The Union play the most important game in the city today. The Eagles play a mystery. The Sixers try to forget Cleveland. College basketball is back in the Palestra. Here's the weekend, in order.
This is the weekend. Not because the Eagles are good. They are 2-6 and they start a quarterback who was on the Cowboys' practice squad three weeks ago. This is the weekend because there is a game today that actually decides something, and a building on Sunday that has never once let this city down, and a basketball team that is 8-2 and still has not convinced anyone. Here is what we are watching, in order.
This is the most important game in Philadelphia today, and it is not close. The Union are sixth in the East with 47 points. Beat Toronto and they finish sixth, guaranteed, and go straight to a best-of-three first round against Miami or New England. Draw and they finish top seven and avoid the wild card. Lose, and if Cincinnati and Columbus both win, they drop to eighth and into a one-game wild card they do not want. Toronto has already been eliminated. The Union have not won in four matches. Their captain, Alejandro Bedoya, is retiring at the end of the season after eleven years. The Union went from the bottom of the East to thirteen wins in fifteen games after the World Cup break, and then they cooled off at exactly the wrong time. Today is the day they either lock in the sixth seed or spend the next two weeks wondering what happened. This is the game.
There is a lot of basketball today and it is all worth your time. Drexel hosts Colgate at 2, the home opener after an 89-60 loss at Virginia. La Salle hosts LIU at 3:30, trying to wash off a 94-55 loss at Houston. Saint Joseph's hosts Lafayette at 4, already 1-0 after beating Longwood 82-73. And Temple football is at Navy at 3:30. The honest schedule: Drexel at 2, then flip between La Salle and Temple football at 3:30, then the Union at 4 with Saint Joseph's on the second screen. That is a full Saturday.
You know the story. Joe Milton starts his first NFL game. The Giants are 4-2-1 and lead the NFC East. The Eagles are three-point home underdogs. We are not going to write another paragraph about Joe Milton. You have read them all. Watch it or do not. It is the one game on this list where nobody knows what happens next, and that is the only reason it is on the list.
The Sixers are 8-2 and they just lost by 24 in Cleveland. That is the whole story. They were the best team in basketball on Friday morning and then they were not. Chicago is the first chance to find out whether Friday was a bad night or the start of something. The Sixers are still the best story in this city. They just need to act like it again.
This is the refuge. Temple is 1-0, Jordan Marsh scored 16 in his debut on Monday, and now they play Richmond in the Palestra on national television. The Palestra has never once let this city down. If the Eagles ruin your afternoon, this is where you go to remember what Philadelphia basketball is supposed to feel like.
Two games, one time slot, pick your poison. The Flyers are 4-10-4, thirtieth in the NHL, and they just blew a 2-1 third-period lead to the Rangers on Thursday. Calgary is 7-9-1. This is the second stop of a five-game road trip and the Flyers have won one road game all season. La Salle at Villanova is the college nightcap. Villanova beat Holy Cross 95-66 last night. La Salle is still looking for its first win. The Flyers are the late game. Villanova is the better game.
That is the weekend. A soccer team playing for a seed. A football team playing a mystery. A basketball team playing for its confidence back. And a building on Sunday that has never once let this city down. The Eagles are 2-6. The weekend is not.
The Eagles are 2-6, underdogs at home to the Giants, and your Sunday at 1 p.m. is free for the first time in years. Here are the options, from the sickos' choice to the radical one.
The Eagles are a five-alarm fire, the Flyers are a slow leak, and the only team winning is the one nobody trusts yet.
The Union had the lowest payroll in MLS in April, the worst record in MLS before the World Cup break and the best record after it. Does the run erase the first half, and can it last?
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