Photo @PhilaUnionII

Now that CJ Olney has been signed to the first team an interesting future midfield combination exists on the first team. It already exists periodically on the second. It consists of three teenagers, and they seem to play the 4-1-2-1-2 narrow diamond formation with noticeable differences from the ways the first team plays and has played it.

The descriptor of this difference is “extremely fluid interchangeability.”

With Daniel Gazdag and his predecessors Jamiro Monteiro and Borek Dockal there has always been a primary number ten. That primary player has moved around to other channels and as the flow of play has dictated others have filled the forward apex of the diamond. But those three number 10s each remained primary. Productivity dropped when opponents drove them out of the central channel. Quite recently Cruz Azul repositioned its best defender to negate Gazdag’s impact.

There will be less primary and secondary role differentiation among Cavan Sullivan, CJ Olney, and David Vazquez. On Union II there is no noticeable productivity drop  when one replaces another in the center.  And keeping all three out of zone 14 simultaneously has not yet been achieved.

Probably a scorecard will say Sullivan is the 10, Olney is the left-side 8, and Vazquez is the right. But the rigidity of ink printed on paper will not reflect reality.  And the way the three already play together is a swirl of interchange that flashes only fleeting glimpses through each of the forward three vertices of the organization’s narrow diamond. To say the interchanges create unpredictabilities like Heisenberg’s sub-atomic particles would exaggerate reality. But defenders cannot anticipate what or who is going to be where or when easily.

The only vertex that seems likely to be a constant is the 6, the defensive mid. And  Sanders Ngabo is not shy about pushing forward into the attack when he sees the chance. Unfortunately Sullivan, Olney, and Vazquez have not been defensive mids comparable to the young Dane when they have found themselves rotated back there.

When the teenage trio has been together, Union II’s formation seems to be a 4-1-3-2 relying on maintained possession as its first line of defense. Currently that 4-1-3-2 dominates an MLS Next Pro game for its first 20 or 25 minutes. Only FC Cincinnati 2 has successfully defended it, and they do so by anticipating where Union II’s passes will go and disrupting or intercepting them, not by marking a key player out of the game.

When they serve free kicks, Sullivan (14.9-years-old), Olney (17.6), and Vazquez (18.5) are all left footers. But all seem virtually “ambipedal” in the other aspects of their technical skills. None are physical giants. Vazquez is the slightest at 5’9” and 143 pounds and is the one who has not yet made his first team debut although that may have also been a function of international duty. Olney is Vazquez’s height but weighs ten pounds more, while Sullivan is a nascent fireplug at 5’7” and 150.

As their highest level of physical, mental, and technical challenges, Olney and Vazquez both played against Brazil’s Flamengo in the preseason opener last January 21st in St. Petersburg. Olney played the first half; and Vazquez, the second. Sullivan went to Florida later with Union II and played the second half of their 5-0 blowout opener on February 6^th against Florida Premier FC. Until late June Sullivan’s professional participations were restricted by his responsibilities to his Academy U17 teammates in MLS NEXT as well as his contract status.

As the oldest, Vazquez has been the longest to practice daily with the first team and has accumulated the most FIFA U17 World Cup and Concacaf U20 World Cup qualification minutes. He seems certain to go to the FIFA U20 World Cup in Chile, unofficially  from September 27 through October 19, 2025. Olney was the first call-up for the U20s this summer when there was an injury, and should be under close consideration for the trip to Chile. Sullivan played for the U. S. U15s at the Concacaf U15 championship in 2023, but FIFA does not sponsor a U15 World Cup.

Hopefully Vazquez will get his first-team cameo later this season. Next year it will be interesting to follow the trio’s development. Having three number 10s playing the diamond’s three forward vertices may restore the degree of tactical indefensibility that triple-teaming Gazdag has reduced. The Union always says its business plan is to discover new innovations. Deploying three interchangeable number 10s together might be it.