As the Union push for the playoffs, Ryan Richter is 'never going to be excited about being in ninth place'
While fans are excited about the Union's unbeaten run, Richter still has his foot on the brakes. Next up is a measuring-stick home game against FC Cincinnati on Wednesday night.
As he left Subaru Park on Saturday night, Union interim manager Ryan Richter thought about something he’d said in his news conference after the 2-0 win over CF Montréal.
Looking ahead to Wednesday’s home game against FC Cincinnati (7:45 p.m., FS1, Fox Deportes, Apple TV), Richter called the matchup a chance “to show that we can compete with the next level of teams in the Eastern Conference.”
He wasn’t wrong in how he described his team or the opposition. But it struck him, just as it struck people who heard the remark, that for a long time before this year, the Union were at that next level.
The proof is well-known: Supporters’ Shields in 2020 and ‘25, the Eastern Conference regular-season title in 2022, and the most regular-season points of any team in MLS from 2019 through the first half of 2024.
Even today, the Union are still one one of just two teams that have amassed more than 400 regular-season points since the start of 2019, and to have averaged more than 50 points per season. (Using both figures accounts for expansion teams that have joined the league in that time.)
That serves as a reminder of why the rest of the league is looking over its shoulder as the Union fight their way up the standings. They enter Wednesday’s game with a 7-10-6 record (27 points), edging Red Bull New York for ninth place and the last playoff spot on a tiebreaker.
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“I thought about this after Saturday [when] the question was, ‘Is there a boost being in a playoff position/?’/” Richter said in his news conference Tuesday afternoon. “And then I thought about it more.”
By the time he sat down at the microphone, he had his answer.
“I’m never going to be excited about being in ninth place,” he said. “Because I’ve seen the levels that this club has hit over the last seven, eight years, and [was] lucky enough to be a part of a couple of those really special seasons. And that’s the target that we set as a club, as a team: We want to be competing for home playoff spots, competing for Supporters’ Shields.”
There’s a full round of games leaguewide Wednesday, so everything will get thrown up in the air again. The Union could rise as high as seventh with a win, or fall as low as 12th with a loss.
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“That’s the level that we want to be competing at, and there’s not going to be celebrations for just getting into a playoff position,” Richter said. “So we need to continue to push, and the opportunity with Cincinnati at home shows that’s where we are competing. And that’s what we have to be ready [for], to show up and play a really good game to make that kind of statement.”
Richter will not be alone in casting the Cincinnati matchup as a measuring-stick moment. Many Union fans will too, as will a growing number of watchers leaguewide. The visitors are led by midfield playmaker Evander, who would likely have a league MVP award by now if not for Lionel Messi; and striker Kévin Denkey, who has 15 goals in 27 games across all competitions this year.
But the defense behind them has allowed 51 goals this season, the second-most in the East and third-most leaguewide. That’s why Cincinnati stands sixth in the conference (8-7-7, 31 points), even as it is seen as among the league’s upper class.
“It’s hard to win against good teams, and we have to be at a really good level ourselves to be able to compete in the game the way that we want to, and the way that we believe we can,” Richter said. “So, it’s a great opportunity for us to show against a good team in Cincinnati that we’re at that level, and we can compete against that level of team in MLS.”
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