Chattanooga — On Saturday evening, Union II battled first-place Chattanooga to a 0-0 draw on the road and picked up the extra point in thrilling fashion, enduring 12 rounds of a penalty shootout to emerge victorious, 9-8. While the first team was in Montreal playing simultaneously, the second team traveled to Finley Stadium with most of its regular squad intact. The match was delayed by one hour due to inclement weather and kicked off at 8:00 PM. The lineup saw Ryan Richter and his staff make a couple of changes: with Cavan Sullivan traveling with the first team, Kellan LeBlanc got the start, and Eddy Davis was paired up top with Sal Olivas. Markus Anderson was also absent from the lineup.
The first half saw Chattanooga with a lot of possession, bringing the pressure and getting early chances, and Union II having trouble breaking through and delivering quality shots. Richter had talked about Chattanooga’s strengths earlier in the week saying, “They have quality players and they have really good organization with the ball. And you see the chances that they’ve been able to create and when they get into dangerous areas and create overloads, why they end up executing from dangerous positions and then really committing numbers to get into the box to create situations where they get guys in the areas where they score.”
They did indeed test the defense from the get-go, spending a lot of time in the attacking half early on. Union II’s defense, however, would bend but not break. Andrew Rick had three saves in the first half, including a big save in the 20th minute, and then in 35th minute Chattanooga’s Peter Plougmand had a dangerous chance that just went wide, and then moments later Rick deflected a ball for a nice save. The first half came to a close with an attempt by the home squad that went wide. Union II did not have a lot of chances in the first half, though Sal Olivas had a few shots that went straight to the keeper.
As the second half began, Union II made one change as Henry Bernstein subbed on for CJ Olney and made his Union II debut. Chattanooga would get one of their best chances in the 49th minute during a chaotic sequence that ultimately ended with Isaiah LeFlore with a skillful bicycle kick off the goal line.
Around the 55th minute, momentum seemed to really shift in Union II’s favor, and they started to break through more and get their opponent on the transition. In the 56th minute came a shot from distance by Eddy Davis, and then a fantastic shot by Kellan LeBlanc in the 62th minute that forced a big save by the Chattanooga keeper, Eldin Jakupović. Richter had discussed how Chattanooga fell to Crew 2 and weaknesses he had seen before the match: “You’ll see chances that are conceded in transition, and that’s the same with a lot of possession teams because they want to open up and play expansive and and it does create a lot of chances and create some really nice moments with the ball. But if we can be ruthless in our style, you can see in every game they are vulnerable in transition and that’s how we like to play.”
In the 68th Stas Korzeniowski subbed on for Sal Olivas, and in the 71st minute Eddy Davis had a quality shot deflected, leading to corner. Union II were relentless in the attack with 15 shots in total for the match, but had only three that actually were on target and five blocked shots. In the 76th minute, some fresh attacking power came on as Kellan LeBlanc was subbed off for Leandro Soria, who had scored in 2024 against Chattanooga.
Union II’s defense was holding strong, with Neil Pierre and Rafael Uzcátegui shoring up the back line, but in the 77th minute Pierre went down with an injury. After a pause in play, he was able to get up and resume. Soria got a shot off from distance in the 79th minute that was deflected by the keeper for a corner, but that opportunity went for naught. Chattanooga broke through on a 1v1 that forced Rick to make a huge kick save that preserved the clean sheet.
Pierre would go down once again in the 83rd minute and need attention from the training staff, but walked off on his own power by the 85th minute. At this point, Union II brought on Óscar Benítez in his place, and Giovanny Sequera for David Vazquez. Richter looked like he was getting heated with the official and appeared to be shown a yellow at the 86th minute, the only card the squad would have on the evening. CFC’s Tate Robertson was the only player booked as the referee largely just let them play.
Still scoreless going into stoppage time, Chattanooga sent in a dangerous ball, but ultimately were stymied. Regulation ended 0-0, giving Andrew Rick his second clean sheet of the season and Union II remaining the only unbeaten team in the East. Also, for the fourth time this season, Union II would have to go to a penalty shootout to decide which squad would take a second point.
The first round saw Nick Pariano, the captain and no stranger to taking penalties, bury his shot, but CFC’s Tate Robertson also scored. Stas Korzeniowski then made his shot, and Andrew Rick came up with the big save on Minjae Kwak’s shot as his prowess at PKs once again was on display, and made a save on CFC’s third attempt (Nick Mendonca) to keep U2 ahead after Isaiah LeFlore’s shot was also saved. It would be brought back level in the fourth round, however, as Rafael Uzcátegui had the keeper beaten, but his shot went off the post. CFC’s Plougmand then made his shot.
In the fifth round, Leandro Soria buried a high shot, putting the pressure on CFC who ultimately scored as well via Callum Watson, bringing the shootout into extra rounds of sudden death. Giovanny Sequera chose to shoot low and scored, but CFC reciprocated with a goal by Daniel Mangarov. Debutant Henry Bernstein confidently made his shot, but CFC’s Logan Brown once again made it level. This continued into the eighth round as Eddy Davis and Farid Sar-Sar both scored. Gavin Wetzel also went low on his shot, but was saved. With CFC on the brink of winning the shootout if they scored, Rick once again came up huge as Keegan Ancelin’s shot hit the post, just out of the reach of Rick, and to the tenth round it went.
Óscar Benítez, like Sequera, scored on a low, left shot, but CFC kept it going by making theirs (Nathan Koehler), bringing it to the eleventh round where the keepers would have their turn to shoot on each other. Rick showed he was skilled on both sides of the net when he buried his shot on his counterpart, but Jakupović returned the favor, sending the shooting order back to the beginning for a twelfth round. Pariano stepped up and made his second attempt of the shootout, but this time Robertson was denied as Rick made the save to finally end it and secure the extra point for Union II. What had been a stalemate in regulation turned into a thrilling, lengthy shootout victory for Philadelphia.
Union II will next face the only team to defeat Chattanooga so far this season, Columbus Crew 2, in a home match at Subaru Park on Sunday, May 11 at 3:00 PM. The last time Union II faced Crew 2 was in the Eastern Conference Final where Union II won 4-0.
Main article photo credit: Philadelphia Union II
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