Photo courtesy Philadelphia Union Communications

Since the Philadelphia Union’s season has ended and the club is undergoing a self-declared roster transition, we expand our usual end-of-year analysis of the younger professional prospects to include the first team as well.

At the professional level there are two major subdivisions of the Philadelphia Union organization’s roster. Each of those subdivides into three parts. We will present several articles, combining or further subdividing the roster parts as seems wise.

We will finish the series with a depth chart of the professional portion of the organization’s players.

Fuller explanations of the chart below were made in part one of the series. Click here.

PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS ON UNION II CONTRACTS

We know less about the contract status of these players, often, than we do about first team players. Usually we know neither contract length nor future option status. By way of example, two 2023 players were described last winter as being brought back on options for 2024. That was the first we knew of options for them.

We infer 2024’s contracts frequently by the player’s presence and the fact he is not enrolled as a student in YSC Academy. Numbers of guaranteed years and club options are typically not announced for Union II players. The MLS NEXT Pro model does not have the contracts held by and signed with the league as is the practice in MLS itself but with each club directly.

 Kyle Tucker, 25.3, reserve midfielder and premier restart server. Tucker came back for 2024 on a club option. By season’s end he has become a depth piece and an essential practice player. His understanding of all of the midfield roles is excellent. He fills whatever hole the coaches need in small, medium-sized, and full-sized games in practices. And he is the most precise restart server in the squad.

Were he content to continue in his roles, we suspect the organization would be happy to have him do so.

Carlos Rojas, 20.8, left center back and defensive midfielder. Like Tucker Rojas was described by the organization last winter as coming back for 2024 on an option. He had joined in May of 2023 on a loan that had a purchase option. The organization did not articulate that Rojas’s purchase option had been exercised. The website Transfermarkt suggests that it had been for an unknown fee. Sources indicate that Rojas’s has learned English well, which reinforces the idea that he is committed to being in the United States for some time. But the Union have never announced in so many words that they bought his contract. We assume they have.

He has had some injuries this season. When healthy, coach LeBlanc considers him and Olwethu Makhanya close to equal as left center backs. They split the starts in the first two games of the playoffs. Rojas played the NYC FC II conference quarterfinal; and Makhanya, the Crown Legacy conference semifinal. Using only seat-of-the-pants and ancient eyeballs for the analysis, PSP thinks Rojas makes fewer mistakes, is a slightly more accurate passer, and may have a slightly more developed soccer IQ, while Makhanya has slightly better fundamental athleticism. Competition between them can only benefit both.

Leandro Soria, 20.0, striker. Our understanding is that while Soria was born in the United States, he has lived most of his life in Argentina. He does not speak English at all well apparently. Like the other Spanish speakers on Union II, he benefits from the recent emphasis on bilingual capability that characterizes Union II coaching and technical staff replacement hires over the last two years. That apparent policy reinforces YSC Academy’s academic commitment to Spanish as its curriculum’s foreign language.

Soria is physically a tank, 5’9” and 155 lbs. Simply watching him play and knowing his background, a longer-term question about repurposing him might come to mind. Might he become an outside back, for example.

This season he is a striker depth piece and a productive one. He has 16 appearances, seven of them starts, totaling 646 minutes with four goals and an assist. He was named MLS Next Pro Player of the Week for his brace against Chicago in a comeback 3-2 home win Saturday, August 10^th that helped Union II snap a three-game losing streak.

He will likely return to Union II for a full season in 2025.

Mike Sheridan, 23.2, reserve Union II goalkeeper. Sheridan sat the bench 18 times, subbed on once, and started seven times for a total of 721 minutes. He played primarily during the summer crunch time when the academy transition, international duty, and the game schedule created a roster crunch for both professional teams. Since a reserve keeper is insurance against injury, or in the case of Sheridan’s single minute of substitute play disciplinary dismissal, and game minutes at lower levels develop the academy’s keepers, once Sheridan had proved himself, he occupied his bench role.

To his credit he and his defense kept two clean sheets.

We estimate it would benefit his resume that the organization bring him back for a second year, but we have no sense of his ambitions. And of course we know nothing of his contract situation.

Giovanny Sequera, 18.7, reserve shuttling midfielder. Sequera is on loan this season from FC Metropolitanos FC in Venezuela. The loan agreement includes an option to buy his contract.

When all hands are healthy and available he has been a primary substitute at shuttling midfielder, usually on the right side. His pace, aggressiveness, and technical skill fitted into the side immediately and well. His understanding of the system has become strong.

He will not overtake any of the teenage midfield trio discussed last time, but all of them are candidates for international youth team call-ups, and he can replace any one of them readily. Given that Carlos Rojas’s purchase option was exercised last year in a roughly similar circumstance although at a different position, we suspect Sequera will be back for next year.

