Union get a tough test from Brazil’s Flamengo in their preseason opener

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Union’s quiet winter sparked to life Sunday with the team’s first of five preseason games. And while a lack of major new signings has drawn understandable skepticism, at least the team put its young prospects at center stage in an exhibition against Brazilian giant Flamengo.

Quinn Sullivan was just about a veteran in a starting lineup that included reserve Olwethu Makhanya and newcomer Jhamir Berdecio on the back line along with 17-year-old prospect C.J. Olney in midfield.

Fellow newcomer Sanders Ngabo and academy players Neil Pierre and David Vazquez were halftime substitutes. Another academy player, Frankie Westfield, played the last few minutes.

They got a proper test. Flamengo started former Chelsea star David Luiz in defense, and former Brazilian national team forwards Everton and Pedro up front. Prolific striker Gabriel “Gabigol” Barbosa and Uruguay national team midfielder Giorgian de Arrascaeta played the second half.

Flamengo won the game, 2-0. Pedro and Everton scored the goals in the first half. Everton’s was a beauty that taught Makhanya a lesson: After a Jakob Glesnes giveaway, Makhanya got caught a step too deep one-on-one, and Everton curled a shot around him to the top corner.

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That thrilled the lively crowd of Flamengo fans from Florida’s big Brazilian population, who sang and drummed and waved flags in the sunshine. (There were a few Union fans too, for the record.)

“This is as high a level game as we’ll play all year, in terms of talent,” manager Jim Curtin said. “To start that fast when we’re usually playing a university team out of the gates, I think the mentality of the club has changed in that regard. … A lot of things went into it that I can’t replicate that much in training.”

Chris Donovan had the best scoring chance of the Union’s starting unit, sprung past Flamengo’s defense in the seventh minute by Quinn Sullivan. But he failed to corral the ball for a good shot, and the play fizzled out. Sullivan had a decent long-range hit saved at the start of first-half stoppage time.

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Curtin changed units at halftime, sending in nine new players for the second period. They included midfielders José Andrés Martínez, who recently got his U.S. green card; and Nick Pariano, an academy product who went to college at Duke and came back to the Union last month.

Ngabo made a few nice plays, above all in the 75th when he won the ball off Barbosa and threaded a pass for Sullivan on the right wing. Sullivan cut in, shot low to the near post, and forced young goalkeeper Caio Barone into a diving save.

Luiz paid the Union a nice compliment afterward: “I saw a lot of talent from the young players. … I saw today, here, a team with a lot of organization and great talents.”

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There were some notable absentees from the Union’s sideline, starting with Dániel Gazdag and Mikael Uhre. They were finishing up their green card paperwork, and will be back soon. When they return, the Union will have freed up three international slots this winter. That’s a big relief, and a big contrast to how past applications got stuck in immigration bureaucracy for ages.

Strikers Julián Carranza and Tai Baribo are in camp, but did not play because of minor ankle injuries. Baribo rolled an ankle in a recent practice, while Carranza initially wanted to play even though he might move to Europe soon.

“Carranza picked up a little ankle knock — he wanted to play today, trained fully, we were prepared to start him with Joaquín [Torres],” Curtin said. “He just said the ankle, at dinner last night, it didn’t feel 100%.”

There was no point in risking it, so Donovan and Torres started instead.

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Midfielder Leon Flach has a pectoral muscle injury, and went back to Philadelphia to have it treated.

Marquee young centerback prospect Brandan Craig is just back from a visit to the English Premier League’s Everton. It’s not certain that Everton will make an offer, not least because the club is in disastrous financial shape right now. But the Union want Craig to get professional minutes this year, and Curtin admitted they might come from a loan elsewhere.

“I’ve been pretty open and honest in saying that we have a great group of centerbacks that’s tough to crack into, and we need him to get games right now.” Curtin said. “The best solution for him is minutes, and we’ll probably pick and choose in the coming weeks what one fits him best. He’s still a guy I’m very high on, and I know he’s a great centerback, but we just have a little bit of a logjam there right now.”

Jack McGlynn and Nathan Harriel just got to town after being in the U.S. men’s national team’s winter training camp. And there’s still no word on whether longtime captain Alejandro Bedoya will be re-signed, even though the negotiations over his playing one more year have gone on for months.