Photo Philadelphia Union II Communications

Choosing which new developments from the second team are worth sharing with a first-team-oriented audience can be challenging.

Until he returned to Denmark, Sanders Ngabo’s play as a single six had been a leading candidate for discussion. He cleaned up excellently behind Union II’s other midfielders and joined the attack judiciously. How his desire to leave may have contributed to Jim Curtin’s departure is a discussion outside this writer’s normal beat and will not be treated here.

What will be treated is how Ngabo’s defensive midfielder role was filled in the final two months of Union II’s season.

A new single six

Union II head coach Marlon LeBlanc had used two other players as single sixes when Ngabo had not been available. He rarely used a double six as he had in previous seasons.

In May 2023, Carlos Rojas joined Union II as a left center back from Venezuela on loan with a purchase option, which was exercised last off-season. He had been thrust forward to the single six role for portions of matches and had done well enough to attract comment. This year his season was punctuated by minor injuries, but he was an obvious candidate to replace the departed Ngabo and was given one or two chances to do so.

There also was a second candidate, Bolivian Jamir Berdecio, who was also on loan with a purchase option. During most of 2024, Berdecio was repurposed into a right back. However, his professional experience as a midfielder, combined with his athleticism and aggressive mentality, made him a valuable asset for late-game substitutions in the single-defensive midfielder role. These substitutions typically occurred when Rojas was injured or when it was a better choice to bring on Gavin Wetzel at right back, allowing Berdecio to move up and over into a more central position.

Ultimately coach LeBlanc went a different direction from his two South Americans. As he later phrased it, he had noticed “certain qualities” in Nick Pariano and began experimenting in practice. He liked what he saw.

In four years at Duke University, Pariano had been an attacking or a central midfielder. He was successful enough that the Union signed him as a homegrown player five days before the 2024 MLS Superdraft. He then combined well with David Vazquez and CJ Olney in the second half of the 2024 preseason opener against Brazilian powerhouse Flamengo in St. Petersburg, FL. During the second Union stay in Clearwater, he played for Union II. He started their second preseason match against the Tampa Bay Rowdies in St. Petersburg as a shuttling midfielder.

After Nelson Pierre was loaned out on January 11, the supplemental reserve roster slot number 31 became vacant. This slot requires a season-long, unrecallable loan to the second team, and Pariano was placed on that roster. Vazquez and Cavan Sullivan were ahead of him in the number 10 position, so Pariano began playing in the role previously held by Alejandro Bedoya. Unfortunately, he suffered an unspecified soft tissue injury to his leg and returned from it too soon. He then re-injured himself (non-contact) just eight minutes after coming on as a substitute during the match against New England on May 19.

By the time the YSC Academy alumnus had recovered, Cavan Sullivan had advanced to Union II, Vazquez was the right midfielder of choice, Kellan LeBlanc and Giovanny Sequera were the top midfield subs, and Pariano was looking for a spot. Coach LeBlanc found it for him at the single six.

The conversion

Union II always hits a rough patch after YSC Academy graduates its seniors and MLS NEXT Cup is over for the U17s.

The amateur academy seniors scatter to their various next steps. Coach LeBlanc has said, for example, that Frank Westfield was a week away from leaving for Penn State when he signed the Union II contract that kept him in place as captain of the youngest starting lineup in the league during its recovery towards the playoffs. That was followed by its history-making run to the League’s Championship Final.

During the late summer transition, specifically on August 26, the team played at home against Columbus Crew 2. The coach decided to start Pariano as the single six in place of Ngabo, putting him ahead of Rojas and Berdecio. Reflecting on this decision later, the coach commented, “It worked.”

Marlon LeBlanc is a careful and thorough coach who considers potential future moves during practice before implementing them in games. It is unclear when he began experimenting with Pariano as a single six in practice, but he first tried this approach in the match against Columbus, a challenging opponent, on the date above. It ended as a 1-1 draw, after which Union II won the penalty shootout for the extra point. Pariano played the first 65 minutes and contributed well to suppressing the Ohioans.

Save for once, he started every subsequent Union II match as the single six, which tells everyone how well he did.

It’s unclear whether the exception was made for another player’s development or to give Pariano a rest. Four days after starting and playing 81 minutes to help secure a 2-0 victory against Carolina Core FC, 17-year-old Zach Mastrodimos, a former U17 standout, replaced him on September 15 in Ft. Lauderdale’s heat and humidity. Mastrodimos played the first half as a defensive midfielder. Pariano took over at halftime in what ultimately resulted in a 3-2 loss.

After that, the only Union II starter who was legally old enough to drink alcohol played every match as the sole defensive midfielder. Starting with Decision Day, his minutes played were as follows: 90, 89, 120, 85, and 90, totaling 480 minutes with only six minutes of rest. When, as the coach put it, Union II was “putting their best foot forward,” Pariano remained fixed in his new position.

It was only late in the championship final, when LeBlanc was adjusting his lineup to account for the exhaustion of Vazquez and Olney during possible extra time, that Pariano left the defensive midfield role to try to inject some creativity into the game, compensating for the drained duo. Then came the moment of “Damn you, Pedrinho!” and the season came to an end.

The future

Uncertainty about the Union’s head coach makes prediction even more challenging. There is no prior track record to analyze. Currently, defensive midfielder Pariano faces a situation similar to that of goalkeeper Andrew Rick.

Although he is second on the depth chart, he is in acute need of the game experiences that sitting on a first team bench cannot provide. Depth at the defensive midfield position behind Danley Jean Jacques could hinge on the potential return of Leon Flach, or possibly Jesus Bueno, if Flach does not return. Still, their availability and roles are somewhat uncertain.

Signing an older, experienced MLS number six would make a great deal of sense, assuming all other factors are equal.

Presumed starter Jean Jacques is an international player for Haiti, which is currently halfway through the second round of Concacaf World Cup qualifying. Haiti is tied for first in its group, five points ahead of its two closest competitors, making it highly likely to advance to round three. The remaining qualification matches will take place in June, September, October, and November of 2025, which means Jean Jacques will frequently be away from the team. Whether Pariano will be ready to step into the first-team defensive midfielder role by June is uncertain. In the past with Curtin, the most optimistic forecast would have been that this is “unlikely.”

Allowing Pariano another season to gain experience in the defensive midfielder position would be ideal; at 21.7 years old, he is still young enough for this opportunity.