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We expect we will not see Union II’s roster moves for 2026’s roster build announced in the short-term future. We will combine PSP’s inaccurate, cloudy, cracked crystal ball with our end of season roster analysis and include our guesses about 2026 within it.

We will present the work in three parts based on positions: nine goalkeepers and defenders, nine defending and attacking midfielders, and six strikers together with a guess at a 2026 depth chart.

We exclude players who are loaned away from the organization as we guess that none of them are likely to return and secure playing time. We can think of none from the past who have done so, even if they were still officially carried on the Union organization’s books. The loan-aways are David Vazquez, Isaiah LeFlore, Oliver Semmle, and Jose Riasco.

Keepers

Goalkeepers are like catchers in baseball; teams can never have too many.

After a few years of observation, we think we know that Director of Goalkeeping Phil Wheddon likes to have four available most of the time for practices. And Union II has usually followed that example. In high contrast to practices, the only times keepers are substituted during games are for injuries or red cards. So four get work during practice, but only one sees duty during a game.

Hence for keepers playing time can be scarce. We think we know John McCarthy left Philly years ago to try to find it. We strongly suspect that later on Matt Freese did the same. Both were “blocked” by Andre Blake.

Ages in this segment are as of November 11^th, 2025. We have added in Union II’s playoff run to the statistics. Apparent layout errors facilitate proper alignment in columns.

We do not know why the Charlotte organization released Marks.  He was an MLS pool goalkeeper for about a month before Philadelphia signed him for the rest of 2025. The first team has announced that they are negotiating with him with a view to a new contract for 2026.

It was fortunate he was available after Pierce Holbrook injured his knee. Marks was the back up on the first-team bench three times. All his five starts came for Union II. It is worth noting that with Crown Legacy this year he made a sequence of three saves one right after another that earned him MLS NEXT Pro Save of the Year. He seems well suited to step in for Holbrook while the former Navy man recovers from the presumed surgical repair to his knee.

Sheridan travelled to the Costa del Sol in Spain last January for preseason as the first team’s fourth keeper. He saw no game minutes while the Union were training there. He often practiced with the first team.

He sat Union II’s bench as the back up keeper 22 times, in addition to his three starts.

The signings of Pierce Holbrook and later Lou Liedtka suggested Sheridan wouldl probably be moving on from the Union organization in 2026, and indications on social media are the he has. He may well want a chance to play somewhere at some level. He has clearly been a good soldier for the organization.

Liedtka signed with Union II on 2025’s roster freeze day and made its bench as the backup goalkeeper five times including during the club’s playoff run. He played five years in college, four at Davidson in North Carolina and one at Vermont during their NCAA tournament run as a graduate student.

He seems poised toil Sheridan’s former role in the organization, especially while Holbrook recovers and rehabilitates (see immediately below).

Holbrook suffered what looked like a knee injury during warmups with the first team August 23^rd at Chicago right after he had signed a short-term contract allowing him to sit the bench as the first team’s back up goalkeeper. There has never been an official organization announcement concerning his status, but unofficial descriptions at the time made it clear it was a knee injury and that surgery should be expected. The club’s subsequent goalkeeper signings lend credibility to the unofficial information.

Holbrook had kept five clean sheets for Union II prior to his injury. He seemed to be progressing well into the organization’s goalkeeping ranks.

Jillian Almoney’s June 10^th interview with him from “The One Team We Agree on” provides excellent background information. (Click here.) In it, Holbrook makes clear the Union organization has sustained an interest in him for some time.

Defenders

In 2025, Union II’s defense allowed the second fewest “goals against” in MLS NEXT Pro. They also tied for second with three other teams in clean sheets with eight. Neil Pierre (see photo) was recognized as MLS NEXT Pro Defender of the Year.

Perhaps less noticed but equally worthy of it are the outside backs. Head coach Ryan Richter developed them. In one case he developed a known Academy player. In the other, he discovered the player has an affinity for the position and then developed the player. Richter himself was a right back when he captained Bethlehem Steel FC in its inaugural year of 2016.

