Chester – The phrase “any given Sunday” is brought up a lot in football, but it can be relevant in what much of the world calls “football” as Philadelphia Union II were handed their first loss of the season on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Chester. Despite coming into the match higher in the standings and with more favorable stats, and also out-shooting their opponent 23-3, Union II fell 1-0 to Inter Miami II.
Ryan Richter’s squad saw a bit of rotation as Cavan Sullivan and CJ Olney were on the bench to begin the match. Notably, Jordan Griffin got his first career start in the absence of Isaiah LeFlore, who was dealing with a minor leg injury unrelated to his injury from last year (Richter said he should be back next match). With Neil Pierre still coming back from a knee injury, Gavin Wetzel was moved over to center back and Nick Pariano was outside back. Up top were Eddy Davis and Sal Olivas, no strangers to playing together, along with Markus Anderson as a 10. Stas Korzeniowski was still recovering from injury, so he was kept out of the lineup.
The match began with Union II bringing lots of pressure, and in the 3rd minute Kellan LeBlanc took a big rip from near the top of the box off a ball that was recycled off a free kick, but it went over the crossbar. In the 5th minute, Inter Miami II got their first chance, but Oliver Semmle got a hold of it after initially bobbling it. Union II would continue the pressure when in the 9th minute, Jordan Griffin crossed a nice ball that Sal Olivas just missed. Olivas would miss a header in the 10th and 12th minute, and was seemingly “snakebitten” as the match went on. The barrage of chances would continue as Henry Bernstein and Kellan LeBlanc took shots that were blocked, and in the 18th minute, after a nice sliding tackle to keep the ball in the attacking end, David Vazquez got the ball after some passes and took a shot on target but right at the keeper, Ivan Schmid. The shots were coming in bunches, but nothing to show for it.
Post-match, I noted to Richter that Davis and Olivas seemed to have moments they were not on the same page in the first half, and Richter agreed and looked at it as a learning experience, saying:
“Yeah, I thought the same thing. And it’s… look, they’re both in a position where they want to score and that’s great, but you know, being a good player is about taking the right decision at the right time and being able to execute it and a couple moments, you know, I don’t want to call it selfish, but just taking the wrong decision. It’s one that we can work on. We can look at together and they can grow from there.”
Inter Miami II would get a chance in the 21st minute, but that was cleared away by Pariano. More chances came for Union II, who by the 25th minute had registered seven shots, including another from Sal Olivas and Markus Anderson.
Inter Miami II had yet to register a shot on target, but all it took was one defensive mistake. In the 36th minute, Inter Miami II made it count after Daniel Pinter received a long ball from Santiago Morales, broke just at the right time to get past the defense who were caught up high, and beat Semmle to put Inter Miami II up 1-0.
Richter made three halftime substitutions as Eddy Davis, Kellan LeBlanc, and Henry Bernstein were replaced by CJ Olney, Cavan Sullivan, and Óscar Benítez. The formation shifted a bit as Anderson moved up to striker, Pariano and Wetzel moved to their more natural positions at midfield and right back, respectively, and Benítez joined Rafael Uzcátegui at center back. On those halftime changes, Richter was looking for a boost, and described it as, “Just trying to change the energy of the game, you know? That was the thought at halftime, as we needed to do something to change the energy, and three subs at half definitely did that. It’s a decision you have to take sometimes, whether it’s right or wrong- it’s to try to change the flow of the game a little bit.”
The energy did change in the second half, with Union II being aggressive, but Inter Miami II being difficult to penetrate. Óscar Benítez wasted no time trying to make an impact as he headed an attempt in the 46th minute that went wide.
It began to get more physical as Inter Miami II’s Derrek Martinez and Bailey Sparks received yellow cards in the 52nd and 57th minutes, respectively, for fouls, and then a collision occurred in the box between a Miami defender, their keeper, and Union II’s Uzcátegui, but all were able to resume play. It was a moment that looked like the keeper missed the ball and took down the Union’s attacker, which could have been a penalty. There is, of course, no VAR at the Next Pro level. When asked about the collision, Richter said:
“Yeah, I think the goalie came out aggressive. And I haven’t seen it, so once I see it, I can kind of make a better judgment of what happened, but it looked like he came out and missed the ball and went through, I can’t remember who was it was attacking the ball, which would be a penalty, but I didn’t see it again, so I can’t say one hundred percent.”
Union II would continue to bring the pressure as in the 62nd minute as Cavan Sullivan ripped a left footed shot from near the top of the box following a corner, which was blocked. Inter Miami II would respond with another attempt, and Rafael Uzcátegui picked up a yellow card on a foul.
