernst Tanner and the Philadelphia Union
If you sit down and chat with Philadelphia Union sporting director Ernst Tanner, you’ll notice a couple of things very, very quickly: the German’s dry sense of humor and his confidence. It didn’t take long in my conversation with Tanner back in the spring for him to jokingly call West Coasters “too soft” or for him to take a victory lap on one of the most notable offseason switch-ups MLS had seen in years.
“We made the change and it turned out to be the right thing,” Tanner told Backheeled just six weeks into this season.
That change, of course, was firing long-time head coach Jim Curtin and replacing him with Bradley Carnell. The Philadelphia-native had spent more than a decade at his post after working his way up through the club’s coaching ranks and built up plenty of respect from folks around the league. But 2024 was a down year for Union, with the club missing the playoffs for the first time since Tanner arrived in 2018.
