Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union II Communications

Sunday evening in central Florida Philadelphia Union II treated interim head coach Chris Harmon to the first professional win of his career 2-1 over Orlando City B.

Philadelphia had entered the game on the wrong end of a three game losing streak during which they had lost every time by one goal. Orlando entered on the end of a four game winning streak.

In the 52nd minute Eddy Davis found the lower far post from the right edge of the penalty box. In the 81st Theo Reed, who had replaced Davis ten minutes earlier, headed home a lofted service from the left side corner flag struck by Tyler Gladstone. And in the third minute of stoppage time Bernardo Rhein got one back for the hosts on service from Dylan Judelson.

Union II goalkeeper Pierce Holbrook led the Philadelphia’s defense with 10 official saves and a handful of other crucial denials against a team that registered 17 shots in the first half and 11 more in the second.

In advance

 Major League Soccer teams resumed practice Monday, June 15.

The Union organization under Jon Scheer continued its well-established player development patterns. So, we did not expect any first team players higher up the depth chart than the usual trio — Sal Olivas, Eddy Davis, Finn Sundstrom — to come down to get game minutes. We assumed that Stas Korzeniowski remained unavailable with his knee injury.

Interim head Chris Harmon selected players he knew from the academy to round out his bench. Union II players Oliver Pratt and Mamoutou Berthe remained behind in Chester, as did first-teamer Malik Jakupovic.

Courtesy of video from Jillian Almoney of The One Team We Agree On, we noticed that Quinn Sullivan has begun using his repaired leg with its full range of motion in a shooting drill through cones. Whether at some time in the future he will appear with Union II for his first live game test or tests is unknown. The organization has used Union II that way in the past. Last year March 9th, 2025, Nathan Harriel made such a start for the farm team and played 68 minutes.

Finn Sundstrom and Gio Sequera returned to availability from suspension and started, but Matheus De Paula was suspended for yellow card accumulation and replaced in the starting lineup by recent Academy graduate Lennon Harrington.

We assumed that Phil Karn and Alex Ainscough traveled to Florida in their newly detected roles as interim Union II assistant coaches.

Ahead of the match’s tap-off, Orlando held third place in the eastern conference on 28 points from 14 games, while Philadelphia held 11^th on 18. the hosts were on a four game winning streak. On average the two sides were roughly equal in age. Both averages are under 20.

First half

The half began at a high pace with both teams trying to get behind the other and discovering whether they had positional pace advantages.

Philadelphia did not control the midfield, especially with its attacking midfielders, so as time passed Orlando began to play for long periods in Philadelphia’s defensive half. Goalkeeper Holbrook kept the boys in light blue and yellow in the game with several important interventions. He was credited with six actual first half saves in addition to making some plays before the hosts were able to generate actual shots.

Orlando was credited with the 17 shots previously mentioned to Philadelphia’s four.

Union II right back Gio Sequera faced a significant challenge from Orlando outside midfielder Matthew Belgodere who seemed to have an excellent turn of speed down the flank (see feature photo). fortunately the Orlando man has not yet learned to deliver crosses and other feeds effectively to team mates in the central channel.

Second half

Coach Harmon made two changes at halftime, bring on Andrew Craig for Jordan Griffin and Timo Mendoza for Harrington. Orlando made no changes during the intermission.

Philadelphia sustained a bit more offense out of the break, although Orlando maintained its overall edge of speed and quickness.

As has been the case for most of the year, the boys in light blue and yellow relied on their defensive back six to provide such control of the match as they could. Excellent individual efforts from their strikers provided such offensive pressure as they could upon occasion as striker Davis so magnificently illustrated.

While the defense and the coaches will be disappointed to have lost the clean sheet at literally the last minute, producing a win will ease the disappointment.

The plane flight home will be more pleasant than was the recent one back from Canada.

Next match

Union II next play on the seventh day in north Jersey at Montclair State against Red Bull New York II at 7:00 PM on Sunday, June 28^th. A One Football livestream should be available on YouTube.

