Photo: Stephen Speer

Philadelphia Union drew 1-1 with Nashville SC in their final preseason scrimmage, a 120-minute match in Clearwater, Fla. on Friday morning.

A new tactical shape

Jim Curtin put out brand new tactical shape against Nashville. Twitter’s @PhilaUnion graphic (see below) presents it as a 4-1-2-2-1. Leon Flach is the DM (not Jose Martinez), McGlynn and Bedoya are the central mids, Aaronson and Gazdag are the attacking mids, and Carranza is the lone striker.

Lineup shape against Nashville 2/18/22

Different analysis might call it a 4-3-3 with the central midfielder dropped deep and the central attacker pushed high. The innovation is necessitated by striker unavailability. Sergio Santos has a knock from training, Cory Burke is out of the country finalizing a green card, and Mikael Uhre is still waiting for his P-1 visa. Nelson Pierre,  the Academy striker who appeared in the Cincinnati and Montreal scrimmages may have played Thursday evening in Philadelphia Union II’s last 2022 match in Florida, we do not know. His colleague Bajung Darboe played the extra 30 minutes as an attacking midfielder.

Benefits of the shape are obvious even without seeing how it actually plays. It stacks Jack McGlynn behind Paxten Aaronson on the left and Alejandro Bedoya behind Daniel Gazdag on the right. Both combinations have worked well creating offense in the past, particularly the youngsters on the left.

The shape requires midfielders to play narrowly, as otherwise it would be wide open in the center third of the central channel. It puts usual levels of heavy stress on its single defensive midfielder, but Flach and Martinez have proven themselves capable there. Only Bueno is unproven to the public.

Of the lone striker it requires a strong commitment to effective defending, high ground coverage, strong hold-up play, and the ability to beat a defense playing one v several.

The formation demands a great deal of the midfield’s depth. After Sullivan replaced Bedoya, only Bueno and Martinez remained, and Martinez may have been unavailable. Both have played the shuttling positions. Bueno did it a few times last season as a late substitute, and Martinez has consistently started for the Venezuelan national team in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying.

As a final note, Jack Elliott returned to the starting XI.

Conditioning

In past preseasons Jim Curtin has wanted 90 minutes from his starters in the last tune-up, and he got that, save for Mbaizo and Bedoya.

Often the “Benchies” have had unannounced closed scrimmages of 70 minutes or more the same day as the last match. More than once the day’s opponent provided the opposition since both clubs faced the same bench-conditioning challenges.

But this time 30 minutes of “bonus soccer” was added directly, a benefit of not being part of a preseason tournament with more official-feeling matches selling tickets to the general public, being televised, and fitting multiple consecutive events into a specific timeframe..

The extra thirty minutes highlighted the question of Jose Martinez, who did not appear.  Of equal interest were the two “Trialists” at striker. It seems unlikely that Union communications would revert to calling Nelson Pierre a trialist after having named him in the previous two scrimmages. Most interesting to player development enthusiasts is 15-year-old Darboe at attacking mid, who continued to wear the #23 shirt without a name.

LINEUP/ROSTER

Union XI 1st 90 (4-1-2-2-1, L-R): Blake; Wagner, Elliott, Glesnes, Mbaizo (Harriel 73′); Flach; McGlynn, Bedoya (Sullivan 73′); Aaronson, Gazdag; Carranza.

Union XI last 30 (4-1-2-1-2 “narrow diamond”); Freese; Real, Findlay, Craig, Harriel; Bueno; Turner, Sullivan; Darboe*; Trialist, Trialist.

Union DNPs: Bendik; Sorenson, Martinez, Santos, Pierre*.

(*means they were academy amateurs at last official mention. It seems, based on a tweet by a Houston Dynamo 2 official, that academy amateur contracts for MLS NEXT Pro players are not yet released for use by individual clubs.)

Away: Burke – green card, Uhre – probably for his P1 visa, de Vries – on loan to Venezia U19s in Serie A

Gone: Anthony Fontana’s departure appeared graphically @PhilaUnion mid-morning Friday. Ilsinho (trialing as an academy coach?), Collin (unknown), and Oravec (on loan to a 2^nd division club in Slovakia till June.) are assumed to no longer be with the club or in its future plans.

GOALS:

Union         82′      Jakob Glesnes (Kai Wagner, FK won by Paxten Aaronson)

Nashville 114′        Unknown

CARDS:

Union        52′     Yellow (foul)           Kai Wagner

Nashville  119′    Yellow (??)               Unknown