Photo Ben Ross
After six MLS NEXT Pro (MLSNP) games and some observed practices, five new Union II professionals have created first impressions.
The five
- Holden Trent, 23.8 yeas old, is the first team’s third goalkeeper and is expected to get games with Union II. He is signed to Major League Soccer.
- Gino Portella, 22.1, is a left center back listed by the club as a Union II player whose actual contract is thought to be held by MLS because of legalities during Union II’s independent 2021 season.
- Pedro Alvarez, 22.2, is a right defensive midfielder signed to Union II.
- Juan Castillo, 20.5, is a left back also signed to Union II.
- Hugo Le Guennec, 23.2, is a right center back also signed to Union II.
Goalkeeper Trent did not appear for Union II until matches four and five, away to Chicago and home to Toronto. The necessities of Andre Blake’s injury and the prudence of traveling internationally within Concacaf probably affected his availability. “Prudence” covers food poisoning, Montezuma’s revenge, hotel fires and/or 2:00 a.m. alarms, and other eccentricities.
Academy U17 Andrew Rick earned the Orlando and Miami starts in goal before anchoring the U17’s GA Cup playoff successes in Bradenton, Florida. Union II keeper Brooks Thompson started the New England game because Trent had already left with the first team for Mexico. Rick flew a presumed Monday morning early bird from Bradenton to Boston to backstop Thompson, and Rick started away to Atlanta.
In the Chicago match Trent had no reasonable chance to affect Chicago’s score. He seemed circumspect when moving the ball during play on the field. He was decisive and perfect against opponents breaking in on him alone. He did not gesture and use body language while coordinating his defenders in front of him, if coordinate he did. It was his first official professional match, so nerves were to be expected as coach LeBlanc asks us to remember.
Hosting Toronto, Trent continued to be tentative when integrating into the defense’s moving the ball around the pitch. He was vocal from the back line organizing the defense. He collected some Toronto crosses successfully. He got a hand to the Toronto penalty kick, but had no reasonable chance on either of the other two opposition goals. And he won his side an extra point in the standings by making the save in the penalty kick shootout as Union II won it 5-4.
Four field players
New field players have had only a few weeks to assimilate and internalize the considerable demands of the Union organization’s playing principles.
No players brand new to the organization in 2023 started the season opener against Orlando, although not all those who started had played MLSNP regular season matches before. Afterwards LeBlanc emphasized the difference between playing in practices, friendlies, and preseason scrimmages on the one hand, and regular season league matches on the other. He agrees with Jim Curtin that only regular season matches themselves prepare new people for the intensity and speed of both execution and thought.
First, the Orlando match was German-Italian left-footed center back Portella’s first regular-season professional start in North America. He had played a few friendlies previously, most notably last fall against a team officially unidentified but in unmarked uniforms bearing striking resemblances to those of New York Red Bull II.
He spent his first two Union II seasons not playing while dealing with a string of injuries. He has been able to practice steadily only since last August. He is new to league games, but he is not as new to the system as is every other player in this analysis.
Portella sustained a facial injury against Orlando but played through it. He used a mask against Miami, but then needed a hiatus for corrective surgery. He missed the New England debacle and returned masked in Chicago. He and his mask were on the bench against Toronto as academy center back Daniel Kreuger received the start, presumably for evaluation and education, and as a reward for making the U-17 GA Cup’s best XI. Portella played the full 90 against Atlanta United 2 in Georgia.
He plays decisively. His pace, physical quickness and speed of thought are compatible with MLSNP. He tackles well without hesitation, and his stature makes him an aerial target during offensive restarts. Both his short and medium range passing integrate effectively into the way coach LeBlanc wants to play. Longer passes are intercepted more frequently than they might be.
Portella’s absence negatively affected the rout at New England . In spite of making the mistake that gave Chicago its goal, his return contributed significantly to Union II’s first win. He is clearly the fifth-best center back in the organization.
Second, Venezuelan defensive mid Alvarez is the only new professional who dressed for Orlando. He played the game’s last 15 minutes plus stoppage in a prepared tactical change designed to pressure Orlando on the flanks. He fulfilled his “stay-at-home-in-zone-14” role reliably in both protecting and distributing.
