CHESTER, Pa. — On Thursday evening, the Philadelphia Union set out to close the second leg of their opening round of the Concacaf Champions Cup as they faced Defence FC on a damp, chilly evening at Subaru Park.
Following a 90 minute match that saw four goal contributions from Philadelphia Union homegrown midfielder Cavan Sullivan and a brace from Stas Korzenowski, the Union advanced to the next round, defeating Defence Force 7-0 in a dominant home performance.
“I thought Defence Force, compliments to them, they never gave up
and they really challenged us in certain moments, ” said Philadelphia Union head coach Bradley Carnell after the match. “I’m just glad that we took the goals we did and we had the great moments. We also had in the first half to set up the game and the complexion of the game and then everybody gets rewarded. I think with the work rate and the work ethic and the real professional environment to keep the clean sheet at all costs was an objective of ours and we managed to do that and and score some beautiful goals.”
With it being the club’s third match in over a week, there was a heavy amount of rotation when the club’s starting eleven was announced.
Cavan Sullivan, Jovan Lukic, Geiner Martinez, and Olivier Mbaizo all made their first starts of 2026, with Mbaizo and Lukic making their first appearances with the club since the preseason.
Giovanny Sequera made a start at left back after being announced by the Union that the 20 year old midfielder signed an MLS Next Pro contract after acquiring him via permanent transfer from Metropolitanos FC.
Sequera played the full 90 minutes, completing 90 percent of his passes and winning seven of nine duels during the match, earning the praise of not only his coach but his teammates as well.
“The locker room erupts with his performance and how he did,” commented Carnell. “He’s brave. He never gives up. He fight till the end. And he has a really good engine and good quality in the final third.”
“The best thing is to get the respect of your teammates and I think he has that even with our guys in the locker room. So, you know,
he just works his pants off and he gets rewarded.”
“Happy to work, to play with the first team, because it’s a lot faster and the level does go up,” said Sequera. “So it’s just like I’m so happy to have the opportunity to play with them here.”
Another second team player that made an appearance with the first team was highly touted academy and U.S. Youth National Team member Malik Jakupovic. The spot on the bench marked Jakupovic’s first appearance with the first team.
“He came close once or twice and he worked well to come back in the game and found a good relationship with Ezekiel,” said Carnell of Jakupovic’s minutes on the evening. “So again it’s a good environment to to bring our guys in especially the youngsters just to get them real competitive minutes.”
Andrew Rick was tested early on by Kathon St. Hillaire as the forward broke free after getting tangled up on a 50/50 ball, leaving Andrew Rick alone on an island in a one-on-one situation. The young keeper made himself big against the charging forward, allowing him to cut down the angle and forcing the ball away from the net, only to have the danger cleared away by Martinez.
The Union would go on a bit of a scoring streak, starting with Martinez scoring his first goal as a member of Philadelphia in the seventh minute of the contest on a corner that deflected out and across the 18-yard box, which the young defender calmly volleyed home for a 1-0 lead.
The Union doubled their lead a mere three minutes later in the first half. Midfielder Jeremy Rafanello would try to cut the corner down the left hand side of the box only to be fouled just inside the 18. The referee immediately pointed to the spot, awarding the Union a penalty attempt.
Jovan Lukic stepped in to attempt the conversion, which, while the take was right at the Defence Force keeper Isaiah Williams, the goalie was unable to control the ball, allowing it to roll into the net for the second goal of the match.
Coming back from a rib injury suffered during preseason, Lukic played the first 45 minutes of the match and was very active, as per the midfielder’s MO during his time with Philadelphia.
“Crucial to him to get the minutes,” said Carnell on the midfielder seeing action. “You know, again, it’s other than training just to be really diligent with being sharp on the ball, getting the ball off your feet at the right time and and just testing it and see how it feels. So, we felt he’s another step in the right direction.”
The final goal over the five minute stretch could arguably be the best of the trio as Alejandro Bedoya passed it off to Sullivan, who found Korzeniowski down the right side of the box. The University of Pennsylvania graduate promptly drove the ball into the back of the goal, putting the home side up three to zero.
