Photo Marjorie Elzey

New head coach Pat Richter and Ernst Tanner must rebuild Philadelphia Union II, just as Tanner and Bradley Carnell are rebuilding the Philadelphia Union.

So far, little is known as we have seen no extended game footage from preseason; we have only edited highlight snippets. And we have seen no games as every preseason event has been and will be closed door.

We attended two Union II practices before the team went to Florida. They were on turf at YSC Academy on January 23 and January 29. The first was indoors; the second was outside. Our primary purpose was to meet some of the new coaches, two of whom played for Bethlehem Steel FC in 2016, the professional farm club’s first year. Ryan Richter was captain and co-leading scorer, and Fred da Silva, known in his playing days simply as Fred, saw some early season action as a late-game attacking substitute. We hope to meet Henry Apaloo and Ross Cain soon now that Union II has returned north.

This year, Richter, da Silva, and Apaloo have been promoted to the professional farm team from within the organization. All three have had head coaching responsibilities in the Union’s academy. Richter headed the U15s in 2021 before becoming a first-team assistant in 2022. Apaloo and da Silva were academy head coaches this past fall, and earlier, Apaloo had the U15s, and da Silva had the UDS/U19s (their designation has evolved over the years). All know the academy’s rhythms and culture and will know the coming variables. They can plan for the late summer transition from the academy’s recently graduated senior class to the new one because they have experienced it, albeit not with a team that plays through it.

Trialists

Watching practices means watching players. Two groups were unknown to us: trialists and rising academy players.

Several trialists have been with Union II. Most are placeholding practice players. Others may have asked permission to train to remain sharp as they await opportunities elsewhere, especially if those with previous experience with the organization are welcome.

To clarify what we mean by placeholder practice players: as the first team’s preseason roster shrinks, the second team needs additional players for drills and scrimmages. Some first-team players might drop down to help with this. Their ability to join the second team for games depends on performance rather than contract status. This system helps younger reserves gain critical game experience, especially when their games follow the first team’s.

As a result, most trialists move on without being formally identified, which is common across MLS and USL Championship teams during preseason.

Academy amateurs

A more significant number of the unidentified we saw were rising academy players. These boys are trying to make the team and are much more likely to be part of Union II’s future, especially for practice purposes. The best of them will fill out the squad’s game-day rosters, and a few will start, especially during a rebuilding year.

MLS NEXT Pro’s roster rules allow up to 11 amateurs on a club’s official roster, and the identities of those 11 can and do change until the roster freeze date sometime in the fall. Those rules also allow up to 30 professionals, so clubs have a substantial range of pro-am blends available to them. The range reflects the league’s composition of both MLS professional development clubs and stand-alone independents.

Years ago, Bethlehem Steel FC head coach Brendan Burke asked that we respect the privacy of academy boys who have never dressed for an official professional game. We have always accepted his heartfelt admonition.

Korzeniowski …

During our two observed practices, we identified two who were new to us. One is a trialist; and one, an academy player. The pair brackets the ends of Union II’s expected age spectrum. Striker Stanislav “Stas” Korzeniowski, birth year either 2003 or 2004 is definitely 21 years old according to Penn’s posted soccer roster from last fall. The youthful attacking midfielder, who has not yet dressed for an official Union II game, has a birth year that is definitely 2009 and is, therefore, probably 15 or 16 — a detail that may matter if he ever signs with the first team since he might become a Homegrown International. The organization does not publish actual birthdays for amateurs for privacy reasons.

Korzeniowski played for the University of Pennsylvania last fall as a senior. Philadelphia had drafted him two Superdrafts ago, in December of 2023, before the 2024 season, with their second draft pick. He returned to Penn for his senior season; he made first-team All-Northeast, first team All-Ivy, and was the Ivy League’s Co-Offensive Player of the Year.

He is now trying to earn a contract of some kind with the Philadelphia organization. Repeated visual and audio evidence on both X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram suggests he began practicing primarily with the first team once they moved to Florida. Socially, he seems to be part of the first team group in those social media posts.

While we have never seen the actual rules that define who can and cannot be claimed as a homegrown player, we suspect Korzeniowski cannot because his high school was Pennington Prep, not YSC Academy, and his club team was Players Development Academy, not the Union’s.

