Photo courtesy Philadelphia Union II Communications

In a match in northern Kentucky’s midday heat that tapped off at noon, Philadelphia Union II outlasted FC Cincinnati 2 three goals to two, to preserve their chances to advance into MLS Next Pro’s playoffs. Academy amateur striker rising senior Theo Reed collected a brace. The first goal was unassisted in the 23rd minute off a shoulder touch by the Cincinnati center back, and the second came off a misjudged Cincinnati goalkeeper clearance in the 71st. Fellow academy striker John Ruf collected his first professional goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time for the match winner.

Cincinnati first team player Kris Fletcher embarrassed an otherwise sterling goalkeeping performance by Philadelphia’s Pierce Holbrook at the near post in the 66th to equalize. And 16–year-old Mexican homegrown Ademar Chavez collected a nerve-jangler in the last 30 seconds of stoppage time to to ensure that the visitors from Chester had beaten their cousins from Ohio by only one goal for the seventh straight match.

Aside from his near post error, Holbrook was outstanding on the afternoon. He was credited with 10 official saves and had several other disaster-preventing interventions.

Of some interest, Philadelphia preserved their admittedly slender chances of making the playoffs without further erosion. Their final three games, two of which are at home, are against the three teams holding places seven, eight, and nine in the table going into play on the weekend. Should Philly win out, they will be in.

Player availability and other advance details

Union II’s leading scorer for 2026, striker Stas Korzeniowski, will no longer play for Union II. He has been loaned away to Rhode Island FC of the division II USL Championship for the rest of the season.

Kellan LeBlanc was suspended for his red card (two yellows) against CT Utd last weekend.

The first team played away the night before on Saturday in north Jersey against Red Bull New York  winning 3-1. Therefore double duty was not possible for any first-team reserve players. Other usual first team reserves travelled to northern Kentucky for minutes against Cincinnati 2.

Rafael Uzcátegui was healthy enough to sit the bench but not to play, after having missed his ever first Union II game last week. And 16.6-year-old academy amateur Abdoulaye Diop continued to start at defensive midfielder. We think his evaluation sequence of several consecutive starts has already begun.

Cincinnati 2 lay 15th in the eastern conference table on 19 points having already been eliminated from playoff contention. Union II lay 12th on 33 points, arithmetically still alive for the playoffs as discussed above.

First half

Union II started fast, for the first three minutes.

Then for the next twenty a combination of factors meant Cincinnati dominated the game.

• First, Philadelphia was adjusting to the absences of Korzeniowski and LeBlanc who have been significant bell cows whenever they have been present.
• Second, Cincinnati was on a mission to break their run of poor results against Philadelphia.
• Third, both teams were adjusting to the heat associated with a noontime start in late August in northern Kentucky. Tap-off temperature was 86 degrees Fahrenheit rising to 92 by the second half with no initial cloud cover or breeze.

In the 23rd minute,entirely absolutely, completely against the run of play, Union attacking midfielder Gio Sequera  delivered a long high aerial ball from the left channel towards the penalty spot. Theo Reed failed to win it, but he justled Cincinnati’s defender enough that his header clearance failed, bounced of his own shoulder, and onto Reed’s head whence it popped high over the Cincinnati goalkeeper and went into the net.  The goal was almost accidental. But it changed  the psychology and rhythms of the match.

Cincinnati’s heads dropped. Play for the next — roughly — 25 minutes was much more even.  Holbrook’s imitation of the wall that surrounds the Naval Academy got into Cincinnati’s heads, to say nothing of the help Holbrook got from any goalkeepers’ two best friends, Mr. Post and Mr. Bar.

Cincinnati’s belief that they would score and win had cracked, and frustration compromised their subsequent finishes.

Even with the  absolutely necessary hydration break at 30 minutes, the end of the half began to see the heat takeover the game. And Philadelphia did not have the added psychological burden of wondering if they would ever score. Cincinnati had received two yellow cards late with which seemed at least partial expressions of that frustration. Philadelphia’s Gio Sequera received one at the very end that may have warned of looming exhaustion.

