Photo Philadelphia Union Communications
Philadelphia Union II travelled to Montclair State University Sunday evening and suffered the heaviest defeat of their five-year MLS Next Pro existence, a 5-0 loss to Red Bull New York II.
The only worse loss in the history of Keystone Sports and entertainment’s professional second team was a 6-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL Championship in St, Petersburg back on September 21st, 2019.
The match was close until the 62nd minute, when Philadelphia made a quadruple substitution taking off three-quarters of its defensive line — right back Gio Sequera, right center back Rafael Uzcategui, and left back Jordan Griffin, as well as attacking midfielder Kellan LeBlanc. Seven minutes later the deluge began. New York scored three goals in six minutes from the 69th through the 75th minutes, and added a final insult to those injuries in the 90+1st of stoppage time.
The then Union II interim head coach Marlon LeBlanc presided over the shellacking in Florida seven years ago. He then went onto a run of success with Union II. Hopefully current interim Union II head coach Chris Harmon will follow in LeBlanc’s footsteps.
In advance
The first team had a scrimmage against the Houston Dynamo Saturday, June 27th at 11:00 AM at the WSFS Sportsplex’s Kinetic Field #1. Six usual Union II players got minutes in the second half and towards the end.
The scrimmage occurred the day before Union II travelled to north Jersey to play Red Bull II. Four Union II regulars played the last 25 minutes. They were center back Rafael Uzcategui, left back Jordan Griffin, right back/midfielder Gio Sequera, attacking midfielder Kellan LeBlanc. They were clear candidates for substitution in north Jersey.
Stas Korzeniowski remains in recovery from his knee injury, as does Quinn Sullivan. The pair, along with Alejandro Bedoya, warmed up before the first team scrimmage but separately from the rest. (That strongly suggests the elder Sullivan is not yet integrated into practices without restriction.)
A current Union II roster uncertainty is the matriculation of recent YSC graduates to the next stages of their soccer careers. Union II interim head coach Chris Harmon relied heavily on them for his game day lineup and bench in last weekend’s victory over Orlando in central Florida. Colleague Alex Hayden has evidence that Nehan Hasan has left for his next destination.
First team backup goalkeeper Andrew Rick remains in camp with the U. S. at the world cup as one of their “cannon fodder” goalkeepers for practice.
Prior to the match Red Bull II lay third in MLSNEXTPro’s eastern conference on 28 points from 15 games played. Union II lay 11th on 21 from 14.
From Philadelphia’s point of view, Red Bull has always been their most intense rival. On March 21st in north Jersey after a 1-1 draw in regulation, Philadelphia won the penalty-kick shootout 4-3. On May 3rd in Chester, Red Bull II won in regulation 2-1. Today’s match was the rubber game for the season series.
First half
Red Bull II started strong, but Philadelphia survived the outburst unscathed. And after about 15 minutes the match began to be played in lots of space with Philadelphia defending primarily but striking forward on counterattacks as has been their pattern all season.
New York consistently had six or seven players forward of midfield. New York had a clear pace advantage down their left channel against Willyam Ferreira and Gio Sequera with left winger Dennis Nelich.
NewYork’s high press was much more effective than Philadelphia’s because it consistently recovered the ball forward of half-field. Philadelphia’s formation leaves an empty space in front of its double pivot, and the New Yorkers dominated it.
In the 35th minute Red Bull II attacked down the right channel. Sean Baitinger won the end line and crossed on the ground across the goal mouth to Nelich who was unmarked sprinting down the left channel for the first of his three goals.
Theo Reed almost immediately generated Philadelphia’s best chance of the night but his shot at the other end curved just wide of the far right hand post.
The match remained close and cagey until halftime.
Second half
Neither coach made any changes at the break.
Then in the 62nd minute Philadelphia made the quadruple substitution previously described and seven minutes later New York’s Niagara River roared over the falls.
Union II exists to service the needs of the first team, and the first team needed to play LeBlanc, Sequera, Griffin, and Uzcategui yesterday morning in the Houston scrimmage. The consequences for Union II today were predictably disastrous.
We assume coach Harmon was given no choice, since no coach of his experience would voluntarily remove three of his four defensive linemen in a match his side still had a decent chance to draw.
