Saturday night was a match that not many Philadelphia Union fans will forget. From jumping into first place to the way the club took control of the match from the opening kick against Toronto FC, it sent a message to the rest of the league that the Union are a team to deal with. When the dust settled and the Union found themselves atop the Supporters' Shield and Eastern Conference standings, the contributions of both forwards Sergio Santos and Kacper Przybylko couldn't be overlooked.
The duo made club history on Saturday night as Santos scored a hat trick while Przybylko added a trio of assists, marking the first time both had happened in a single Union match. Santos' hat trick was the fourth in Union history, joining Union Ring of Honor Sebastien Le Toux, Roland Alberg and CJ Sapong. Przybylko on the other hand became the third player to set up three goals joining Seba and Cristian Maidana.
Saturday night marked just the 12th instance since 2010 that a single team had both a hat trick of goals and assists. Santos and Przybylko join the ranks of Chris Pontius and Charlie Davies (2011), Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan (2014), Kaka and Cyle Larin (2015) along with Lee Nguyen and Kei Kamara in 2017.
Santos took the majority of the headlines with his first MLS hat trick with goals in the 27th, 63rd and 68th minutes. The Brazilian not only scored the fourth hat trick in Union history but he showed it with both his flashy speed and ability to finish from difficult angles. Santos' pure happiness can be seen in each of his celebrations and the chemistry is paying dividends on the scoreboard and has both starting forwards tied for the team lead with seven goals each.
While putting up goals directly on the scoreboard is what every forward wants to do, Przybylko too has been impacting the matches just as much as Santos. The Friendly Striker is tied with Santos for the team lead but is also tied for the Union lead in assists alongside Brenden Aaronson with six. When you look at the Union's 12 wins in 2020, five of the game-winners were either scored or assisted by Przybylko. No one else on the club has more than three.
