BROOKLYN — If you were to ask what most people do when celebrating their 17th anniversary, most would probably say a weekend getaway, a nice dinner, or a relaxing evening at home. However, Jillian and I decided to spend the evening covering a soccer match, as we headed back to Brooklyn, New York, to check in with Marlon LeBlanc and his Brooklyn FC project during the club’s first season in the USL Championship this past Saturday.
It was also an opportunity to see former Philadelphia Union left back Isaiah LeFlore, who signed with Nashville SC during the offseason. However, Nashville recently loaned LeFlore to the USL Championship-leading Tampa Bay Rowdies, who have 28 points through 13 matches.
After suffering an ACL injury during the early stages of the 2024 preseason, LeFlore returned in 2025 and played with Union II before being loaned to USL Championship side Detroit City FC in August for the remainder of the season.
But he was not the only player with Union connections. Forward M.D. Myers, a Philadelphia native, came up through the Union Academy, as did Tampa Bay’s starting goalkeeper, Jahmali Waite. Waite also currently backs up Andre Blake on the Jamaican men’s national team.
For LeBlanc’s Brooklyn FC, which had its match against Indy Eleven on Wednesday postponed due to weather, Markus Anderson was suspended because of yellow card accumulation after picking up his fifth booking during the club’s 2-2 draw with Louisville City. That gave Juan Carlos Obregón Jr. the start alongside CJ Olney and Stefan Stojanovic.
Former Union Academy goalkeeper Lucas Burns made a clutch save early in the match, keeping the Rowdies off the scoreboard before springing Olney on a counterattack down the left side of the field. Olney’s feed found Stojanovic in the 15th minute, and five minutes later, Stefan threaded a promising ball through the Rowdies’ defense to Jaden Servania. However, Servania’s shot was blocked by Waite.
Tampa Bay took the lead in the 29th minute when Russell Cicerone finished off a chance created by Dion Acoff. While Burns stopped Acoff’s initial shot, the ball spilled back to Acoff, who was able to continue the play before setting up Cicerone for the finish.
“We highlighted all week long, and even again today, man to man marking in the penalty area, right?” LeBlanc said on the goal. “And I don’t know if you saw me after the final whistle, I went straight to the player that should have been marking him after the game was over, and said you’ve got to mark in the box. Now that’s a young player who just finished at North Carolina last year in Alves, and he’ll learn from it, and he knows, but that’s what I’m talking about in terms of growth at maturity.”
Moments later, M.D. Myers drew a penalty for the visitors. The former Philadelphia Union product converted the attempt for his sixth goal of the campaign, putting Tampa Bay ahead by two goals in the 33rd minute.
Thomas Vancaeyezeele gave Brooklyn an early opportunity to close the gap, firing a rocket from 25 yards out that forced Waite to dive to his left and make another clutch save. Olney nearly pulled one back for Brooklyn when his right-footed shot from the left side of the box sailed just over the crossbar.
The second half saw the home side continue to create opportunities, even outshooting Tampa Bay 10-2 over the final 45 minutes.
“We were able to kind of get in really good spots, but unfortunately we didn’t deliver in the technical execution aspects, said the LeBlanc on the second half. “There were so many times we got down and got into the area, and the cross goes over the crossbar, or the last pass, the player dummies it, and there’s no one running behind them, like there was just the final action in the final third needed to be a little bit sharper, but we got to where we needed to get to, is what we did with it, we didn’t create enough real danger to put them under enough pressure, but defensively we were significant, significantly better.”
When the final whistle sounded, the match ended 2-0 in favor of the Tampa Bay Rowdies. With the result, Brooklyn remains in 12th place in the USL Championship Eastern Conference with nine points through 13 matches. However, the club remains just eight points behind the eighth and final playoff spot at the time of this writing.
“I think apart from this game, in the past four or five weeks, we’ve put up a lot of goals, we started scoring more, we’re starting to put teams under more pressure,” said Olney post match. “I think our errors are all like us shooting ourselves in the foot. I think we’re making a lot of silly mistakes up the field and in our back and both sides, not just one person, it’s every person on our team. We’re all making mistakes. I think the more we can limit those little mistakes and give teams less opportunities to punish us, I think we’re going to be in a really good spot, because we are creating a lot and I think we’re in a really good place, but it is time that we start winning. I mean, we can keep saying this over and over, but we have to win.”
Olney, who spent time on loan with Lexington last year and is now on his second USL Championship loan, reflected on his experience this season compared to last year.
“This has been so much better,” he said. “I’m playing so much more. I have trust from Marlon to play free and be myself and really have fun with my game, and I think it’s been showing, and I think I’ve been playing really well, and it’s just been a lot of fun. I’m much happier on and off the field, and it’s, I think it’s been really, really good.”
Brooklyn will have the week off to recover before heading on the road on July 4 to take on the Pittsburgh Riverhounds at 7:00 p.m
The One Team We Agree On 
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