Photo Marjorie Elzey

Ryan Richter’s distribution of game minutes in his first five games in charge has given the bulk of them to sixteen players. Although not using these exact words, he has suggested publicly that his objective has been to win every game, a principle reflecting the public words of his two immediate predecessors as head coach and the current and previous Sporting Directors. 

But our unofficial game-minutes data, complied in the second chart below, suggest there may have been some unstated nuances. Preparing for the rest of the MLS season has played a role.

Richter is a midseason replacement taking over at the beginning of a two-month hiatus in play. His principle owner’s comments at the beginning of the hiatus when the new interim head coach was announced suggest his mission is to restore success to a team whose roster is being rebuilt by being made younger. He reports to a new sporting director, using the old goalkeeper coaching staff but with three new field-player assistants alongside one holdover.

Richter’s recent public comments and those of players Kai Wagner and Milan Iloski have emphasized restoring the Philadelphia Union’s traditional fighting spirit. Although it comes at mid-season, Richter’s assignment is effectively a start-over. Although the phrasing overstates the case, it is almost a second preseason at midseason. 

Another congested schedule

The start-over “mid-season preseason” begins with serious schedule congestion created by inserting a second competition into MLS’s post-World Cup regular season, the 2026 Leagues Cup between Liga MX and MLS .

We chart the schedule congestion of Richter’s first nine games. The only aspects of the sequence that are not challenges are that seven games are at home, and that neither of the away ones involves flying all the way across the continent.

As always apparent typos facilitate chart layout.

*There had been a closed door scrimmage versus D. C. United at the University of Maryland a week earlier.

Sixteen players

Unofficially, since we have complied them, here are the minutes the Union’s players have played.

“—“ means the player dressed but received no minutes. *Harriel played 90 but at two different positions.

Depth chart

The chart above suggests that perhaps in his mind Richter may conceptualize his roster as follows.

 Notes:

1. For Philadelphia, Wagner received a lot of money when he returned. We will find out how much from the fall salary release by the players association. We doubt much money eligible for transfer fees remains to make any other significant roster acquisitions.
2. Harriel is depth at all four positions in the defensive line.
3. Korzeniowski is still rebuilding fitness from his non-surgical knee injury received May 17th.
4. Quinn Sullivan is rebuilding towards starting, but the demands of the attacking mid position will ensure that Vassilev receives lots of playing time.
5. We anticipate Ndinga will be sold away, as has been unofficially rumored on the internet. (Money recovered from salary payments usually cannot be used to pay transfer fees directly. If however Ndinga is transferred out of the league, his $300,000 salary might become available.) 
6. We do not include Sal Olivas since he is being treated as though he has no future with Philadelphia.

Salary cap

Here is our best guess at the current salary cap situation of the Union’s roster. 

When a heading has a number in parenthesis, it represents the total number of category slots available to the club, not the actual number of players currently rostered to it. The actual players are listed below the heading in the vertical column. Numbers of TAM players vary from club to club depending on how a club chooses to allocate its eligible money, so the number of regular salary slots on the senior roster varies oppositely. All four senior roster categories must total 18, 19 or 20 when added together. 

We do not include a column for the Off-roster Homegrown category since we conclude Neil Pierre is no longer in it, Kaiden Moore is effectively with Union II, Eddy Davis is on loan to Loudon of USL C, and Sal Olivas is in limbo. 

**Nate Harriel signed a new contract in early April of this year subsequent to publication of the spring salary information so he may be in the wrong category. He is ineligible to be a U-22, and he would have been announced had he become a DP, so he might possibly have been made a new TAM.

*Olney and Anderson have been on loan to Brooklyn FC of the USL Championship all season.

Notes:

1. There are two U22 initiative slots open with the departure of Makhanya and the assumed future departure of Ndinga. 
2. It seems to be Union practice that a reserve minimum salaried player who returns for a second year to the first team, whether remaining on the supplemental roster or not, receives a raise equal to the supplemental roster senior player minimum salary ($113,400 in 2026). 
3. At the least Neil Pierre must now be on the supplemental reserve roster list, not the off-roster homegrown one. He is a second-year supplemental roster player, and in February was being paid the supplemental senior roster minimum.