He dressed for the next three matches but did not see the field as Richard Odada continued his run of consecutive Union II starts. Alvarez’s role in the Orlando game kept him from displaying his potential for both field coverage and quickness in combining into improvised passing triangles offensively. Those qualities have seemed apparent in practices, but time and space are more restricted there.
Alvarez started against Toronto and was the best of the three who have partnered with him in the double six, staying in the center of the pitch as he intercepted, distributed, and pressed. When he was fresh his distribution was precise. He contributed heavily to the success of that match’s first half.
In Georgia he and Odada reversed roles. Alvarez stayed home, tasked with picking up Atlanta’s runs out of the midfield, and he suffered the fate of all defenders in being remembered only for the one failure and not for all the other successes. So far, he has been the player assigned to execute specific tactical missions in the defense, suggesting a good soccer IQ, especially since his instruction needs to be given in Spanish. (Academy U-17 assistant coach Anthony Flores has been present at every observed Union II practice.)
Third, Venezuelan Castillo is a left back signed in the offseason after New York Red Bull II let him go. He has started five consecutive matches since completing his international paperwork, four at left back and one as the emergency left center back when Portella was out. He matches Anton Sorenson for pace and has shown comparable or better individual trickery with the ball. And he is bigger and taller.
He suffered some type of injury in the middle of the first half against Toronto, and could no longer play through it beyond 15 minutes into the second half. But he returned for a full 90 the next week against Atlanta, suggesting the Toronto problem was perhaps a cramp.
To date the organization’s evaluators decisions suggest they want to find out where Castillo fits on the left back depth chart. At the very least he is pushing Sorenson hard and may be surpassing him. Left backs and mids are scarce and Sorenson is under contract, so the Haitian-American is unlikely to be going anywhere else in the short term.
Fourth, French right-footed center back Le Guennec may have already surpassed Nathan Nkanji. Le Guennec started in New England but came off injured in the 24th minute as a direct result of Revs II’s first goal. Nkanji did not immediately replace him and was not brought on until the result was no longer in doubt. Frank Westfield had shifted to the center in the interim. The unknown injury has excluded Le Guennec from the Chicago, Toronto, and Atlanta matches that followed.
Like Castillo, Le Guennec missed the opener because of incomplete international paperwork. The Frenchman provides cover against Brandan Craig’s expected absence for FIFA’s U20 World Cup. Le Guennec and Portella have not yet started together as center backs because of their injuries.
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Five new Union II professionals
Posted by Tim Jones on May 2, 2023 at 8:15 amPhoto Ben Ross
After six MLS NEXT Pro (MLSNP) games and some observed practices, five new Union II professionals have created first impressions.
The five
Goalkeeper Trent did not appear for Union II until matches four and five, away to Chicago and home to Toronto. The necessities of Andre Blake’s injury and the prudence of traveling internationally within Concacaf probably affected his availability. “Prudence” covers food poisoning, Montezuma’s revenge, hotel fires and/or 2:00 a.m. alarms, and other eccentricities.
Academy U17 Andrew Rick earned the Orlando and Miami starts in goal before anchoring the U17’s GA Cup playoff successes in Bradenton, Florida. Union II keeper Brooks Thompson started the New England game because Trent had already left with the first team for Mexico. Rick flew a presumed Monday morning early bird from Bradenton to Boston to backstop Thompson, and Rick started away to Atlanta.
In the Chicago match Trent had no reasonable chance to affect Chicago’s score. He seemed circumspect when moving the ball during play on the field. He was decisive and perfect against opponents breaking in on him alone. He did not gesture and use body language while coordinating his defenders in front of him, if coordinate he did. It was his first official professional match, so nerves were to be expected as coach LeBlanc asks us to remember.
Hosting Toronto, Trent continued to be tentative when integrating into the defense’s moving the ball around the pitch. He was vocal from the back line organizing the defense. He collected some Toronto crosses successfully. He got a hand to the Toronto penalty kick, but had no reasonable chance on either of the other two opposition goals. And he won his side an extra point in the standings by making the save in the penalty kick shootout as Union II won it 5-4.
Four field players
New field players have had only a few weeks to assimilate and internalize the considerable demands of the Union organization’s playing principles.