He played the last 20 minutes of the 120-minute preseason friendly against FC Cincinnati in Clearwater, wearing the number 37 shirt with no name on its back. He also scored the first-half goal against Loudoun United FC on Sunday afternoon, February 16, in the mixed Union and Union II squad that played a closed-door scrimmage on the freshly inaugurated Independence Blue Cross field of the WSFS Sportsplex’s fieldhouse.

According to U Penn’s soccer website, Korzeniowski stood 6’4” and weighed 193 lbs last fall. He certainly looked it both times we saw him for ourselves. His height, weight, and strength are assets in two ways. The first involves aerial balls in the box, both offensively and defensively. The second is in training defenders to deal with opponents of comparable physicality.

He is clearly a challenge for teenage center backs who can only grow and learn from battling him in practice. Facing the Penn man every day would force Henry Bernstein and colleagues Gavin Wetzel, Andrew Craig, and Jordan Griffin (all of whom dressed last year), to learn how to cope with athletic, physically adult strikers. Whether those youngsters turn professional or go off to college they would become better players for the experience.

… and an attacking midfielder

The young academy player is an attacking midfielder with high technical skill, pace and quickness, and the ability to score goals in practice scrimmages. We have no information about him in preseason games, although, barring injury, he almost certainly has appeared in them recently. All of last year’s Union II midfield starters are now on the first team’s bench except the departed Sanders Ngabo, so the young attacking mid is highly likely to start for coach Richter in his practices and to play at least a substitute’s minutes with some spot starts, depending on who comes down from the first team to play on any given day.

The young attacking mid can devastate his peers offensively. We have no idea how he will do against adult players. At his probable age, he has plenty of time to learn how to cope with them.

Florida and the official website’s roster page

The information blackout regarding the 2025 Union II in Florida has been thorough, almost rivaling the secrecy of the World War II intelligence operation known as Ultra, both during the conflict and in the decades that followed 1945. Only a handful of Union II images have surfaced on Instagram and X. All game-like events have been tightly closed off, including the existence of the event at least once.

Currently, the blend of professionals and amateurs available to Union II could be an issue. However, an Ernst Tanner comment made during his news conference with Bruno Damiani and Bradley Carnell on Tuesday, February 18, alleviates this concern.

There is a key restriction governing on-pitch roster composition during MLS NEXT Pro games. Specifically, “There shall be a maximum of five (5) youth academy players per team on the field during an official match.” This means that a minimum of six professionals must be present. As unofficial roster below demonstrates that fielding six professionals could likely require substantial assistance from the first team.

Here is what we think we may know about Coach Richter’s roster. Our presentation is speculative and unofficial. The exponent ^P indicates we know or infer the player is a signed professional for 2025. In past years, those professionals have numbered between 10 and 12. So far this year, there are only five for certain, and the fifth is the first-team player occupying Supplemental Roster Slot 31, who, by Major League Soccer rule, must be placed on season-long loan to his club’s developmental affiliate. There may be a sixth, and a seventh is a possible trialist signing. (Typos are deliberate to make the layout work.)

Counting Supplemental Roster Slot 31 from the first team, there are only seven professionals or potential professionals with the farm team at last, best, known information. Seven strongly implies, especially early in the season, that other first teamers will come down for games to provide the required six pros on the field in a game. The probability is reinforced by past patterns of using Union II to condition the first team’s bench early in the season. It also allows more observation before making binding decisions about the new amateurs.

Union II will need further roster attention before injuries and international absences activate the first team’s bench. Three obvious candidates for Supplemental Roster Slot 31 might be left back Isaiah LeFlore, Homegrown striker Nelson Pierre, and trialist striker Korzeniowski, should he be signed as a professional with either team.

Three Anomalies

Korzeniowski has already been discussed.

At last known mention, Diego Rocio was said to still be in negotiations to sign a Union professional contract. If he signed as a Homegrown with the first team, he would probably have to be placed in the newly publicized off-roster Homegrown category. Suggestions have been made that the Union want to sign him to Union II but that he wants Homegrown status. Homegrowns affect the first team salary budget, which is salary capped, and Tanner has made clear it is tight. A Union II contract has no such externally imposed restrictions, either upward or downward.

Rocio is already known to other clubs both here and south of the border from his GA Cup exploits among other reasons, so his situation may be fluid with other options.

A more complex mystery is Nelson Pierre, Neil’s older brother.

Nelson Pierre has a guaranteed first-team contract through and including 2026. He was the first professional signed to Philadelphia Union II after they moved permanently to Philadelphia from Bethlehem and changed their name.