Second half

Neither coach substituted at halftime.

Almost immediately Cincinnati burst forward on the break and beat Holbrook cleanly but the shooter only discovered the sound of Mr Post ringing loudly after being struck hard by a soccer ball.

And after perhaps three or four minutes the heat took over. Players walked. The pace of play slowed noticeably. The temperature had risen to the lower 90s. Both sides looked to any major stop in play for any reason as an opportunity to find water bottles and hydrate.  Interim head coach Harmon rightly began to substitute at the positions one would expect, except for Malik Jakupovic at striker who played the full match.

Jakupovic has spent the season looking for his shooting boots, and he has not yet found them. But his months of practice with the first team has taught him the importance defending as a striker. He deserves full credit for a complete imitation of that part of Milan Iloski’s And Bruno Damiani’s play. And as the half wore on his defensive contributions were crucial to keeping Cincinnati from scoring.

Every cramping delay, or other stoppage became an informal hydration. break.

AT one point fairly early a Cincinnati defender fed a long ball into the central channel that allowed Cincinnati striker and former Union Academy player Stefan Chirila to beat center back Kaiden Moore and break in toward Holbrook. Moore just managed lightly to tug Chirila’s shirt as Moore got a foot on the ball, and that combined with Holbrook’s outward rush meant the Cincinnati man did not even produce a shot out of the chance. The referee was right behind the play and judged the tackle not worthy of a penalty kick. Full credit to Moore whose improvement over the past year has been noticeable.

A few minutes later Holbrook was embarrassed by Fletcher. But six minutes after that Reed retook the lead. Again, he pounced on a Cincinnati mistake. Their goalkeeper, Polish U-20 player Fabian Mrozek on loan out of the Liverpool developmental system, flubbed a clearance arching it high into the air toward the YSC Academy senior, who popped it up to himself off his chest and then took it out of the air on his right foot for an unstoppable volley that restored Phildelphia’s improbable lead. Two shots on target and two goals was Reed’s — and Philadephia’s — offensive production at that point.

In the 78th coach Harmon continued to protect his players and try to preserve his side’s energy to keep their lead by bringing on striker John Ruf for midfielder Gio Sequera, and outside back Oliver Pratt for center back Kaiden Moore who had been cramping and was on a yellow card. Pratt moved Matheus De Paula up to defensive mid, and shifted Oscar Benitez to center back for Moore. As far as we could tell Ruf, Reed and Jakupovic rotated through Sequera’s  attacking midfield slot depending whomever was closest to the need at the time.

Coach Harmon illustrated the Bradley Carnell principle of positional interchangeability excellently.

Cincinnati also was throwing on fresh legs. Union II had applied its pressing principles only rarely in the second half, relying more than usual on a defensive low block and the hosts’ frustrated shooting.  The strategm produced some nervous moments, but Mendoza and De Paula had spent several games earlier in the year as the double six midfielders and Benitez has played at center back before although not with Sundstrom.

Then after five minutes of stoppage time Jordan Griffin fed Tyler Gladstone down the left flank, Gladstone centered the ball from the endline toward the spot, and John Ruf scored his first professional goal. Because of Chavez’s last second heroics Ruf’s became the game winner and the margin of victory was one not two. But Ruf’s goal meant that a Union II team missing its two best offensive players and the lynchpin of its defense had achieved the improbable and won.

Union II interim head coach Chris Harmon deserves full credit for changing his team’s mentality in Ryan Richter-like fashion. At the end of the first half seven days before they gave up first half stoppage times goals to CT United that proved insurmountable. They gave them up because they did not maitain their intensity throughout the stoppage time. a team-wide lapse in concentration that cost them the match. Coach Harmon illustrated the error over the ensuing week, and in an away situation under less than ideal conditions his team never quit. Harmon and his staff deserve full credit for that.

