Photo Marjorie Elzey

On Friday, September 13, MLS rosters will freeze and remain frozen for 86 days until Sunday, December 8th, the day after MLS Cup.  There will be  an hours-only thaw to allow preparation for end of season roster moves. Then rosters will refreeze until the assumed expansion draft, the re-entry draft two-step, waivers, free agency, and end-of-year roster decision announcements all lead into next year’s winter transfer window and the thaw for 2025.

Even as the Union girds for its nine-game battle to make the playoffs, creating 2025’s roster must come into focus. We hope fervently that the league will release a second set of up-to-date club roster profiles after the impending roster freeze date.

Union’s current roster

• As far as PSP can determine the Philadelphia Union have 19 players signed to guaranteed 2025 first team contracts. That number includes three off-roster Homegrown players and one Homegrown who is loaned out.
• Eleven other players, both active and currently ineligible, have club options for 2025.
• Four others will become free agents in 2025.

The three off-roster Homegrowns, the three 2025 options who are loaned away, and the guaranteed 2025 homegrown  loan-away mean that the roster is well within the active roster limit of 31 even though there are 34 players listed below.

2025’s roster by position

The 2025 Union’s  free agents, club options, and guaranteed contracts.

Goalkeepers:

Four are currently rostered to the first team, one more than ever before under either Ernst Tanner or Earnie Stewart. A fifth is rostered to Union II.

• Andre Blake’s contract is guaranteed for 2025. That he is a naturalized U. S. citizen probably affects his exact status for any expansion draft (see below).
• Andrew Rick’s contract is also guaranteed and he is a homegrown player.
• Oliver Semmle is guaranteed as well.
• Holden Trent has a club option for 2025. We assume his thumb is now healthy.
• We suspect Union II professional Mike Sheridan would suffice as the first team’s fourth when they need a fourth for practice.

Left Backs:

• Kai Wagner is guaranteed for 2025.
• Frank Westfield is now a signed Union II professional, and has played noticeably better this season as a left back than he did the previous two on the right even though he is right footed. There was no room on the 2024 active roster to add him until the recent departures.
• Isaiah LeFlore has spent literally the entire season rehabbing from an injury that was probably suffered before the team left for preseason in Florida. There has been no time for the technical staff — or anyone else — to evaluate his play. Fairness suggests LeFlore’s option should be exercised. But being nearly 22-years-old works against that choice, as does Frank Westfield having turned pro and earned nearly full time practice with the first team.

Center Backs:

• The departure of Damion Lowe requires decisions by  the club.
• The club holds a 2025 option for Jack Elliott and almost certainly will exercise it.
• Jakob Glesnes is guaranteed for 2025.
• A critical Union judgment will be whether Olwethu Makhanya is ready to be the third center back. If not, a third must be found. Makhanya’s contract for 2025 is guaranteed.
• Brandan Craig’s contract is not guaranteed for 2025, but it has a club option. Craig has not set El Paso on fire this season but has accumulated 1,360 game minutes in 18 appearances, 16 of them starts. If Makhanya is judged ready, his option will be exercised. He must come to 2025 preseason razor sharp to compete for first-team time.
• We suspect that Union II professional Neil Pierre needs another year to “captain” Union II’s defense during games in Makhanya’s absence. He should be working towards joining the first team for practices. If Makhanya moves up, Pierre seems a probable homegrown signing to the first team.

Right Backs:

• Nathan Harriel’s contract is guaranteed for next year.
• Olivier Mbaizo has a club option that we suspect the club will exercise, since MLS-ready outside back depth is thin within the organization. Rising academy senior Gavin Wetzel defends well but provides sporadic offense to Union II. He needs another year with coach LeBlanc.

Defensive midfielders:

• The acquisition of Ligue 1’s Danley Jean Jacques adds a 24-year-old proven in one of the six biggest leagues in the world to the single six position.
• Leon Flach is a free agent in 2025. We have no indications whether there is German or other European interest. We assume Philadelphia would make a serious effort to re-sign him if he were open to returning.
• Jesus Bueno has been used as Alejandro Bedoya’s successor as well as a late game relief at defensive midfield. He is guaranteed for 2025.

Left midfielders:

• Reportedly Jack McGlynn  has drawn interest from Real Sociedad in Spain, also from Club Brugge in Belgium. If sold, we assume he would finish out the MLS season and then move immediately, as Paxton Aaronson did to Eintracht Frankfurt at the end of 2022.
• Quinn Sullivan has played at the left midfield at times.
• Three left-footed midfielders  on the roster are teenage homegrowns David Vazquez, CJ Olney, and Cavan Sullivan. Of them Olney most usually plays left mid. He has debuted there with the first team, and because of the Olympics exceptions has signed six short-term agreements to sit the Union’s bench, one of which included the debut.