No players brand new to the organization in 2023 started the season opener against Orlando, although not all those who started had played MLSNP regular season matches before. Afterwards LeBlanc emphasized the difference between playing in practices, friendlies, and preseason scrimmages on the one hand, and regular season league matches on the other. He agrees with Jim Curtin that only regular season matches themselves prepare new people for the intensity and speed of both execution and thought.
First, the Orlando match was German-Italian left-footed center back Portella’s first regular-season professional start in North America. He had played a few friendlies previously, most notably last fall against a team officially unidentified but in unmarked uniforms bearing striking resemblances to those of New York Red Bull II.
He spent his first two Union II seasons not playing while dealing with a string of injuries. He has been able to practice steadily only since last August. He is new to league games, but he is not as new to the system as is every other player in this analysis.
Portella sustained a facial injury against Orlando but played through it. He used a mask against Miami, but then needed a hiatus for corrective surgery. He missed the New England debacle and returned masked in Chicago. He and his mask were on the bench against Toronto as academy center back Daniel Kreuger received the start, presumably for evaluation and education, and as a reward for making the U-17 GA Cup’s best XI. Portella played the full 90 against Atlanta United 2 in Georgia.
He plays decisively. His pace, physical quickness and speed of thought are compatible with MLSNP. He tackles well without hesitation, and his stature makes him an aerial target during offensive restarts. Both his short and medium range passing integrate effectively into the way coach LeBlanc wants to play. Longer passes are intercepted more frequently than they might be.
Portella’s absence negatively affected the rout at New England . In spite of making the mistake that gave Chicago its goal, his return contributed significantly to Union II’s first win. He is clearly the fifth-best center back in the organization.
Second, Venezuelan defensive mid Alvarez is the only new professional who dressed for Orlando. He played the game’s last 15 minutes plus stoppage in a prepared tactical change designed to pressure Orlando on the flanks. He fulfilled his “stay-at-home-in-zone-14” role reliably in both protecting and distributing.
He dressed for the next three matches but did not see the field as Richard Odada continued his run of consecutive Union II starts. Alvarez’s role in the Orlando game kept him from displaying his potential for both field coverage and quickness in combining into improvised passing triangles offensively. Those qualities have seemed apparent in practices, but time and space are more restricted there.
Alvarez started against Toronto and was the best of the three who have partnered with him in the double six, staying in the center of the pitch as he intercepted, distributed, and pressed. When he was fresh his distribution was precise. He contributed heavily to the success of that match’s first half.
In Georgia he and Odada reversed roles. Alvarez stayed home, tasked with picking up Atlanta’s runs out of the midfield, and he suffered the fate of all defenders in being remembered only for the one failure and not for all the other successes. So far, he has been the player assigned to execute specific tactical missions in the defense, suggesting a good soccer IQ, especially since his instruction needs to be given in Spanish. (Academy U-17 assistant coach Anthony Flores has been present at every observed Union II practice.)
Third, Venezuelan Castillo is a left back signed in the offseason after New York Red Bull II let him go. He has started five consecutive matches since completing his international paperwork, four at left back and one as the emergency left center back when Portella was out. He matches Anton Sorenson for pace and has shown comparable or better individual trickery with the ball. And he is bigger and taller.
He suffered some type of injury in the middle of the first half against Toronto, and could no longer play through it beyond 15 minutes into the second half. But he returned for a full 90 the next week against Atlanta, suggesting the Toronto problem was perhaps a cramp.
To date the organization’s evaluators decisions suggest they want to find out where Castillo fits on the left back depth chart. At the very least he is pushing Sorenson hard and may be surpassing him. Left backs and mids are scarce and Sorenson is under contract, so the Haitian-American is unlikely to be going anywhere else in the short term.
Fourth, French right-footed center back Le Guennec may have already surpassed Nathan Nkanji. Le Guennec started in New England but came off injured in the 24th minute as a direct result of Revs II’s first goal. Nkanji did not immediately replace him and was not brought on until the result was no longer in doubt. Frank Westfield had shifted to the center in the interim. The unknown injury has excluded Le Guennec from the Chicago, Toronto, and Atlanta matches that followed.
Like Castillo, Le Guennec missed the opener because of incomplete international paperwork. The Frenchman provides cover against Brandan Craig’s expected absence for FIFA’s U20 World Cup. Le Guennec and Portella have not yet started together as center backs because of their injuries.
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