Photo Marjorie Elzey

A roster adjustment looms for the first team. It may or may not be announced when it happens.  It will become public for certain when the next set of team roster profiles is published by the league, probably sometime this summer in conjunction with the secondary transfer window.

Because of injuries to others, Frankie Westfield has started five of the Union’s first six 2025 matches at outside back, four times on the right and once on the left. He also started every preseason match in Spain and Florida. He has done remarkably well for a teenager playing his first-ever first-team games. Records and memories suggest he had not seen any type of first-team game pitch before this year. Practice pitches were different story.

The problem is that Westfield is currently an Off-Roster Homegrown player. He is therefore able to dress for the first team—and play—only on a short-term four-day agreement under the Off-Roster Homegrown rule. He may do that only six times in a season. Only one of his six special permissions remains unused.

Both right backs, Olivier Mbaizo and Nathan Harriel, are now healthy and fit. Most recently against Miami, manager Bradley Carnell chose to keep Harriel at right back, Mbaizo in reserve on the bench, and Westfield on the left for the injured Kai Wagner. In the second half, Westfield was often marking Lionel Messi, and he seemed to do as well as anyone ever does against the Argentine.

Westfield’s Union II history

At the beginning of the 2022 MLS NEXT Pro season—that league’s first—then-Union II head coach Marlon LeBlanc said he warned Westfield that the previous season he had left him alone. But that was going to change. Now in 2022, LeBlanc was going to pay close attention and make what might charitably and politely be translated as constant verbal demands.

The then-16-year-old former right midfielder rose to the challenge. And by the midseason in 2022, Westfield was defending satisfactorily for an MLS NEXT Pro player and had begun, occasionally, to integrate himself into Union II’s attack. He was growing.

In 2023, the young man from Philly was the acknowledged Union II starter at right back. He didn’t lock down every opponent, but only one torched him badly and repeatedly over the course of the year. And he fulfilled the offensive role of the narrow diamond’s outside back, forming familiar offensive triangles and delivering the occasional cross. Towards the end of the summer, memory says he provided a critical assist at St. Johns University against NYC FC II that fueled a successful comeback. That comeback turned out to be crucial to Union II’s scraping into the playoffs for a second season.

In 2024, new first-team reserve left back Isaiah LeFlore came over from Houston Dynamo II, probably to get games with Union II. But on the first day of January practice, the new Union reserve tore a knee ligament. Suddenly LeBlanc had no left back—the previous year’s player had aged out and moved on, and there were no obvious candidates in the Academy pipeline.

LeBlanc turned to Westfield even though the 18-year-old was not a left-footer. And, as the cliché tells us, the rest became history. History ended with LeBlanc’s band of precocious teenagers winning the Eastern Conference title and losing the development league’s final to North Texas SC’s adults last November.

In 2024, the teenage left channel combination of Westfield, midfielder CJ Olney, and striker Eddy Davis scored all year. Davis used his pace to time his runs perfectly, slotting home from inside the box on feeds from either of his left-channel teammates. When we finally asked Westfield directly how a right footer had become so effective crossing with his left, Westfield responded with literally one word, “Focus.” Right-footed Frankie’s left-footed focus became lethal for Union II from the left channel.

It was far and away the best postseason performance Philly’s professional player development side has ever achieved, far surpassing the professional organization’s first ever playoff win, when James Chambers led Bethlehem Steel past the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on penalty kicks on October 20, 2018.

What might happen – the first team

Westfield was just signed to his fifth short-term agreement against Inter Miami. He is the first choice for depth at outside back in either channel. But only one short-term agreement for him remains.

In short order, Westfield’s roster designation will change from Off-Roster Homegrown to Homegrown.

By rule, once the change is made it is irrevocable. It will shrink the Union’s 2025 roster flexibility by one slot. The total free slots will drop from four to three.

The shrinkage would matter only if Westfield were subsequently to prove unable to perform effectively at the first-team level. The first five sets of regular season evidence greatly reduce the probability of that conclusion being drawn. But a sample size of five matches is smaller than usual.  A minimum sample of eight or ten has been more common in past organization habits. Of course Slavia Praha, AGF, FC Cincinnati, and CF Montreal in preseason make nine.

What might happen – the second team

There are other consequences besides those for Westfield himself and the first team.

Direct observation of Union II, Westfield’s age, and his initial Off-Roster status suggest that he was expected to play games with the second team at right back. But that circumstance now seems unlikely to arise. The question becomes who will replace him.

Union II’s defense has recently added two new players, but not right backs necessarily.  Both are instead center backs. But their presence will definitely affect Union II’s right back situation.

Former Union Academy player 25.3-year-old Ramzi Qawasmy, most recently of Atlanta United 2 in MLS NEXT Pro, seems at first glance to be a competent Union II defensive reserve who adds experience and probably leadership to coach Ryan Richter’s squad.

The other addition is Venezuelan Rafael Uzcátegui, 20.5-year-old who most recently played for the Colombian top division’s Boyacá Chicó. In their 2024 Finalización and their Copa Colombia, Uzcátegui’s last 19 matches for that club were all starts for full 90s at center back. Before then in the 2024 Apertura, he had seven starts for full 90s at right back. Unsurprisingly, as soon as his paperwork had cleared and he became eligible, Uzcátegui started at center back next to Neil Pierre for Union II. He could fill in at right back in an emergency.

We assume a proven Colombian first division defender is playing with Union II to learn the Carnell system and philosophy where at least one assistant coach, Fred da Silva, has enough Spanish to provide explanations against confusion and misunderstanding. (Last year’s Union II assistant Anthony Flores who served the same function also remains in the organization as the first team’s individual development plan specialist and presumably could assist if necessary.)

More probably the two new center backs could allow coach Richter to shift 18.6-year-old academy amateur Gavin Wetzel to right back, where he learned to defend quite successfully last season. Wetzel has said he thinks of himself as a center back primarily, and he certainly has been effective there for Richter early this season. But he was also the consistent right back starter for the 2024 Eastern Conference champions in their stretch run to and through the playoffs.

In Westfield’s likely absence Wetzel returning to right back makes good sense for the team. How it further develops Wetzel the player is not as clear, but playing other positions related to one’s primary one has repeatedly been an organization developmental strategy.

Were our guess correct, coach Richter’s strongest defense might look something like what follows below. Of course we must remember, Richter’s brief is not to start his strongest defense necessarily but to develop his young players.