Julián Carranza came back to Subaru Park on Sunday night, and the Philadelphia Union saw a familiar face across the field instead of in their own attack. The former Union forward led Necaxa into a Leagues Cup meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Apple TV, his first return to the stadium since leaving the club two summers ago.
That is why the search is on him now. Carranza scored 43 goals in 95 games for the Union, a total that leaves him tied with Mikael Uhre for No. 3 in club history and well behind Sébastien Le Toux on 56 and Dániel Gazdag on 72. He also arrived in Sunday’s match in form, with six goals in nine games for Necaxa after scoring in each of the first three games of the Liga MX season that began in late July.
His path back to Philadelphia was not a straight line. Carranza moved to Mexico in January after 18 months in Europe, and he said he had a lot of experiences there, playing in the Dutch League with Feyenoord and in the English Championship with Leicester City. He said those two years helped him grow a lot, mentally and as a footballer, and that he was happy it happened even as he was happy to be back at Subaru Park.
The reunion carried a sharper edge on the field. Jesús Bueno said Carranza made history at the club and called him his brother, but added that once the game starts there are no friends. Quinn Sullivan put it more plainly, saying Carranza is a great player and a warrior and that the Union’s job was to stop him from scoring again in Philadelphia. That concern was real enough because Carranza had built enough of a record here to make every touch feel like a reminder.
Necaxa also had to work around a suspension. Marcos Villano said Martín Varini was out after the red card he received in Thursday’s 2-0 loss at the Chicago Fire, so he would stand in on the bench Sunday. For the Union, the night was not only about points in Leagues Cup; it was about answering a striker they once celebrated, now one of the most productive attackers in their history, on the ground where he once made his name.
What happened next on the scoreboard was left to the match itself, but Carranza’s return already carried its own verdict. Two summers after he left, Subaru Park was still a place where his name meant something, and Philadelphia had to measure itself against that memory in real time.