 Three points, plus one

1. Sal Olivas is “snake-bit” as they say. He drove a header into the ground to bounce it past the Orlando keeper but had it bounce up and off of the crossbar. He energy and work rte for 90 minutes was excellent.
2. Finn Sundstrom ended the match hobbling. He played striker at the death so as to have healthy bodies manning the defense.
3. Tyler Gladstone recorded his first professional assist on Reed’s game winner.
4. Has Oscar Benitez reformed? He has now played in nine consecutive MLS NEXT Pro matches without receiving a yellow card. We estimate he has used up two of his three good behavior incentives to reduce his card total from two to zero.

B O X S C O R E

Lineups

Union II (4-2-2-2, L-R). Interim head coach Chris Harmon. 1^st – 3+0; U II – 7+1; AA – 1+7. Starters’ Ave Age = 19.8.

Starters: Pierce Holbrook; Jordan Griffin (Andrew Craig HT), Rafael Uzcategui, Finn Sundstrom, Gio Sequera (Kaiden Moore 82′); Lennon Harrington (Timo Mendoza HT), Oscar Benitez; Willyam Ferreira (Tyler Gladstone 61′), Kellan LeBlanc; Sal Olivas, Eddy Davis (Theo Reed 72′). Presumed suspended: Matheus De Paula. Presumed injured: Stas Korzeniowski.

Holbrook	Griffin	Uzcategui	Sundstrom	Sequera	Harrington
U II	U II	U II	1st	U II	AA
23.2	17.6	21.7	19.6	20.3	18.0
Benitez	Ferreira	LeBlanc	Olivas	Davis
U II	U II	U II	1st	1st
22.0	17.4	18.2	19.9	20.0

Substitutes: Matthew White; Sam Gallego, Abdoulaye Diop, John Ruf.

White	Craig	Moore	Mendoza	Gallego	Diop
AA	AA	U II	AA	AA	AA
16.7	18.8	18.6	16.9	16.3	16.4
Reed	Ruf	Gladstone
AA	AA	AA
17.6	17.1	17.0

Orlando (4-2-3-1) Head coach Edward Wilding. Per transfermarkt, full squad average age = 19.3.

Starters: Tristan Himes; Bernardo Rhein, Albright Chikamso (Titus Sandy, Jr 68′), Landon Okonski, Parker Amoo-Mensah; Ignacio Gomez, Dylan Judelson; Issah Haruna, Justin Hylton (Nicholas Bobea Torres 69′), Matthew Belgodere; Pedro Leao.

Substitutes: Juan Rojas; Jacob Ramirez, Brady Kendall, Nicholas Lasheras, Caleb Trombino, Logan Tsopanoglu.

Goals

Union II     55th minute     Eddy Davis (Willyam Ferreira)

Union II     81st minute     Theo Reed (Tyler Gladstone)

Orlando    90+3 minute    Bernardo Rhein (Dylan Judelson)

Yellow Cards

Orlando     21st minute     Landon Okonski (foul)

Union II     28th minute     Rafael Uzcategui (foul)

Union II    34th minute     Lennon Harrington (foul)

Orlando    56th minute    Pedro Leao (dissent)

Union II    71st minute    Timo Mendoza (foul)

Orlando   72nd minute   Nicholas Bobea Torres (foul)

Whistle & Flags

REF: Benjamin Meyer; AR¹: Ethan O’Hearn; AR²: Aaron Riley; 4^TH: Russell Miller.

Stats

OCB	Statistic	U II	OCB	Statistic	U II
28	Shots	16	1	Offsides	0
11	Shots on goal	3	1	GoalkeeperSaves	10
13	Blocked shots	3	2	Clearances	11
485	Total Passes	230
87.4	PassAccuracy%	73.9	10	Fouls	11
7	Corners	5	3	Yellow Cards	3
5	Total Crosses	5	0	Red Cards	0