Three Philadelphia Union vignettes

Photo courtesy Philadelphia Union

Vignette one

Here is the link to watch the preseason scrimmage against the Tampa Bay Rowdies Saturday evening February 7th at 6:00 PM. Click here. Or find it on the UNion’s official website.

One 2026 Philadelphia Union roster question remains unanswered. It involves left back. Who is Kai Wagner’s replacement?

Aside from that question, the roster with which Bradley Carnell, his assistants, and the technical staff will assay the opening of the 2026 soccer season seems in place. Left back will probably be covered as it would have been had Wagner been suspended or temporarily injured, by Nathan Harriel judging by remarks from Carnell.

The Union are in a roster transition. One its goals is to get younger, so we list the expected squad with their ages. Our classifications of “Best XI”, “Primary reserves,” and “Deep reserves” are guesses. Readers should evaluate them against the evidence of the live-streamed preseason scrimmage against Tampa Bay Saturday evening. Our other categories are known. Players not yet officially announced but unofficially certain are in [brackets]. The uncertain midfielder is omitted.

	Pos	Player	Fr, 6-Feb
Best XI
1	GK	Andre Blake	35.2
2	LB	Nathan Harriel	24.8
3	LCB	Olwethu Makhanya	21.8
4	RCB	Japhet Sery Larsen	25.8
5	RB	Frank Westfield	20.2
6	DM	Danley Jean Jacques	25.7
7	DM	Jovan Lukic	24.0
8	AM	Milan Iloski	26.5
9	AM	Indiana Vassilev	25.0
10	S	Bruno Damiani	23.8
11	S	Ezekiel Alladoh	20.4
Primary Reserves
12	S	[Agustin Anello]	23.8
13	AM	Cavan Sullivan	16.4
14	AM	Alejandro Bedoya	38.8
15	DM	Jesus Bueno	26.8
16	CB	Geiner Martinez	23.1
17	OB	Olivier Mbaizo	28.5
18	GK	Andrew Rick	20.0
Deep Reserves
19	S	Stas Korzeniowski	23.0
20	S	Sal Olivas	19.6
21	S	Eddy Davis	19.6
22	AM	CJ Olney	19.1
23	D/AM	Jeremy Rafanello	25.8
24	CB	Finn Sundstrom	19.2
25	LB/M	Ben Bender	24.9
26	RB/M	Gio Sequera	20.0
27	GK	George Marks	26.2
“Loan Aways”
28	S/AM	[Markus Anderson]	22.2
29	CB	Neil Pierre	18.3
Supplemental Roster Slot 31 – full year loan to Union II
31	CB	Kaiden Moore	18.7
Injury recovery and rehabilitation
32	AM	Quinn Sullivan	21.9

Vignette two

If as seems probable the Philadelphia Union’s top three strikers in 2026 will be Bruno Damiani, Ezekiel Alladoh, and Agustin Anello, and if the unofficial social media reports available from trustworthy sources are also correct, Philadelphia has spent nearly $10 million to acquire its top three strikers. At the times they were announced two of the transfer fees were said by the club to be club records.

2026’s probable top 3 strikers
Player	Date acquired		Reported fee
Ezekiel Alladoh	03-Dec-25	20y/o	$ 4,500 K
Bruno Damiani	18-Feb-25	22y/o	$ 3,400 K
Agustin Anello	T B A	23y/o	$ 2,000 K

Jonathan Tannenwald of the Philadelphia Inquirer says he has been told the Anello fee is closer to $ 2 million than $ 2.5 million claimed by some on the internet.

Here are the top four non-homegrown attacking players of the previous group for comparison.

Their predecessors
Player	Date acquired		Reported fee
Julian Carranza	23-Dec-21	21y/o	$ …500 K
Mikael Uhre	27-Jan-22	27y/o	$ 2,800 K
Tai Baribo	2-Aug-23	25y/o	$ 1,500 K
Daniel Gazdag	11-May-21	25y/o	$ 1,800 K

The Union are spending more money to acquire attackers, not spectacularly more but noticeably so. The recent attackers seem younger.

Vignette Three

San Diego FC likes Philadelphia Union Academy players.

Two of them played as substitutes Tuesday evening February 3^rd in the western conference side’s surprise 4-1 home leg trouncing of Pumas UNAM of Liga MX. It was MLS’s first participation in this year’s version of the Concacaf Champions Cup. Liga MX is in mid-season. MLS is just starting.

Left midfielder David Vazquez substituted in the 63^rd minute and headed home San Diego’s go-ahead goal in the 76^th. Anisse Saidi replaced Anders Dreyer at right wing in stoppage time. Saidi’s appearance was a only cameo. But Vazquez’s turned out to be the match winner.