Photo: Stephen Speer

Philadelphia Union defeated CF Montreal 2-1 in a preseason scrimmage in Ft. Myers, Fla. on Tuesday evening.

The scrimmage ran for 120 minutes. Cory Burke gave the Union the lead in the 75th minute, but Montreal drew level in the 99th. Paxten Aaronson provided a 118th minute winner for the Boys in Blue.

While there was no live stream, Union communications provided a “live blog” as they have done in past preseasons.  The live blog allows us to monitor the preseason essentials of presence, sequence and position(s) of appearance, and conditioning.

Presence and absence

Twenty-four first-team players and two Academy strikers appeared in the Montreal scrimmage.

Twitter reports that Anthony Fontana is in Italy about to sign with Serie B side Ascoli, and it seems that Ilsinho and Aurelien Collin are no longer with the organization as players. Twitter has mentioned that Jack de Vries is the second leading scorer in his Italian reserve league with Venezia’s U19s where he is on loan, and his shirt number remains unassigned. Matej Oravec’s old number is now worn by Homegrown product Anton Sorenson, further suggesting that he will not return once his loan expires.

Roster compliance day is Friday, February 25, so shortly thereafter the Union’s own website and MLS’s may make better roster information available.

Positions and sequences of appearance

The extra half hour indicated in the chart below allowed both Montreal and Philadelphia to achieve their conditioning goals, 60 minutes for all.

(If the substitution occurred outside the timing given in the headings, the minute is in parenthesis next to the name.)

Olivier Mbaizo was in Cameroon last Sunday at the AFCON third-place match. His absence probably reflects travel fatigue. Jack Elliott’s absence reflects that last Thursday he was rehabbing from a minor groin issue on the sidelines with the training staff. Jamiro Monteiro’s absence may reflect continuing work to settle visas for his family. Probably Mikael Uhre is still awaiting immigration and transfer paperwork to catch up with reality.

That Sergio Santos started suggests last Thursday’s knock in the 40th minute was inconsequential. That Cory Burke came on for him in the first half protects Santos, gives Burke his first chance to work with Julian Carranza in game conditions, and gets him 63 minutes of conditioning. Nathan Harriel going a full-game 90 is to his credit.

Why the two Academy strikers continue to be present is unclear. They are not likely to be serious candidates for the first team yet. Nelson Pierre is 16.9 year-old and Bajung Darboe is 15.3. Were there just one of them, it would be easy to conclude that he was a stand-in for Uhre. Could the second be a stand-in for a third new striker, as is rumored to be coming on Twitter? Or is the second instead insurance against Santos’ knock from last Thursday? Do the good showings put forward by both make them candidates for Union II professional contracts with the organization at this time?

Goals

Union              75’                   Cory Burke

Montreal         99’                   unknown

Union              118’                 Paxten Aaronson

Union Cards

Yellow             64’                   Matt Real

Yellow             86’                   Quinn Sullivan

Yellow             102’                 Bajung Darboe