José Andrés Martínez’s departure from the Union is the first of what could be a wave to come

Jim Curtin, Andre Blake, and everyone else in the Union's locker room knows a big overhaul must come to the roster this winter. That makes the Leagues Cup this era's last big shot at a trophy.

José Andrés Martínez salutes fans before being the pregame drummer at the Union's Leagues Cup quarterfinal against Mazatlán on Saturday.Read morePhiladelphia Union

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Aug. 18, 2024, 10:37 a.m. ET

The send-off the Union gave José Andrés Martínez on Saturday was a great thing by the team and the fans who saluted him.

With his move to Brazil’s Corinthians for $2 million all but done, Martínez was given the honor of serving as the pregame drummer — something Julián Carranza sadly wasn’t able to do before leaving in June. Union manager Jim Curtin stood nearby for it, then gave Martínez a big hug before they headed to the sideline.

Martínez even got a surprising cameo in the Leagues Cup quarterfinal win vs. Mexico’s Mazatlán. Though Curtin had said Friday that the longtime stalwart midfielder wouldn’t play (understandably, to prevent injury), Martínez got Corinthians’ permission to be on the bench and come in as a late substitute.

He entered in the 90th minute of the 1-1 tie, and after four minutes of stoppage time, he slammed home the Union’s first kick of the penalty shootout.

All those moments drew big cheers from the crowd at a third-full Subaru Park, and there was one more when Mártinez banged the postgame drum with Jesús Bueno — the last shootout kicker and Martínez’s protégé in Chester and with Venezuela’s national team.

Even principal owner Jay Sugarman stopped on the field to give his regards after Martínez did a postgame TV interview.

The sentiments were lovely, but don’t let them hide a necessary truth. Martínez’s departure is the first step in a roster overhaul that the Union needed last winter and didn’t do. Now, they need an even bigger one this coming winter.

As great as Martínez has been for the Union in his 4½ years in Chester, it should be no surprise that he likely would be part of that overhaul. There’s been foreign interest in the now-30-year-old for a while, and when a team of Corinthians’ stature — one of Brazil’s biggest clubs — offers $2 million for a player of that age, you take it.

Who else is likely to go

Soon enough, the clock will start ticking on the other players who are likely to leave: Jack McGlynn in a sale to Europe, Alejandro Bedoya’s retirement, Damion Lowe to free agency — a move he has hinted on social media may be coming.

It undoubtedly will hurt Union fans to see all that, but they should be ready. Major League Soccer’s salary cap and roster limits mean a team has to turn its roster over every few years, or else it will get bitten. And when the regular season went off the rails in early summer, it became clear that the desire to run most of the 2022 MLS Cup finalist team back yet again this year bit the Union squarely in the backside.

There’s nothing new about that, in soccer or other sports. Just ask the Eagles. A core of players in the NFL gets more time together because there’s more money to go around, but no football team stays as consistently successful as the Eagles have been without regularly turning over a significant chunk of the squad.

Now take a long, hard look at the current Union roster. Seventeen of the team’s 33 players are in the last guaranteed year of their contracts, with that 33 including players who currently are out on loan. (It also includes Martínez, since he hasn’t officially left yet.) Many of them have team-held option years to come, and the Union likely will pick up a good number of them. But some names will make you think.

Is Chris Donovan worth keeping when the reserve team has a fleet of interesting strikers coming through? They might not all make it in MLS, but it would help to leave roster room to give them a fair look. Is Jeremy Rafanello worth keeping when Cavan Sullivan and CJ Olney have higher ceilings as attacking midfielders? That question should answer itself.

Jack Elliott, Olivier Mbaizo, and Quinn Sullivan also are among players in their final guaranteed years, though they have strong cases to return. So does free agent-to-be Leon Flach.

A last shot before the curtain falls

These are all big decisions, and it’s sporting director Ernst Tanner’s job to make them. It’s also his job to point out, whether politely or impolitely, that sticking with the existing squad left it in 10th place in the Eastern Conference when the regular season stopped for the Leagues Cup.

Is it fair to raise this right now, when the Union are in the Leagues Cup semifinals for the second year in a row? It might not be comfortable, but it’s fair.

And yes, it makes the Leagues Cup now matter a lot for the Union, because it’s their best shot to win a trophy before this era comes to an end. The winner of Wednesday’s Union vs. Columbus Crew semifinal will host the final on Aug. 25, against Los Angeles FC or the Colorado Rapids — with no more Mexican teams in sight.

(The previously scheduled Aug. 24 Union-Crew regular season game has been postponed to Aug. 28 as a result.)

Remarkably, Curtin can thank one of his old pupils for the Rapids’ surprising run to the semis. A decade after playing in the Union’s youth academy, Downingtown’s Zack Steffen led the Rapids to an upset of mighty Club América to cap the quarterfinals.

A few hours before Steffen scored the last kick of his own team’s shootout, Curtin said “we’re not going to be the favorite” if the Union make the final. That might not be the case now. And while his players also spoke just as the América-Colorado game was kicking off, they already knew how much it would mean to win a trophy right now.

“Obviously, we know we’ve all been together for such a long time without having one,” McGlynn said. “We’ve come so close, and we’ve hit our stride right now. We’re playing really well at a good time. … It’s definitely a great chance to go and get one together.”

Then it was Andre Blake’s turn to issue a rallying cry, as a co-captain who has seen so much of this team’s heartbreak over the years.

“We work as hard as we can to get to finals and to make that last push to win finals, and Jimmy, I think, has done a really good job of coaching us to have the next man step up,” he said. “Of course we’re going to miss José. But we’re going to have to step up and win it for him, and Julián, and everybody else who’s here fighting.”