Harrison, NJ—After prevailing 1-0 in a hard-fought match against Huntsville City FC in the semifinals, Union II made the short trip to Sports Illustrated Stadium looking to repeat as Eastern Conference champions of MLS Next Pro as they faced New York Red Bulls II. Unfortunately, it was not to be as they fell 2-1 after having the 1-0 lead and were unable to capitalize on some very close chances.
The squad
Union II’s starting lineup saw a couple changes since the semifinal match the previous week. With Andrew Rick away in Chicago with the first team, George Marks got the nod in goal. Center back and MLS Next Pro Defender of the Year Neil Pierre wore the captain’s armband as Nick Pariano was on the bench. Rounding out the back line were Rafael Uzcátegui, Giovanny Sequera, and Kaiden Moore.
CJ Olney, Óscar Benítez, Markus Anderson, and Noah Probst were at midfield, and Stas Korzeniowski and Eddy Davis started at forward. Notably, making his first appearance in the Union II lineup, on the bench, was Mateo Gallegos of the Union Academy U-18s squad, though he would an unused substitute.
How the match played out
Union II saw some early chances with several corners within the first 10 minutes. Pierre nearly put Union II up early when he headed the ball on a corner, but it hit the crossbar. Red Bulls II got a chance of their own shortly after, but Marks made the save, deflecting it out. Another huge chance came when Anderson went on a good run toward goal, but his shot was deflected out to the left of the goal by a defender.
The breakthrough for Union II finally came in the 38th minute after Davis went on run, made a fantastic cross to Korzeniowski, who sent the ball into the net to put Union II up 1-0. That made it nine goals in seven straight games for the striker. While Red Bulls II had some chances, Union II’s defense put up a strong effort and headed to the locker rooms at the half up 1-0.
“Really good,” Richter said of the sequence and resulting goal. “It was a throw in, a quick throw from Kaiden into Oscar, who controlled, good forward pass over distance into Eddy, and he made a play. Stas, again, it seems like he’s getting in a good habit of being in the right spot at the right time to score the goal. You don’t need to be involved in the whole play, but you need to be the guy there at the right moment, and that’s where he was. So it was a really good forward play. Very quick once we get the angle, to try to attack the goal like that. So overall, a really high quality play.”
The second half began with no substitutions. In the 56th minute, Davis went on a breakaway and had a prime opportunity to score, but shot just wide right of the goal. After multiple fouls, Moore finally got a yellow card in the 60th minute for the match’s first booking. He was lucky to not get a second yellow shortly after, and got subbed off in favor of Sal Olivas in the 63rd minute, who went into a midfield role and Olney moved back. Red Bulls II saw their first yellow when Matthew Dos Santos was booked in the 64th minute.
Of that sequence with Moore and the substitution of Olney, head coach Ryan Richter shared post-match that he thought Moore probably should have been given a second yellow and been sent off, and that they got lucky with that one. They were also already planning to substitute him off since he was cramping.
With no Pariano and missing players for the U-17 World Cup, Richter’s options were more limited, which led to Olney playing on the back line. He said, “The decision with CJ was… the two options that we had in the game were to take Óscar out of the middle and put Rafa to left back, and kind of change everything, move CJ to the middle, and that makes it pretty light in midfield. Or to move CJ directly to left back. And it’s a job that he can do, he’s got the athleticism. He’s got the quality on the ball, certainly, but he has the game IQ that he can fit in. And I think he made no mistakes in this position, so he committed and he’s willing to do it for the team, more importantly than anything. He’s willing to do it for the team. So that was kind of the thought process going through.”
The defense fought to hang on, but Red Bulls II found the equalizer in the 71st minute when Roald Mitchell scored to make it 1-1. Union II brought on Malik Jakupovic in place of Davis in the 74th minute for their second substitution. Union II had another near miss when Olney took a free kick deep in Red Bulls II territory, which found Olivas, whose header hit the post, and Pierre just missed the rebound.
Those near misses would come back to haunt Union II as Mitchell got a brace in the 83rd minute to give Red Bulls II the 2-1 lead. Willyam Ferreira subbed on for Probst in the 86th minute as Union II searched for the equalizer. Seven minutes of stoppage time was announced, and at that point Union II were throwing everything they could into it. Marks took a free kick near midfield and sent it right into the hands of Causey.
Red Bulls II, however, managed to eat up a lot of time in Union II’s end as stoppage time was winding down. Union II had a last-ditch push down the field and were awarded a free kick, with even Marks up at the box, but in the end, Union II came up short and fell 2-1 in what many might see as the “real” MLS Next Pro Final given the teams. It was a courageous effort by the young squad from Philadelphia, but in the end got outplayed by their opponent who punished their mistakes.