Academy amateur Jordan Griffin is the left back and returning Union II loanee Venezuelan-born Gio Sequera is the right. We know from public comments by first team head coach Bradley Carnell that Sequera has had at least one opportunity to work with the first team in practice. Earlier, Griffin was away with the US U-17s at the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar where he started the third group stage game against Czechia.

One of the few good things that occurred in Vancouver for Philadelphia during the 7-0 shellacking they took from the Whitecaps was that Neil Pierre made his MLS debut. He played the last 20 minutes on the 13^th of September.  He had sat the first team bench numerous times as an emergency central defender reserve. First team head coach Bradley Carnell has made it clear verbally during a press conferences that Pierre is in the earliest stages of developing into a first team central defender.

Pierre scored four goals for Union II this season, all on set pieces, we think almost all with his head. He remains an organization prize possession. But he should not be expected to slot into the first team right away.

Uzcategui came to Philadelphia from 2024’s last place team in Colombia’s highest professional division. He had played the second half of that season as a center back.

In one Union II game when Nick Pariano was unavailable to be captain, he gave Uzcategui the armband. After the first playoff win, I asked permission of head coach Ryan Richter to compliment him on an excellent season. Richter approved without hesitation, and confirmed that his English was good enough to sustain the conversation.

In my opinion he has earned a chance to try for a first team center back reserve role. (Of course, my opinion and 75 cents would have bought you a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer 25 years ago.) We have no way to tell whether the organization agrees.

Sequera has not played perfectly as a right outside back. But he has done quite well. He has found a Philadelphia home.

He provides abundant offensive thrust forward into the attack. He has three goals and four assists. He recovers at high speed and immediately. And although not Oscar Benitez, he is a tough, sure tackler.

He needs more experience defending as a member of the last defensive line rather than the middle one.  He is not mistake free. He accumulates yellow cards. But the overt mistakes of commission are few, and his ability to recover and restore himself to defending is commendable.

He first started at right back on June 26, allowing Nick Pariano to return to defensive mid, and aside from one suspension for accumulated mustard has held the job ever since.

We would expect him to return for 2026 somehow, so long as achieving the return is not prohibitively expensive. He seems worth retaining.

When he came under challenge from the early August acquisition of Kaiden Moore, Griffin stepped up his game. He did so well enough that he joined the US squad that went to Qatar for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup. In Qatar, he started the third game of the group stage against Czechia on Tuesday, November 11^th. He came off roughly halfway through the second half holding a hamstring with the score 0-0.

That hammy summarizes his status. He needs engine-building. He is not yet ready to sustain the frequency of all-out physical effort that will be demanded of him as a professional. In only half his starts was he able to finish a full 90 minutes. Improving that will be the 17-year-old’s most fundamental challenge for next year.

Whether he does so in a Philadelphia Union jersey remains unclear because he is an academy amateur. Making the U-17 World Cup roster will put his name before the eyes of even more clubs than knew about him before it. Other youth prospects have finished their academic work at YSC Academy remotely while they have begun playing for other clubs.

If he stays with Philly, he will need a full year of work with Union II. He has the technical skills, and seems to know what to do and when to do it. Standing up to the grind of a ten-month season will be his greatest challenge wherever he ends up.

As mentioned above, Moore’s major contribution to Union II’s season aside from being a practice body has been competitively stimulating Jordan Griffin. He too is a left-footer.

Moore started once, the Eastern conference championship final at New York Red Bull II.  By the time an hour had elapsed he was a step slow and beginning to foul and was replaced. After he went off, the balance of the match tipped into Red Bull’s favor with the unfortunate consequence that they won. Moore gave it everything he had, but he was done. And Coach Richter was entirely correct to take him off and not risk injury.

A week after we drafted this, Tuesday afternoon, November 18th, Atlanta United 2 announced that Moore has returned from his loan to Union II. Hats off to PSP colleague Alex Hayden for tipoff.