Randy Meneses, 20.5, reserve center back and defensive midfielder. Meneses has filled in valuably at both positions in times of roster scarcity. But he seems treated as low on the depth charts, especially since the academy transitioned in late summer. Our understanding is that he has not learned much English. He is on loan this year from LDU Quito’s U20s in Ecuador with an option to buy.

He has three starts, the last one on June 26th. He last saw the pitch as a substitute on August 10^th. When defensive midfielder Sanders Ngabo left, coach LeBlanc found a replacement elsewhere. Meneses has not dressed for the playoffs. We would be surprised if his purchase option were exercised.

Jose Riasco, 20.7. reserve striker. Riasco was on loan to CA Boston River of Uruguay’s top division from late summer 2023 until late summer 2024. While away he was part of the Venezuelan U-23 side that barely missed qualifying from CONMEBOL for the Olympics in Paris.

His first Union II match this season was September 23^rd hosting NYC FC II. He has not started a match both because of his match fitness level and to avoid disrupting the most successful professional development side in organization history that leads its league in scoring. He has dressed for every one of the five matches available since he returned, including both playoff ones for which he had to have been made eligible through application for exemption. He has appeared as a substitute in four of those five.

Earlier when asked for comment, coach LeBlanc suggested Riasco had a better attitude now because he had “something to prove.”

To PSP’s ancient eyeballs and worn seat-of-the-pants, Riasco transitions to defense after conscious realization rather than by instant instinct. Sal Olivas is the first striker sub, not he. But, to his credit in the aftermath of Crown Legacy’s late playoff score, Riasco was heavily involved in the subsequent melee in front of the North Carolinians’ goal that made spectators wish for VAR to determine whether twice the Union’s shots had or had not been fully over the goal line.

We have no idea of Riasco’s contract status. We suspect he will return to be in the organization’s striker pool for next year, but we doubt he will begin as a candidate for first team game minutes. Eddy Davis’s uncertain future status – treated next time – may impact him.

Sal Olivas, 18.3, striker. Olivas began the season as Eddy Davis’s starting striker partner. He then suffered injury. Now, when Markus Anderson is available, Olivas has become the first striker substitute off the bench. He consistently fills that role and does it well.

He still has slabs of muscle to add to his frame in the future. His pace tests his individual marker but does not leave him chewing his dust, so extra upper body power will help. His age means he has plenty of time to get bigger and stronger.

He anticipates chances instinctively. He executes his defensive responsibilities the same way. He needs engine building. But the mental processes of being a two-way striker are developing properly. We would be mildly surprised if he goes to Clearwater with the first team in the first phase of preseason, unless someone ahead of him is hurt or missing.

Neil Pierre, 17.0, right center back. Once first team end-of-year roster decisions clear some roster space, we expect Pierre to sign a first-team contract as a Homegrown player. We anticipate he will go to Clearwater for the first phase of preseason. We also anticipate he will begin next season getting his game minutes with Union II.

Counting playoffs, this year he has at least 22 Union II starts. He has been called into the US U19s at least twice this year. Only twice has he appeared as a substitute, both very early in the season. He has over 2,000 minutes played.

Since Brandan Craig is right-footed and has played right center back almost exclusively for El Paso Locomotive this season, we expect he and Pierre may be in direct competition next February.

Frank Westfield, 18.9. Starting left back. Out of respect for the team vice-captain who has had a breakout, nay revelatory, season while playing opposite his naturally dominant foot, we follow the precedent of two major league baseball hall of famers, Wilbur Stargell and Frank Robinson, and eschew use of the diminutive “-ie” in referencing him. To us he should be Frank not Frankie.

He earned his professional contract this year, a week before he was to leave for State College, PA.  Now that he has received his YSC academy diploma, instead of matriculating to Penn State Westfield furthers his post-secondary education at Widener.  He follows many YSC academy grads in studying while on the pathway to the pros, a practice that began many years ago with Austin Trusty.

Westfield leads the team in regular season starts with 26 and regular season minutes with 2,313. He is tied with CJ Olney for second in regular season goals with six, although Olney leads him in playoff goals with one. He is second to Olney with regular season assists at six and with regular season key passes with 35. (Writer’s note: Westfield scored in the conference final against Columbus Crew 2 Saturday, November 2nd.)

He was rostered to the first team for Leagues Cup, sitting the bench three times. By short-term agreement he sat the bench once for the first team in a regular season MLS game. He has not yet debuted onto the pitch with the first team.

As detailed earlier, we expect Matt Real’s 2025 option will not be picked up. We expect that once end-of-year roster decisions clear roster space, Westfield will be signed to a first-team Homegrown player contract. In effect he will replace Real as Kai Wagner’s depth-chart backup. How he does in Clearwater will help determine how much he plays for whom next year.

NEXT TIME: Eight Seven academy “zero-dollar” contracts.