Photo courtesy of Kevin Barrett

We conclude PSP’s annual 2026 Union II end-of-season roster analysis with the forwards.   

Again, we expect that Union II’s end-of-season roster decisions will not be announced in the near future. We will combine PSP’s inaccurate, cloudy, cracked crystal ball with our end-of-season roster analysis and include our guesses about 2027’s sprint season within it.

We will present the work in three parts based on positions: ten goalkeepers and defenders, seven defending and attacking midfielders, and four strikers. Goalkeepers and defenders were discussed on October 7. Midfielders were discussed on October 8.

All data provided for each player in their respective chart is strictly from MLS NEXT Pro appearances.

We exclude players who are loaned away from the organization, as we guess that none of them are likely to return and secure playing time. We can think of none from the past who have done so, even if they were still officially carried on the Union organization’s books. The loan-aways are CJ Olney, Stas Korzeniowski, Eddy Davis, Markus Anderson, and Jose Riasco. 

Forwards

The Union II forward group ended the season much smaller in quality than it started. Previous Union II regulars Markus Anderson, Stas Korzeniowski, and Eddy Davis III were all loaned away to explore development opportunities at a higher level, thus opening the door for two younger Academy amateurs, John Ruf and Theo Reed, to emerge behind them. 

As much as 2026 was a transition year for the defensive end of Union II, the attackers also had some difficulty meshing together. Union II scored just 37 goals in 28 matches this season and had a negative goal differential. The 2025 team amassed 64 goals in the same number of matches, finishing with a +30 GD. We’ve previously discussed the growing pains in the 2026 back line, but there is plenty of the same to talk about with the strikers. 

All ages in this segment are as of September 25, 2026. 

Player	Age	“Source”	Citizenship(s)	Contract
Malik Jakupovic	17.3	1st team	USA, Bosnia	26,27,27-28, 28-29, 29-30, O 30-31
Position	Total Mins	Apps	Starts	Full 90s
Forward	1383	17	17	10

Jakupovic spent most of 2026 snakebitten, for lack of a better term. He finished the NEXT Pro season with three goals and one assist in 17 matches, but was promoted to the first team and treated as the club’s fourth-string striker under Ryan Richter. He did not let his lack of form keep him down and ended up bagging his first career MLS goal in the Union’s 5-0 battering of San Diego FC. 

The young attacker spent 2026 adjusting to the demands of playing between the first and second team levels. He presses, he makes intelligent runs, and in the words of interim Union head coach Ryan Richter, “he knows where the goal is”. That praise is something anyone should want in a number nine. The goals will return when he gets his confidence again. 

Jakupovic was called into the recent USA U17 training camp for the September-October window; the last camp before the annual FIFA U17 World Cup. We expect Jakupovic to be part of that squad.

Richter’s recent treatment of Jakupovic as the organization’s fourth striker is our reasoning behind omitting Stas Korzeniowski from this discussion. Jakupovic is six years Korzeniowski’s junior and has a much higher ceiling for his development, making the youngster the wiser choice going forward. 

Player	Age	“Source”	Citizenship(s)	Contract
John Ruf	17.4	Academy	USA	Amateur
Position	Total Mins	Apps	Starts	Full 90s
Forward	536	15	5	1

Ruf was one of two Union Academy U18 forwards to get significant opportunities with the second team in 2026. Ruf started in Union II’s first match of the season and continued to earn minutes throughout. He displayed strong effort in his pressing abilities and worked especially well in tandem with fellow U18 Academy Amateur Theo Reed. He had one MLS NEXT Pro goal this year.

He is still in the earlier stages of adjusting to the MLS NEXT Pro level and the stamina required to play full matches. 

Per FOTMOB, Ruf led MLS NEXT Pro in fouls per 90 with 5.9, demonstrating his intense but developing pressing efforts. 

Ruf is a senior at YSC Academy and is committed to play collegiately for UCLA after graduation. He will be with Union II in the Spring to continue his development at the highest possible level. 

Player	Age	“Source”	Citizenship(s)	Contract
Theo Reed	17.9	Academy	USA	Amateur
Position	Total Mins	Apps	Starts	Full 90s
Forward	763	14	8	4

Reed is the second Union Academy U18 forward to break into the Union II ranks this year. He plays as more of a target forward and does well with the ball in and around the box. He is still working on his engine building. 

Reed scored 5 goals in MLS NEXT Pro this season, the most of any of the forwards we discuss in this analysis. He scored a brace on the road against FC Cincinnati 2 on August 30th and was named the league’s “Rising Star of the Matchday” for the feat. 

Reed’s performance in the tail end of the season earned him a call-up to the US U19 training camp in Marbella, Spain, for the FIFA September-October window. 

Reed, too, is a senior at YSC Academy. He is committed to play his college soccer for Michigan in the fall of 2027 and will be with Union II for the spring to continue developing in the meantime. 

Player	Age	“Source”	Citizenship(s)	Contract
Sal Olivas	20.2	1st team	USA, Mexico	26, 27, 28, O 29
Position	Total Mins	Apps	Starts	Full 90s
Forward	703	16	7	4

Sal Olivas had a difficult 2026. He began the year on the bench behind Jakupovic, Korzeniowski, and Davis, and when given an opportunity to prove his value, earned two yellow cards in about thirty minutes and ripped a red card out of a referee’s hand in the first half of a match. 

Olivas did not record a goal involvement in a league match all year. After Chris Harmon took over in June, Olivas only made 3 more starts for the rest of the season. He was thoroughly behind two academy amateur players in the depth chart. 

He remains under contract with the Union for 2027. Olivas needs to find playing time somewhere, but it is not likely that he finds it in Philadelphia.

A Possible 2027 Depth Chart

We take a speculative guess at the Philadelphia Union II depth chart for 2027 as it might look right now. First-team contracted players are asterisked, as are those we expect might become so. Academy amateurs are denoted with a caret.

We also expect 19.9-year-old midfielder Paco Dadi, who suffered a season-ending injury in 2026 preseason, to return and be given a chance with Union II in 2027, but do not include him on the depth chart itself because we are unsure where exactly he fits into it.

	Forward		Forward
	John Ruf^		Theo Reed^
			Sal Olivas*
Attacking Mid				Attacking Mid
Willyam Ferreira				Kellan LeBlanc*
Tyler Gladstone^
	Defensive Mid		Defensive Mid
	Abdoulaye Diop^		Giovanny Sequera*
	Timo Mendoza^		Mamoutou Berthe
Left Back	Left Center Back		Right Center Back	Right Back
Jordan Griffin	Kaiden Moore* OR Rafael Uzcategui		Finn Sundstrom*	Matheus De Paula^
		Goalkeeper
		George Marks*
		Pierce Holbrook