More changes from Union II came in the 73rd minute when Jordan Griffin and Markus Anderson were replaced by Giovanny Sequera and Jamir Johnson. A few minutes later, Union II had opportunities from attempts from Sequera, Sullivan, and Olney, but to no avail.
Time was running out for Union II to find the equalizer, but the tide seemed to be turning in their favor as in the 80th minute a straight red was shown to Inter Miami II’s Cristian Ortiz for making a spikes-up tackle on Pariano, and giving the man advantage to the home squad. Yet another break for Union II came after a handball was committed by Inter Miami II in the box, setting up a penalty kick taken by Pariano. Unfortunately, the captain, who at this point had several successful PK attempts from past matches under his belt, had the keeper guessing wrong, but hit the right post on the attempt, and his shot soon after and Johnson’s in the the 89th minute both were for naught. After three minutes of stoppage time, the match went final with Union II’s status as the last undefeated team in MLS Next Pro coming to an end. Inter Miami II ended the match having only one shot on target- the one that mattered.
Commenting post-game, Richter expressed his thoughts on the match, and while the result was disappointing, there was room to grow and some positives to take:
“Yeah, I mean, we weren’t happy with the energy that we approached the first half with, but the second half was a little bit better. We need to improve in our quality, and just in games on the ball, we have to have a little bit more composure. But you know, we need to take positive from this. It’s like my message to the guys is, we approached the game like it was going to be easy, and it’s never easy. We have to be ready to win the fight first. And from minute one, that the games are going to be difficult and we have to be ready to match that intensity from the start.”
One of the positives was seeing more of what Jordan Griffin, who has made a splash with the US Youth National Team, can bring to the squad. Making his first start, he saw the most minutes he has had with Union II, being subbed off in the 73rd minute. On his performance, Richter said:
“Yeah, I think he did all right. There’s moments, still… it’s tough ’cause you’re nervous and your first game, but I just told him if you make any mistakes in this game, make them being aggressive. Don’t make them being cautious or trying to be safe- it’s tough to play like that. So I don’t care if we make a mistake, being aggressive, make sure that you’re trying to make an impact in the game. I think the second half he did a much better job trying to get forward, trying to attack forward, and that was cool. So a step in the right direction over the last couple of weeks for him, and I’m going to keep him growing.”
It is still early in the season with only eight games played, and lessons to be learned. Richter spoke of those lessons:
“We created a couple chances. The way they were defending deep, down a man… our attacking players need to be in dangerous positions, not dropping back to get the ball. That’s easy, and they don’t need to. The guys are under no pressure there, so stay in the box where you can score goals, and trying to get in the assist somewhere where you can create goals. But we need to drop all the way deep from them. I think that was a clear point for me.”
Team captain Nick Pariano shared his thoughts on the performance post-game:
“Obviously not as complete as we’d like to be. I think there are moments in each half, probably more in the second half, where we felt really good and felt like we could have and should have produced goals from those moments and just spells in the game. But overall, just not as complete as we’d like to be, especially at home. Just being overall higher placed team, and just everything that comes with that. Yeah, not quite good enough.”
On the feeling of disconnect during the match, Pariano described it as, “Stuff like that happens, and the mark of a good team is just being able to fight through that push through that when you’re not playing well, when you’re not always connecting. I think we actually had the chances to win tonight, we just didn’t capitalize on them. So it’s disappointing.”
Sometimes teams need to come back to Earth a little bit, learn from their mistakes, and get better. The pressure of trying to maintain that undefeated status can be a little heavy sometimes, but now Union II can look to grow from their trials. One need only look at the Philadelphia Eagles, who at one point in 2024 were 2-2 with fans being negative and people putting Nick Sirianni in the hot seat, but they learned from their mistakes, went on a ten game winning streak, and eventually won the Super Bowl. This is by no means the same situation, but good teams build on the positives and learn from the negatives, and come out stronger instead of hanging their heads. Pariano looked at it in that light, saying:
“Yeah, I mean, overall, the pain can be, I guess, good, long term. You know, every team has got to go through losses, and you have to respond. I mean, that’s the biggest thing- let’s respond. Same with me, with missing the penalty in the last minute, it’s how you respond. So obviously, I’m extremely disappointed, and I know the team’s disappointed. The measure of a team is how we can keep going? So, you use it as an opportunity to kind of get some experience under the belt for the season, and hopefully that serves us right in the long term.”
Union II remain in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with at least two games in hand over the teams above them, and will face another low-placed opponent (in fact, last place- but as we know, take nothing for granted) as they travel to NKU Soccer Stadium to play FC Cincinnati 2 on Tuesday, June 3 at 7:00 PM (AppleTV- MLS Season Pass).
Main article photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union II
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