Photo: Ben Ross

Yesterday Philadelphia Union II played its second post-season friendly at the Power Training Complex outside Subaru Park.

The result of the match was a well-earned 0-0 draw. The opponent provided an excellent, stretching developmental opportunity. As the player data below indicates, head coach Marlon LeBlanc started his most mature side, given the players available to him.

The opponent had four gilt-edged chances in the first half. Gino Portella twice recovered when the goal was uncovered to make score-saving tackles in the box without drawing penalties. In addition to one or two well-anticipated forays to prevent shots before they could become saves, Andrew Rick stoned the opponent’s best scoring change. And a fourth stellar opportunity was missed. The score line could easily have been 4-0 at halftime.

All-out breakaways were fewer in the second half as both teams had burned off their racing gear energies somewhat. Brooks Thompson replaced Rick at the interval and made one leaping finger punch at the center of the bar to maintain the clean sheet, as well as stoning a breakaway of his own.

It is the first time Portella has been observed against a fully professional opponent, and also the first time he has played the full 90 minutes as far as PSP can determine. Both his goalkeeper and his bench coaches had to exhort him to finish things out properly by strident words of mouth. But the young man made himself do it and shares good credit with his fellow defenders for the clean sheet.

The other defensive detail of note is that Frank Westfield shifted from right back to right center back in the 65th minute when Noe Uwimana came on for Nathan Nkanji. The clean sheet held, and Westfield’s long distance offensive distribution seemed more effective than his predecessor’s had been.

Juan Perdomo played well as a two-way defensive midfielder next to Maike Villero. He got “stuck in” repeatedly on tackles defensively, and won several 35:65 balls offensively on Admiral Farragut-like commitment. He left it all on the pitch in this match, and it seems as though there was a lot more to his “all” than there had been earlier in the season.

An additional point of interest. Abasa Aremeyaw is now with the team judging by photos on social media, but he was not dressed with Union II yesterday.

Finally, Marcos Zambrano was away at the USMNT U20 camp in Frisco, TX that opened October 25th.

Lineup

4-2-2-2 “Box”

^ = amateur; * = left footed. G = goal; A = assist.

There were no goals.