Union Look For 5th Straight Win At Real Salt Lake
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Union will look to extend their franchise-record win streak to five straight matches on Saturday night when they visit Real Salt Lake.
It has really been quite the turnaround for the Union, who started the season 0-4-2. They then tied their next two matches before running off these four consecutive wins.
Philadelphia's offense has been in high gear during the winning streak. The Union have scored 11 goals in the four games, with two of them coming courtesy of midfielder Fafa Picault.
"It's been great," Picault tells KYW Newsradio. "We stuck together through the hard times and now we're reaping the benefits of our work. We're enjoying the good times as well. We hope to keep that going, going forward with the next games coming up."
The 26-year-old Picault is in his first season with the Union. He spent the last few years playing in Europe after a stint in the NASL. He talks about the transition here in his first year in Philadelphia.
"I think the hardest part was the preseason," he says. "Being that I was already mid-season where I was and then coming in and doing a lot of traveling back and forth from Europe and here, I think I took three trips back and forth. So it was a bit difficult. But preseason, once that got over with, I started catching fitness and now I'm feeling great. It's great to be back on this side of Earth, on the east coast. I'm only a two-hour flight away from Miami and an hour-and-a-half drive from New York, so my hometowns are right there. It's just great. Philly's a great city, everything's positive so far so I can't complain."
Real Salt Lake is 3-8-2 on the season heading into Saturday night's match and they have lost five of their last six matches. But Picault says they are not taking this match-up lightly.
"Every team in this league can beat almost anyone," Picault says. So we don't look at other people's records and say this is going to be a walk in the park or we can just go and take this win. It's going to be a battle just like all the other games."
The Union and RSL get underway at 8:00pm on Saturday.