Photo: Paul Rudderow

The sine qua non of preseason is to condition the best XI to play full regular season matches, in the Union’s case the season opener at home Saturday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m. versus the Columbus Crew.

If conditioning starters is “job one,” “job two” is to identify and condition reserves sufficient to rotate the squad, because the Union must survive as many as 20 extra games above and beyond Major League Soccer’s 34 during its regular season if they do well in their other three regular season competitions.

The conundrum of how to condition rotation players is that increasing the conditioning of starters successively reduces the minutes available for anyone else. In preseason a solution is to play extra time. Careful calendar placement of some of the second-team’s preseason scrimmages suggest they could be used to resolve the conundrum once everyone is back in Philadelphia and the first team’s regular season has begun.

Here are the total minutes everyone on the first team played during Florida’s leg two sorted by position, and then the totals for preseason as a whole.

Ranking players by total preseason minutes played telegraphs who is being prepared to play a lot early in the season.

2023 Total preseason game minutes

McGlynn, Sullivan, and Craig missed the first Florida leg while they were in USYNT U20 camp. Then Sullivan dealt with a surgically repaired broken nose. Donovan also dealt with a broken nose. Sorenson may have had extra minutes with Union II. Odada may be rehabilitating an unknown injury. Jim Curtin recently has said that Holden Trent will now start getting his game minutes with Union II.

Scrimmages

Four preseason first-team scrimmages happened during the second Florida leg.

• Sunday, February 5 the Union visited the New England Revolution, played two 45-minute halves, and won 2-0.
• Friday, February 10, they hosted FC Cincinnati, played two 45s and an extra 30, and won 3-1.
• Tuesday, February 14 they visited Nashville SC, played two 45s and an extra 30, and lost 2-0 in the extra 30.
• Saturday, February 18 they visited the Colorado Rapids, played three 45s, and won 4-1 before flying back to greater Philadelphia.

New England observations

The key takeaway was practicing tactical flexibility. The Union used two different tactical shapes. They deployed three center backs in a 3-4-1-2 in the first 45 and a 4-3-2-1 “Christmas tree” in the second.

In the three center back shape amidst the usual starters Brandan Craig started as the center center back. In front of the backs Jack McGlynn was the left defensive mid next to Jose Martinez. Kai Wagner and Olivier Mbaizo were the wing backs. And all the way up front Quinn Sullivan was the second striker next to Julian Carranza.

The second half’s Christmas Tree saw Mikael Uhre as the lone striker, with Andres Perea as a second attacking mid next to Joaquin Torres. Jesus Bueno, Leon Flach, and Alejandro Bedoya were the three defensive mids with Flach in the center and Bedoya on the right. Damion Lowe was the right center back next to Craig, who was followed at left CB by Matt Real with Sorenson coming in later at left back. Real and Nathan Harriel began the half at the outside backs. (See appended data charts below.)

Jim Curtin’s subsequent comments indicated the new shapes had not been drilled extensively, that the group had been given new information and that they had adapted well although not perfectly.

Cincinnati observations

All participants save one in the cobbled together double 60s totaled a full 60 minutes each. Nathan Harriel gave Richard Odada his last ten minutes.

The match seems to have been intense. Cincinnati may be developing a thing for Philadelphia. There were five yellow cards between the teams, and a penalty kick was awarded to each. Those are unusual disciplinary steps for a mid-sequence preseason scrimmage.

Striker combination experimenting continued. Torres and Carranza played together for the first 60. Uhre and Rafanello combined for the last 60. Quinn Sullivan (broken nose) and Chris Donovan (some type of facial injury requiring a face mask in the Colorado scrimmage ) did not play.

First round draft pick goalkeeper Holden Trent did not play either.  (His signing announcement came before preseason’s last scrimmage against Colorado – see below.)

Only each side’s starters scored goals.

 Nashville observations

 The Union played on the fourth day after having made an intense effort against Cincinnati. They must similarly play on short rest in more than half the weeks of 2023’s regular season. The players discovered or re-discovered what that effort demands, and the sports science staff evaluated how everyone handled it.

The Union starters played the first half against a Nashville reserve side backed by Joe Willis their starting goalkeeper. At halftime Nashville sent on seven of their ten expected starting field players in front of their back-up keeper. In the 60^th minute the Union removed all starters save Andre Blake, Mikael Uhre and Joaquin Torres. Uhre and Torres came off in the 77^th for Chris Donovan and Jeremy Rafanello, and in the 90^th Joe Bendik came on for Blake. Nashville’s Teal Bunbury scored twice, in the 112^th and 114^th minutes against the Union’s reserves for the win.

Julian Carranza, Anton Sorenson, Richard Odada and Holden Trent did not play. We have reason to believe Sorenson got the first 60 minutes of Union II’s match against Huntsville City FC later that same evening.

Joaquin Torres started at striker with Mikael Uhre, and then replaced Daniel Gazdag at attacking mid when Quinn Sullivan came on. All likely combinations using him in the attack in the 4-4-2 narrow diamond have now been tested. Damion Lowe got some minutes next to Jack Elliott after halftime before Elliott came off, so that combination will not be untested should an emergency arise.

Colorado observations

 As Jim Curtin indicated would happen back before the Cincinnati match, except for Martinez and Uhre the starters played 90 minutes. The reserves got 45. Before the match Curtin had hoped for two 90s.

Judging solely from its starting personnel, Colorado may have put out a variety of the 3-5-2 shape against the Union, trying to block the narrow diamond’s attack and stretch it into the outside channels when defending.

The Rapids substituted earlier than the Union, and the Union’s bench outscored Colorado’s in the 3^rd of the 45 minute period’s.

Conditioning opportunities for first team reserves may continue in the early weeks of the first-team’s season i. e.,  the last weeks of Union II’s preseason, since the second team’s scrimmages all occur the day after first-team games. And start times accommodate same day round-trip bus rides by the travelling team. We have no confirmation of our guesswork.

Andre Blake, almost always fronted by the first-string defense, kept a clean sheet throughout the second leg of preseason training in Florida, 300 minutes. Of all preseason opponents only Nashville managed to clean sheet the Union.

Appended data

Quinn Sullivan’s minutes were restricted by his broken surgically repaired nose, Donovan also. Richard Odada may be recovering from an unspecified injury.  There is no concrete information on Julian Carranza’s, Anton Sorenson’s, and Holden Trent’s missed times. There may be a pattern of giving “elder statesmen” among the starters like Alejandro Bedoya, Jose Martinez and Jakob Glesnes a day off here and there in the fashion of many major league baseball managers with important stars.

With no video, the only comment possible on the Quinn Sullivan experiment at striker is that it seems to have continued to the end of preseason and that Curtin has twice publicly said he had a midfield that is nine players deep.  To get to nine he is almost certainly including either Sullivan or Torres.

Florida leg two: scrimmage minutes

*Even though he did not play against Nashville, Sorenson may have gotten 60 minutes against Huntsville City FC later that same evening.

Here is a vertical scrimmage-by-scrimmage minutes tally.