Pierre’s challenge as a professional arises because early in his soccer career he relied on superior physical athleticism to succeed. That advantage lessened as he has moved up the academy ranks. He has had to try to become more versatile. After 48 games in MLS NEXT Pro in 2022 and 2023, he was sent on loan to a second-division Swedish club in 2024. After he played in the first three games of a preseason cup competition, he did not play again for the Swedish team.

After a July stint with the Haitian team in a Concacaf U20 competition, he was recalled from Sweden in August. He finished the season with division III Charlotte Independence of USL League One. There he was used a late game substitute, no surprise since Charlotte coach Mike Jefferies had established his 2024 team and was having good success. With the Independence, he joined former Bethlehem Steel FC player Hugh Roberts and former Union II man Anton Sorenson.

Pierre did not go to Spain or Florida with the first team this off-season. The signing of Bruno Damiani and the possible signing of Korzeniowski suggest there is no room for him in the striker group. He was present at the two practices we saw before the group went to Florida; however, he has not appeared in any of the few posts from Union II on social media related to Florida, nor has he been mentioned. These details do not confirm his absence from preseason camp, nor do they rule it out. We simply do not know.

All recent behaviors suggest that, despite his contract, it is unlikely that Nelson Pierre has a soccer future with Philadelphia. He needs to convince another organization to take a chance on him. Since it is in their inherent interests, Philadelphia is giving him a platform from which to do so.

First matches

Coach Richter’s charges tap off their 28-game regular season at 3 PM Sunday, March 9 in Foxboro, MA’s Gillette Stadium against New England Revolution II on Apple Plus’s MLS Season Pass.

They open at home eight days later, on Monday, March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day) at 7 PM in Subaru Park against New York Red Bull II, also streaming on Apple.

Their entire 2025 home season is scheduled at Subaru Park. While the Championship field of the WSFS Sportsplex is completed and has supported games and practices since last fall, the necessary supporting infrastructures for it to function as a game venue are still under construction.

Addendum: Concacaf U17 World Cup Qualifiers

Three Union Academy U17 amateurs are likely to be key components of coach Richter’s squad, having been called up for the 2025 Concacaf qualification tournament for the 2025 FIFA U17 World Cup, which will take place this November in Qatar. All three were substitutes last year under coach LeBlanc.

The players are midfielder Kellen LeBlanc, midfielder Jamir Johnson, and left back Jordan Griffin. Each appeared in Union II games last year and participated as reserves in the tournament, according to match data reported on Soccerway via Wikipedia.

LeBlanc was a late-game substitute in matches one and three, and he played all of match two, totaling 113 minutes. He scored the final goal in a dominant performance during match one.

Johnson also came off the bench in match one during the second half but started in matches two and three, totaling 160 minutes. Like LeBlanc, he scored late in match one and provided two assists, including a crucial one in the final match that ensured the U.S. victory.

Griffin played all of match two, was not dressed for match one, and substituted at right back in match three at halftime, totaling 135 minutes.

The U.S. qualified for Qatar while managing to keep three clean sheets. The opening match was a staggering 22-0 victory over the U.S. Virgin Islands, followed by a 7-0 blowout against St Kitts and Nevis. The third match ended in a tense 2-0 victory over Cuba, with LeBlanc receiving a late tackle that resulted in Cuba being down to ten men, further solidifying the win.

Jamir Johnson appears to have improved his role in the team throughout the tournament. However, coach Gonzalo Segares likely made substitutions with the aim of having his strongest players available for the match against Cuba. LeBlanc seems to serve as a reserve midfielder behind NYC FC II’s Maximo Carrizo. Griffin acts as a reserve outside back, playing behind Pedro de Guimaraes on the left and possibly Juan Giovanni Villa on the right. All three players contributed to the team’s clean sheets.

Addendum post publication

About the time this post was published, the Union announced the signing of striker Sal Olivas as a Homegrown player. The contract is guaranteed through 2028 with an option for 2029.

Given comments Tanner made about strikers both at the Damiani introducing presser and with the Olivas announcement, Olivas will almost certainly get his game minutes with Philadelphia Union II. Olivas is the eleventh member of last year’s MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference championship side to join the first team’s roster between last year and this. Olivas was last year’s first striker off the bench. (Right back Gavin Wetzel is the only starter from that side who remains an amateur, a current senior at YSC Academy.)