NEW YORK — After a rough first half of the season, Union principal owner Jay Sugarman finally has some reasons to be in a good mood.
Though there’s still a ways to go before the club is fully back, the current three-game winning streak has lifted everyone’s spirits at Subaru Park. Saturday’s wild comeback win over Atlanta United was the latest chapter, with the tying and winning goals toward the end of eight minutes of second-half stoppage time.
“I have to say, that spirit, it’s really the Union spirit,” Sugarman told The Inquirer as he left the meeting where Cherry Hill native Larry Berg was elected MLS’s new commissioner. “You can feel it: the guys, they’re not giving up. They want to fight to the end, and that makes me really happy.”
You can count the reasons why, including a new-manager bounce from Bradley Carnell’s dismissal and Ryan Richter’s promotion during the World Cup break. But it’s clear that Kai Wagner’s return at left back is likely the biggest factor.
SCENES!
Ezekiel Alladoh with the finish and @PhilaUnion come all the way back! pic.twitter.com/KbXKYq5HIj
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 2, 2026
He has created 14 scoring chances in three games so far, and officially notched three assists. It would be four if his cross for Milan Iloski’s opener Saturday hadn’t taken a deflection along the way.
For as much as Wagner wanted to return to Philadelphia, Sugarman had to get out his checkbook to seal the deal with Birmingham City. The Union paid a $4 million transfer fee, one of the biggest in their history (though not huge by MLS standards these days).
But it’s certainly been worth the money so far. Wagner and his family are happy to be back, and one of the best left backs in MLS history looks like he didn’t miss a beat.
“Kai checked so many boxes for us,” Sugarman said. “I always thought he was an incredibly valuable piece, and I think that was the piece we didn’t expect to lose. And so, say what you will about all the other decisions we made, but that was the one that was involuntary, and it had repercussions that were way beyond what we could have expected.”
He knows what fans’ responses will be to that. Some might have expected it given all the offseasons when Wagner wanted to leave; and it could have been expected that the Union would suffer a lot losing him.
There are other left backs in the world, though. Perhaps if the one the Union signed, Philippe Ndinga, had been better, there wouldn’t have been so much pining for what was lost.
Sugarman knows this, because it can happen to any soccer team when a new player isn’t as good as the prior one. He also knows he might have to leave the checkbook open. But he has said often over the years that if the right move comes along, he’ll pay for it, and he did here.
“So I was like, if you can get him back, get him back,” he said. “We paid up for him, but he’s been proven both here and there to be a difference-maker. And he’s been a difference-maker already.”