will we ever win?

Opening a stadium of whoopass

Now, that's more like it.

A packed house (in some sweltering heat) greeted the Philly Union in their opening game at PPL Park in Chester Sunday, and the team responded with the best result of their inaugural season, besting Seattle 3-1.

At halftime, a win didn't feel so imminent as the familiar pattern of Philly outplaying an opponent — only to be trailing on the scoreboard — reemerged. This is all the more annoying when you fail to convert on a number of chances, only for your opponent to make good on their first — in the 44th minute — as was the case for the Sounders today.

But in keeping with their M.O., the Union kept fighting in the second half, and you had to think a goal would be the result at some point. And the goals did indeed materialize.

Philly tied the game when Sebastien Le Toux roofed a penalty kick after Alejandro Moreno was taken down in the box. They soon returned the favor to Seattle, giving up a penalty kick. But goalkeeper Chris Seitz saved a not-so-great shot from Sounders goal scorer Pat Noonan, and the Union had the momentum for the rest of the game.

A Philly corner kick went through about three players in the box before landing at the foot of Fred, who buried it for the go-ahead goal. And Danny Mwanga — despite it not yet being extra time — took a nice pass from Le Toux, then following up an initial shot to easily tap the ball in for a game-finisher.

If this is the kind of play we can expect from the Union at PPL Park — which is reasonable as they've pretty much played this way everywhere, offering consistent offensive pressure along with the occasional defensive lapse — they could actually make some hay in the Eastern Conference as they play at home in 13 of their next 20 matches.

Now with a home to call their own, the Union fans will be behind them.

NOTES:

— The new stadium looked pretty rad on TV, especially with the Delaware River and Commodore Barry Bridge in the background. Were you at the game? What were your impressions?

— Seattle and veteran U.S. international goalkeeper Kasey Keller might have been the game's best player despite surrendering three goals, because it could have been much worse. He made a few super saves. Old dude's still got it.

— I've always liked Seattle's Freddie Ljungberg since his EPL days, but that uneven, thinning-in-areas mohawk is a misstep, homey. What happened to the shaved head? It was good enough in your GQ days, wasn't it?

— Didn't bother with a write-up on the Union's loss away to the Kansas City Wizards in their last outing because, well, it was a mostly terrible game that the Union were completely terrible in. Despite the premier of the Union's all gold uniforms (Wooo!), they gave a lackluster performance (to put it kindly) and were never in it. I should note there's no way a professional league should allow games to be played at that high school facility Kansas City calls a home field. It was ridiculously small. I know they're building a stadium, but if you can't provide a major league facility then you should have to play all road games.