Chester – St. Patrick’s Day necessitates the playing of lots of Dropkick Murphys songs for many, including this writer. An appropriate song in the playlist today was “The Boys Are Back” as Union II took the field at Subaru Park for the first time in the 2025 season. If you know the lyrics to that song, the boys are “looking for trouble.” The Boys in Blue created some trouble for New York Red Bulls II; however, they were also the recipients as the visitors equalized late in the game to force a shootout for the additional point per MLS Next Pro rules.
The starting lineup featured new signing Ramzi Qawasmy in his first appearance with Union II. Zach Mastrodimos, a Union Academy midfielder, made his second career start with Union II.
The first real chance would come via a Nick Pariano cross to Sal Olivas, who headed it toward goal for an easy save by the Red Bulls keeper, Aidan Stokes.
In the 14′ Red Bulls would take the ball down and have a shot deflected, resulting in the first corner of the match, followed by another that would result in a shot, but a nice save by Andrew Rick negated that chance.
In the 19′ David Vazquez would be fouled just outside the box, resulting in a dangerous free kick. Cavan Sullivan would take the shot from just outside the box and did not miss as he had first “doop” of the season via a banger to put Union II up 1-0 in the 20′. Red Bulls would then nearly equalize in the 22′ off a corner, but it was cleared off the line by Union II’s defense. The pressure continued as in the 29′ Cavan tried to chip the keeper from well outside the box, but it was saved, and a shot in the 31′ by Stas was deflected. Red Bulls got another chance on a shot in the 34′ but it sailed over the goal.
At the half, Union II would go to the locker room ahead 1-0 with four shots (two on target) while Red Bulls had three shots (none on target). When asked about halftime adjustments, head coach Ryan Richter said:
“We just tried to talk to the guys about areas where we had success and build up in the first half, just dropping our fullbacks a little bit deeper to pull their wing back out in pressure and create these 2 v 1 situations in our buildup and in in the wide channel and and the half channel. We asked our full backs to be a little more aggressive, taking their positions between the 10 and the wing back so that they could attack forward when we’d go pressing, that they could really be close enough that they could attack their wing back on the ball in the first half. We thought they were a step or two too late, and that’s probably from their starting position than their actual intensity to try to close the ball. But I thought they adjusted with all to that and just asked our our strikers to one always goes to the deep option to make a little more space to play behind, but as you saw in the second half with the wind, it it was very difficult to play beyond them. It was still difficult to play in front of them because they knew they didn’t have to really defend the ball behind with the wind so heavy in the second half.”
The second half would begin with no lineup changes for the Union. A 49′ chance for Red Bulls would come after some missed tackles, but it was cleared by Pariano. Union II would keep up the pressure. In the 54′ a yellow was shown to Gavin Wetzel after a Red Bulls player toppled over him, setting up a dangerous free kick that would go for naught as it sailed wide of the goal. This was followed by a quality shot by CJ Olney in the 59′ that the RB keeper made a nice save on.
In the 67′ Union II had their firsts substitutes. Jordan Griffin and Óscar Benítez subbed on for Zach Mastrodimos who had been on a yellow since the 39′ and Isaiah LeFlore. This was the first appearance for Benítez with Union II. More subs would come on in the 74′ as Sal Olivas and CJ Olney departed in favor of Eddy Davis and Leandro Soria. In the 78′ a Red Bulls chance was sent wide as they continued to try to break through. A turning point was in the 82′ when Gavin Wetzel was shown a red, however the ensuing shot outside the box sailed over the goal. Still, this was a large defensive loss for Union II. The final sub for them would come in the 83′ as Kellan LeBlanc, who was celebrating his 17th birthday, came on for Cavan Sullivan. Since subbing on in the 85′, Eddy Davis was bringing the energy and had a good opportunity, but his strike hit the outside of the net. Nick Pariano was shown a yellow card in the 85′ to round out the cautions on Union II players.
After being up 1-0 since the 20′, Union II’s lead was nullified as Red Bulls II finally broke through on Tanner Rosborough’s goal in stoppage to level it 1-1, and force a shootout to decide the additional point to be awarded for the second straight match.
Nick Pariano stepped up first for Union and saw his attempt saved by the Red Bulls keeper, but then Andrew Rick also had a save to keep it even. Stas Korzeniowski scored on his attempt for Union II, but so did the opponent, keeping it level. David Vazquez made his attempt and Rick would follow with another huge save. Finally, Leandro Soria buried his shot and none other than the regulation goal scorer for Red Bulls, Rosborough, skied his over the crossbar, sealing the shootout victory for the home squad.
Andrew Rick once again showed his prowess and poise in a penalty kick situation, something that both Ryan Richter and Cavan Sullivan commented on during post-match interviews. Richter noted when asked if he thought it was more training or instinct with Rick, “Well, he’s always been a beast at penalties, so, he’s… I don’t know if you’re gonna call it a specialist, I wouldn’t call it that, but he’s excellent, and he always has been. So I think the goalkeeper coaches will take credit and say his training, but I’ll give him credit and say it’s some of his own talent and his hard work.” [Read more about Andrew Rick in my recent interview with him]
Cavan, who has played with the goalkeeper for some time now, commented on what he has seen: “I mean, Rick has, this guy always manages to save at least one penalty if we go and do a shootout. Last week he did it in game and then in the shootout. He’s been doing that since he was in U 15, but his mentality, his distribution and overall just as a professional and character, I’ve seen him grow up.”
There is no love lost between Union and Red Bulls at first or second team level, and it tends to be a dogfight. Cavan is no stranger to it, and talked about the difficulty breaking through: “Yeah, Philadelphia versus Red Bulls is always a battle. It’s filled with grittiness, aggressiveness and overall, just a pressing, highly defensive game, so, I mean, yeah, they know what to expect, we know what to expect from them, so it’s obviously always gonna be a battle. It’s not gonna be pretty. I’ve never played in a game with Red Bulls that it was pretty, but yeah, they just did their thing. We did our thing and and it was, pardon my language, it was a s*** show out there. But, you know, we got through it and that’s how you do it.”
When asked about how it felt to get the first goal of the season, Cavan was happy to get the goal, but the team was disappointed to give up a goal and miss out on a third point. “Yeah, I mean, obviously it was a a pretty fast start for me, a nice free kick goal. I was happy to do that. Obviously it’s not awesome losing a point at home. We’re happy obviously to win penalties, but it would have been nice to get all three. We know what we did wrong, obviously late in the game we had a a few missed opportunities and then some sloppy things on the defensive end, so we know what to fix up and and what to change for these next couple of weeks.”
Ryan Richter summed up the result: “Yeah, I thought that it was very difficult conditions of playing when it’s windy like this, probably the worst conditions for a player. But I thought we did a good job in the game, trying to play through that. Fighting as a unit, of course, that changes a lot when the red card happens and they had a couple of big chances. It got really chaotic again at the end, but it feels good to come away with two points, I guess, rather than last week’s end with terrible feelings, so I guess that’s a good part about the penalty shootout ending is that it can also feel good.”
Union II have a bit of break and return to action at Huntsville City FC at Wicks Family Field on Friday, March 28. It will air at 8:00 PM on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
Main article photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union II
The One Team We Agree On 
Leave a comment