CHESTER, Pa.— It was a cold, rainy day at the WSFS Bank Sportsplex, but it did not dampen the spirits of a resilient Union II squad that saw two 17 year olds in Matheus De Paula and Theo Reed net their first pro goals en route to a 2-1 comeback win over Atlanta United 2.
With the first team heading to Miami and the U-18s in Salt Lake City for the MLS Next Cup, Ryan Richter’s lineup was markedly thinner, though a few Academy players stayed back for the match and would join the U-18s later. They were also missing Stas Korzeniowski, who will be out a few weeks with a PCL injury to his knee, and Sal Olivas was serving the first of an extra two-game suspension that Richter confirmed.
Theo Reed made his first pro start, paired up top at striker with Eddy Davis, who returned from injury. Also returning from an injury was Willyam Ferreira, and he was at midfield with Nehan Hasan, Matheus DePaula and Óscar Benítez. Oliver Pratt returned to the starting lineup at right back, with Jordan Griffin at left back, and Kaiden Moore and Rafael Uzcátegui at center back. George Marks was in goal for his fifth appearance. For Moore, it was a reunion with the team that loaned him to Philly.
The match started on a not so strong note as a miscue by Marks after an ATL2 long free kick saw the ball get away from him, which Atlanta’s Arif Kovac sent home in the 5th minute to put ATL2 up 1-0. It was a rare blunder by the keeper, who had largely been fantastic in his starts for Union II.
To their credit, Union II did not hang their heads, but came back right away with some opportunities. Uzcátegui had a header on a corner that was blocked in the 7th minute. The Union II defense held strong with some quality clearances from Benítez and saves by Marks, who would end up with six saves on the day. A big moment came in the 20th minute when ATL2’s Enzo Dovlo made a run on goal, but Moore pressured him and Marks made the save.
Marks made three more saves in quick succession as ATL2 had attempts in the 30th and 34th minutes and were bringing a lot of pressure. Union II answered back with three shots on goal by Davis, Hasan, and Reed that forced Jonathan Ransom to make saves. The Boys in Blue were playing with more confidence as the first half was nearing its conclusion, and went into halftime with what what seemed like momentum swinging their way.
The second half began with one change for Union II as John Ruf replaced Davis, whose minutes were planned to be restricted due to returning from injury. Union II brought pressure right away, and in the early minutes, ATL2’s Dominik Chong Qui committed multiple fouls in a short span, finally being shown a yellow card in the 47th minute. The resulting free kick just outside the box was taken by Ferreira, with De Paula putting a header on it. It initially bounced off the chest of Ransom, but De Paula knocked the rebound into the back of the net for the equalizer in the 48th minute. It was the first pro goal for the Academy amateur, who had earned his first assist in the previous match and has been more and more impactful at the Next Pro level.
Richter only had three field players on his bench (the others were goalkeepers Pierce Holbrook and Charli Lorenz), and brought in the two remaining substitutes in the 61st minute as Mamoutou Berthé and Giovanny Sequera replaced Hasan and De Paula. It only took Berthé two minutes to get a yellow card, the first of the day for Union II.
The second half continued with Sequera and Berthé forcing Ransom to make saves, but the deadlock persisted—that is, until the 83rd minute.
The play began when Reed received a throw-in and passed it to Ferreira, who sent the ball into the left side of the box where Griffin tapped it over to Reed. The striker took a left-footed shot and beat Ransom for the go-ahead goal. It was the first pro goal for Reed, who has had limited minutes with Union II but has been important to the U-18s. In the match, he would go the full 90 for the first time. He had a couple more attempts that missed, but was showing great confidence.
As Union II worked to hold off ATL2 from equalizing, Ruf was shown a yellow card for a foul in the 88th minute, and ATL2 were bringing pressure in Union II’s box. On a corner executed two minutes into stoppage time by Ignacio Suarez-Couri, Uzcátegui came up with a huge block, heading the ball out from the goal line.
In the fifth and final minute of stoppage time, ATL2 got one last chance after Pratt fouled Dominik Chong Qui and was shown a yellow card, setting up a free kick outside the box. The ball bounced around inside the box, twice getting punched away my Marks, and finally out of danger where the referee blew the final whistle, sealing Union II’s 2-1 victory.
Richter was pleased with his team’s performance, saying post-match, “I think we played as a team, the energy was right, we made mistakes, and we picked each other up for them, and in the end, we got rewarded for the work that we put in together. So, I was really proud of the guys, proud of the group, two first-time goal scorers, and that was a lot of fun.”
On the resilience of the team to make the comeback, Richter added, “Yeah, I mean it’s cool, you know, that’s what we’re playing for, and for those guys to be able to experience it together. So we had 13 field players, so to be able to get through that and get the win, that was really cool.”
For Kaiden Moore, on loan from Atlanta, it was a chance to prove himself against his former team and play a full 90 for the first time in quite a while. Richter saw some areas for him to grow, but was pleased overall.
“He did well,” Richter said of Moore. “He did well a couple times, got caught out of position a little bit, but I was proud of him because he did everything at his max, right? He was not, like, caught in between second guessing. If he made a decision, he went for it, and he was like, everything he did was with intent, and I was really happy about that. So he got caught up a couple times, of course, but overall, like, you felt like he was really in the game, and he was trusting his instincts, and that’s what I was proud of.”
It was a game that had much that Richter could be proud of, and the win bumped Union II up to 6th at the time of this article, and right in the hunt at 18 points and a record of 5-4-2. They will next travel to Toronto to take on TFC II on Friday, May 29 at 7:00 PM. Meanwhile, De Paula, Hasan, Reed, and Ruf headed after the match to Salt Lake City to join their U-18 squad in the MLS Next Cup playoffs, and will be playing Sunday at 5:00 PM MT (7:00 PM ET).
Main article photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union II.
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