Philadelphia weren't perfect, but they ground out enough wins to claim the Supporters' Shield - and are set up well for playoff success

The confetti has been swept off the field. The grass has been cut. The lines have been redrawn. The beer bottles have been cleaned out of the locker room. It has been almost a week since the Philadelphia Union won the Supporters' Shield. Midfielder Jovan Lukic still claims it was the best day of his life.

"I wasn't drunk in the moment or something. So I can say that for sure," Lukic told GOAL. This is my first professional career trophy. So for me, you work since the age of six and through the things in all your life for these moments."

That night, last Saturday, after Philadelphia beat NYCFC, 1-0, Lukic stayed out on the pitch long after everyone else had left. The 22-year-old helped the groundskeepers sweep up confetti. He sat there on the Subaru Park turf, taking in the moment. And why shouldn’t he? The Union had clinched the Supporters' Shield. They had collected the most points over the course of a long, grueling season. In most of Europe's top competitions, this would be winning the league.

For Lukic, that was the pinnacle of soccer. A Serbian-born midfielder, who joined Philadelphia this year, this was the peak of the sport.

MLS, of course, makes this thing a bit difficult to celebrate. The Supporters’ Shield is a strange concept - a trophy awarded to the team that gets the most points in a league, of which the real “winner” is decided by the unpredictability of knockout soccer in the playoffs. Lukic doesn’t care. Neither do the Union. This has been a deserved thing, a vindication of sorts for a team that didn’t spend in the offseason, pushed towards the top of the Eastern Conference, hung in there, and never let go.

"It was a celebration, and we're obviously very excited, and we're very happy," midfielder Indy Vassilev said to GOAL. "You know, we did it for ourselves, for our family, for the fans, for the city, and it feels really good."