Next match

Union II next plays on the fifth day, Friday, September 4th, at home on Kinetic Field #1 to coach Frederico Higuain’s playoff-contending Columbus Crew 2 at 7:00 PM.

Three points

1. That Kaiden Moore started illustrates perfectly that player development rather than playoff qualification remains Union II’s primary purpose, and Cincinnati 2, a weaker team, provides a good opportunity to assess Moore further. A decision about his future with Union II looms at the end of the season since he is on loan from Atlanta United.
2. Malik Jakupovic does not look to combine with his fellow attackers. He tries to create goals all by himself. Soccer is a team sport, as he illustrates so very well when he is defending.
3. For the last forty minutes that he was on the pitch attacking midfielder Willyam Ferreira was consciously trying to assume the role of bell cow in the attacking midfield both offensively and defensively, and he was not constantly being blown off the ball by bigger opponents. That is a positive sign for the future.

B O X S C O R E

Lineups

Union II (4-2-2-2, L-R) Interim head coach Chris Harmon. Roster sources: 1st — 2(starters)+1 (substitutes); U II — 6+4; AA — 3+4. Starters’ average age = 19.1

Starters: Pierce Holbrook; Jordan Griffin,, Kaiden Moore (Oliver Pratt, 78′), Finn Sundstrom, Matheus De Paula; Abdoulaye Diop (Timo Mendoza 61′), Oscar Benitez;  Willyam Ferreira (Tyler Gladstone 61′),, Gio Sequera (John Ruf 78′); Theo Reed (Sam Gallego 90+5′), Malik Jakupovic.

Holbrook	Griffin	Moore i	Sundstrom	De Paula	Diop
U II	U II	U II	1st	AA	AA
23.4	17.8	18.8	19.8	17.8	16.6
Benitez	Sequera	Ferreira	Reed	Jakupovic
U II	U II	U II	AA	1st
22.2	20.5	17.6	17.8	17.2

Substitutes: Charly Lorenz; Rafael Uzcátegui, Mamoutou Berthe, Sal Olivas.

Lorenz	Pratt	Uzcategui	Gallego	Mendoza	Sequera
AA	U II	U II	U II	AA	U II
17.2	22.9	21.9	16.5	17.1	20.5
Gladstone	Ruf	Olivas
AA	AA	1st
17.1	17.3	20.1

Cincinnati 2 (3-4-3) Head coach Sam Castellanos. Per Transfermarkt full squad average age  = 19.2

Starters: Fabian Mrozek; Ayob Lajhar (Sami Lachekar, 80′), Andrej Chirila, Félix Samson, Charlie Holmes; Kristian Fletcher (Ademar Chavez 80′), Camden Sphire, Leonardo Orejarena (Yair Ramos, 79′), Deiver Mosquera (Nathan Gray, 70′), Stefan Chirila, Cheikou Niang (Mathías Vásquez, 70′).

Substitutes: David Paz; Giovanni Marioni, Jack MIze, 

Goals

Union II      23rd minute      Theo Reed (unassisted)

Cincy 2      66th minute       Kristian Fletcher (Stefan Chirila)

Union II     72nd minute      Theo Reed (unassisted)

Union II      90+5 minute     John Ruf (Tyler Gladstone, Jordan Griffin)

 Yellow Cards

Cincy 2      36th minute      Leonardo Orejarena

Cincy 2      41st minute      Charley Holmes

Union II     44th minute      Gio Sequera

Union II     56th minute      Abdoulaye Diop

 

Whistle & Flags

REF: Ryan Homik; AR1: Jake Brochu; AR2: Adam Saleh; 4TH: Kevin Kernen.

Stats

C 2	Statistic	U II	C 2	Statistic	U II
23	Shots	14	2	Offsides	1
12	Shots on goal	5	2	Goalkeeper Saves	10
3	Blocked shots	6	2	Clearances	10
470	Total Passes	310
88.1	Pass Accuracy %	80	8	Fouls	15
6	Corners	4	2	Yellow Cards	2
5	Total Crosses	4	0	Red Cards	0