Right Midfielders:

• As he was last year, Alejandro Bedoya is a free agent. Once a week he is still an effective 60-to-75-minute player. In between he can be a late game substitute.
• Jesus Bueno has been used recently as Bedoya’s primary substitute. His contract is guaranteed for 2025.
• Quinn Sullivan also plays right midfield. He has an option for 2025 that seems almost certain to be exercised. Curtin has usually chosen him to start ahead of Bueno.
• When all three of Vazquez, Olney, and Cavan Sullivan play together, Vazquez plays on the right. of the three Vazquez has the most ball-winning bite.

Attacking midfielder:

• Daniel Gazdag is guaranteed for 2025 and will start whenever available.
• Jeremy Rafanello has served as a disciplined, defensive-minded fill-in when Gazdag has been absent and has an option for 2025. He is inexpensive, but is also 24. In MLS he has not been the same offensive force he was in MLS NEXT Pro with Union II.
• Whether David Vazquez, CJ Olney, or Cavan Sullivan will be ready to play as the Hungarian’s relief remains unclear. Vazquez is the oldest but is physically the slightest. Sullivan the younger is the more likely candidate, especially since Olney seems most likely to be in the left channel.

Strikers:

• Tai Baribo’s contract is guaranteed for 2025. His performance this summer has been strong enough that an outside club might consider making the Union a winter offer it could not refuse.
• The Israeli has begun to revive Mikael Uhre, whose option must be exercised for 2025 if the Dane is to return. Baribo, Uhre, and Gazdag are beginning to revive memories of 2022 and the attacking trio of Carranza, Uhre, and Gazdag.
• Quinn Sullivan has often played as a striker this season, reinforcing the probability of his option being exercised.
• Sam Adeniran is a free agent at the end of this year. The Union has only the nine remaining regular season games to evaluate him. That explains why he will be playing a lot. Since Jim Curtin is his coach, his defensive quickness, agility, urgency, and change-of-direction will be as important to his chances of re-signing as will be his offensive production.
• Chris Donovan is an intelligent, disciplined, inexpensive reserve striker. His contract for 2025 is guaranteed, so he will be back. That he is 24 suggests only incremental improvement should be expected.
• Markus Anderson’s youth offers more hope for greater improvement. His early run of minutes was explained by him being in mid-season shape when he arrived during the Union’s congested early season schedule. His recent string of Union II appearances has made better developmental sense.
• Nelson Pierre was recalled from his loan to Swedish second division side AIK Skovde. As far as PSP has been able to determine he had not played there since early February. Being loaned to Charlotte Independence and coach Mike Jeffries of USL One means he will almost certainly get game minutes and confidence for the rest of the year.

San Diego FC’s expansion draft

If past practices predict the future, there will be an expansion draft to help the 2025 expansion team further populate its roster. Rules have been changed from expansion draft to expansion draft, but two key questions will continue. How many players can be protected, and whom will each club choose to protect.? Clubs cannot lose more than one player. Philadelphia has not lost anyone to such a draft since Orlando took Pedro Ribiero ten years ago in 2014.

Expectations.

• Philadelphia’s 2024 roster will be vulnerable to expansion draft selection, but may lose no more than one player.
• All homegrowns will be exempt. (The Union total 12 homegrowns if all those who are currently off-roster or away on loan are included.)
• Last time twelve players could be protected from selection, and we doubt the number will shrink. It may increase.
• Although we have never noticed an expansion team drafting a player from an MLS club’s affiliate, up to seven Union II players may be designated as priorities by the first team. We presume the seven would be protected.

The expansion draft’s rules are probably under negotiation right now.

Two 2025 Union roster anomalies

 Jamir Berdecio:

 At the end of the season a decision will have to be taken whether to exercise the Bolivian’s purchase option at the end of his loan. That will not affect his inclusion in the draft because it has always been based on the completed year’s roster. For example, the year Ilsinho retired at the end of the season he was still listed for that expansion draft. Berdecio’s athleticism is attractive, but as of midsummer he has begun practicing with Union II, at least sometimes. He continues to make errors both of judgment and execution.

Jose Riasco:

Riasco remains rostered to Philadelphia Union II. The website Transfermarkt.us now lists the Venezuelan striker’s loan to Uruguay’s CA Boston River as over. He played no minutes during the Uruguayan top flight’s (southern hemisphere) winter Torneo Intermedio. As far as PSP can tell, the Venezuelan has not returned to Chester. We guess he must be trialling somewhere, but have no idea where.