As the organization’s philosophy mandates, Union II fell on its sword Sunday night to the benefit of the first team.
Next match
Union II next plays on the seventh day on July 5th, away to New England II at 7:00 PM. This year Revolution II play their home games in Smithfield, Rhode Island at Bryant University’s Beirne Stadium. Beirne Stadium has the same synthetic playing surface that is normally used at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA the home of their first team.
Three points + one
- We clearly jinxed Oscar Benitez, who picked up a deserved yellow card in the first half for persistent infringement.
- Pierce Holbrook’s metrics took a beating, but he should receive little blame as the defensive change highlighted through out this report was largely to blame.
- Matheus De Paula’s continued absence remains unexplained, and he is definitely missed.
- Rafael Uzcategui came off the pitch during a game for the first time this season.
B O X S C O R E
Lineups
Union II (4-2-2-2, L-R). Interim head coach Chris Harmon. 1st—1+0; U II – 7+3; AA – 3+6; Starter’s Ave Age = 19.4.
Starters: Pierce Holbrook; Jordan Griffin (Mamoutou Berthe 62′), Andrew Craig, Rafael Uzcategui (Kaiden Moore 62′), Gio Sequera (Jett Harrison 62′); Timo Mendoza, Oscar Benitez; Willyam Ferreira, Kellan LeBlanc (Sam Gallego 62′); Sal Olivas, Theo Reed (John Ruf 74′).
| Holbrook | Griffin | Uzcategui | Craig | Sequera | Mendoza |
| U II | U II | U II | AA | U II | AA |
| 23.2 | 17.7 | 21.7 | 18.8 | 20.4 | 17.0 |
| Benitez | Ferreira | LeBlanc | Reed | Olivas | |
| U II | U II | U II | AA | 1st | |
| 22.1 | 17.4 | 18.3 | 17.6 | 20.0 |
Substitutes: Matthew White; Oliver Pratt, Abdoulaye Diop, Tyler Gladstone.
| White | Pratt | Moore | Berthe | Diop | Harrison |
| AA | U II | U II | U II | AA | AA |
| 16.7 | 22.7 | 18.6 | 19.5 | 16.4 | 17.0 |
| Gladstone | Ruf | Gallego | |||
| AA | AA | AA | |||
| 17.0 | 17.1 | 16.3 |
Red Bull II (4-3-3). Head coach Dominik Wohlert. Full squad ave age per Transfermarkt = 20.0.
Starters: Aidan Stokes; Connor Faello, Jason Bori (Joshua Munson 77′), Aimar Sanchez, Aimar Modelo; Nate Worth (Paul Sokoloff 77′), D Cadigan, Benjamin Rodriguez (Sekou Kone 70′); Dennis Nelich, Mijahir Jimenez (Christian Gallagher 70′), Dennis Gjengaar.
Substitutes: Austin Causey; Erick Londono, Sean Baitinger, Shunya Sakai, Marco Morigi.
Goals:
Red Bull II 35th minute Dennis Nelich (Sean Baitinger)
Red Bull II 69th minute Dennis Nelich (Dennis Gjengaar)
Red Bull II 72nd minute Sean Baitinger (Dennis Gjengaar)
Red Bull II 75th minute Dennis Nelich (unassisted)
Red Bull II 90+1 minute Paul Sokoloff (Christian Gallagher)
Yellow Cards:
Union II 18th minute Rafael Uzcategui (foul)
Red Bull II 39th minute Deven Cadigan (foul)
Union II 45+2 minute Oscar Benitez (Persistent infringement)
Whistle & Flags:
REF: Joshua Encarnacion; AR1: Seun Yinka-Kehinde; AR2: Justen Lopez; 4TH: Hector Rueda.
Stats
| RBII | Statistic | U II | RBII | Statistic | U II |
| 16 | Shots | 5 | 1 | Offsides | 4 |
| 11 | Shots on goal | 1 | 1 | GoalkeeperSaves | 6 |
| 2 | Blocked shots | 2 | 1 | Clearances | 7 |
| 505 | Total Passes | 277 | |||
| 89.7 | PassAccuracy% | 77.6 | 18 | Fouls | 13 |
| 7 | Corners | 0 | 1 | Yellow Cards | 3 |
| 6 | Total Crosses | 3 | 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
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