Overall in the first half, the Union outshot Defence Force FC 9-0 while controlling 75 percent possession over the first 45 minutes, putting five of those shots on target.
Halftime substitutions were Sal Olivas for Jovan Lukic, and Olwethu Makhanya was subbed out for Ben Bender.
Korzeniowski kicked off the scoring in the second half with his second goal of the evening in the 48th minute. The goal was started in large part thanks to Sal Olivas with a heads-up cross to find Alladoh, who made a nifty assist to Stas.
“I’m still heavily learning, and I have a lot of good role models within the team to learn from Bruno, who’s such a great leader by example,” said Stas on his line mate. “Watching him last year from the suite as a second team player, you know, just observing his work rate and off the ball movements and his strength on the ball, that is a similar profile to me. I really admired that, and I try to embody that myself and having a full preseason being fit, being healthy, really taking care of my body, you know that physical advantage that’s also given me the opportunity to come into three games.”
Ben Bender brought the Union’s lead up to five as Cavan Sullivan logged his second assist of the evening when he found Bender wide open for the former No. 1 overall MLS SuperDraft pick to settle the ball and finish off the chance.
In the 59th minute, Carnell headed to the bench, bringing on Union II forward Malik Jakupovic for Korzeniowski. Malik proceeded to show the crowd at Subaru Park his potential by creating space and getting a shot off, sailing it just over the top of the net.
“When Ale had the ball, making the running behind,” said Jakupovic. “I knew exactly what I was gonna do. I knew I was gonna cut in, and when I cut in, I was like, yeah, this is cool. And then I went too under the ball, and yeah, I thought I had it.”
On his time with the first team, Jakupovic shared his thoughts on being around the squad.
“All the older guys pushing me every single day, and I’m really happy to be in this type of environment, and hopefully one day, it’s playing a bigger stage and really, really excited for what’s to come.”
After two assists, Cavan Sullivan joined the scoring party, netting his first goal as a member of the Philadelphia Union to extend the lead to 6-0. With the goal, Sullivan became the youngest American goal scorer and third youngest in Concacaf Champions Cup history.
“Thankful for the opportunity happy to score my first goal, two of them, actually, so it was pretty special,” said Sullivan. “And more importantly is the clean sheet and the win and we advanced.”
Cavan Sullivan added to his goal total with another goal in the 88th minute, thanks to an assist from Sal Olivas, stretching the Union’s lead to 7-0 as the final whistle blew.
“I’ve seen how hard he’s worked over the last couple of years,” said Andrew Rick about Sullivan.”I know for a fact he wanted that goal really badly, and I know for a fact that he’s going to score a lot more. So I’m very proud of him, and to see all the work he’s put in, and it’s a cool moment for him.”
Philadelphia advanced by an aggregate score of 12-0. Outside of the early opportunity on the breakaway, the Philadelphia Union held the opponent to zero shots on target despite a few scary moments early.
Even more impressive on the evening perhaps was the fact that Philadelphia did not allow a single shot from Defence Force over the entire 90 minutes, something Carnell was very pleased with.
“Everyone dug deep”, said Carnell on the defensive performance. “The guys who gave us 90 minutes, they really dug deep. Olivier, Jeremy Rafanello,even Bedoya pushed really hard and really well. And then Geiner also gets a reward with his goal. He looked like a a striker in his prime. But yeah, really happy that we could get the clean sheet.”
With the result, the Union will advance to the Round of 16 as they will take on Liga MX side Club America, which is a rematch from the 2021 semifinal leg of the competition in which America won to advance to the final.
Philadelphia will shift their attention back to MLS play on Sunday as they host Eastern Conference rival NYCFC on Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at Subaru Park in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference semifinal in which the Union lost 1-0, ending their magical 2026 run.
“Another fight, another, another hard opponent, little bit of a rematch from last year,” said Sullivan on Sunday’s match up. “They knocked us out of the playoffs. So hopefully the fans show out Sunday night soccer. So it’s going to be big, and yeah… just keep it rolling.”
Main article photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Union
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