Ryan Richter’s thoughts
After the match, Ryan Richter shared his thoughts on the match and the season. On how he addressed the match with his young squad afterward, he said, “I just thanked the guys for their commitment this year, to buying into the project that we’re a part of and buying into creating environment where they can all get better. And I think they did that for the entire season, and know while today it hurts a lot, I think they all came a long way this year. I just thanked them for the way they committed to what we’re trying to do and I hope they saw the result themselves of the improvement throughout the season.”
There were certainly positives to be taken from the match, and Richter stated, “I thought the effort and the work against the ball was really good… the commitment from the entire group. They put everything into the game.”
But they also had learning moments that the players will need to build from as they continue in their careers. “The overall quality from the team, similar to last week, it was lacking a little bit,” he continued. “So first passes in transition, some of the moments in buildup. They’re better players than that. We have higher quality players in the field to play a better game than that. So that part was disappointing, but that can happen. You know, you can have a bad game, and I think probably just too many guys that were not at their level in this game, but like I said, what you can ask is that they commit to the tactics, they commit to the work against the ball, and that’s how it goes sometimes.”
A record-breaking season with huge growth
One thing that Richter has shown this season is a pragmatic approach and balancing the development and the desire to win. The team finished with a club-record in points and had a league-best goal differential. He also saw a lot of players make huge strides this year.
“The overall player development,” Richter answered when asked what impressed him the most about the squad this season. “And that’s every player in the roster. Even more for myself, you know, where I thought guys could get in one year. I did not think they could make such a big jump as players.
“And I don’t want to point any guys out, but if you look at the level of Óscar, where he was at the beginning of the year. If you look at the level of Gio. If you look at the level of Neil Pierre, Defender of the Year, and he plays like that in every game. If you look at the level of some of the younger guys, like Willyam, like Malik… if we would have signed up in the beginning of the year that they would be playing in the conference final and they would be an important part of the game, I think we would have, and they got themselves to that level.
“And that comes back to the entire group buying in to the project that we’re trying to do, and creating an environment where they fight every day, they play to win, they compete against each other, but they do it in the right way, and as teammates that they push each other to get better.”
Union II relied on a whole host of players throughout the season who made contributions, including some that have since departed. Gavin Wetzel, Zach Mastrodimos, and Henry Bernstein left to play in college. Isaiah LeFlore, David Vazquez, and Oliver Semmle were loaned out. Pierce Holbrook, Noah Probst, Kaiden Moore, and George Marks were brought in. Everyone played a role in Union II getting to where they were, and when certain players were missing, others stepped up. With four players missing for the U-17 World Cup, others had to step into different roles, and in the case of team captain Nick Pariano, he was an additional missing piece who may have made a difference.
Richter addressed Pariano being on the bench and not being brought on. “He was injured. He had a hamstring injury. Tried to get him back. That’s a tough one. We missed him, definitely. But I think Kaiden did a good job. He stepped in and he wasn’t afraid of the moment. So he helped us out a lot. But of course, we missed Nick, and we wish he was part of the part of the game.”
Halftime adjustments
“They started in the end of the first half,” Richter said of what adjustments Red Bulls II made for the second half. “ They started to roll out one of their tens into a wide area. And I thought we had a good plan how we would solve that going into the into the second half. But they were having a little too much success with it. Benedetti was pulling wider in the right half space. We tried to attack and be aggressive to attack forward with their fullback, so we could keep our sixes inside instead of the kind of man marking and finding them outside.
“But yeah, they overloaded the midfield. They played some really good stuff. They played some really high quality stuff and their attacking players are good and really dangerous and sharp in moments when they need to be. So I think they executed well with the ball. That’s what happened in the second half, and that could happen. We gave too many moments where you’re defending monsters, and you give the ball directly back to them. So we didn’t take care of this moment enough.”
Season reflections
And so another season for Union II comes to a close, though the first team is still going and had played Chicago Fire on the road to a 3-0 victory. It was a season of growth and change, and not just for the players. In his first year at the helm after being an assistant with the first team and coaching Academy teams, Ryan Richter took a team that was young, raw, and hungry to the Eastern Conference Final.
“Yeah, I feel I probably have to take some time to kind of reflect on that because it’s like a 100 miles an hour when the season’s going,” Richter said of his growth as a coach. “But today I’m grateful for the staff that I work with, the players, the way they committed to what we’re trying to do. And I hope they know that I put everything into this to try to help them. So I’ll take some time to kind of reflect on what I learned throughout the season, but it’s hard to after a game. I don’t want to think about myself. I’m just thinking about the team.”
It will likely take some time for the players and coaches to reflect, but while the end result was disappointing, Union II had a long season of growth, exciting moments, and learning—a lot to be positive about in the season.
Main article photo credit: Philadelphia Union II
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