Union reserve team loses MLS Next Pro league title game, in another blown lead heartbreak

After such a bad year for the Union, and amid the uproar over the firing of Jim Curtin, it felt like a nice little consolation for the organization if the reserve squad could have won Saturday’s MLS Next Pro championship game.

Alas, that didn’t happen, as Union II lost 3-2 at FC Dallas’ reserves, North Texas SC. Even worse, the defeat came after Union II took an early 2-0 lead, then lost it all in the second half.

Markus Anderson opened the scoring in the ninth minute, capping off a play where a slew of the Union’s top prospects touched the ball: centerback Neil Pierre, left back Frankie Westfield, and midfielders Cavan Sullivan, David Vazquez, and CJ Olney.

It was a big moment for Anderson, a first-team player who crashed down the depth chart after the Union’s game-losing giveaway in June. He scored seven goals for the reserve squad this year, including two in last weekend’s Eastern Conference final.

» READ MORE: Union fire longtime manager Jim Curtin

Anderson’s fellow starting forward, 18-year-old academy product Eddy Davis, scored the second goal in the 18th. It was a great play with some nifty dribbling after a Dallas defender slipped intercepting an Olney pass forward, and it was Davis’ team-leading 14th goal of the year.

North Texas pushed Union II hard for some stretches in the rest of the first half, but at halftime the visitors had an 8-4 advantage in shots and 4-1 edge in shots on target.

Anderson was subbed out at halftime due to a recurrence of knee tendinitis he’s been battling for a few weeks. His replacement was another of the Union’s young forward prospects, Sal Olivas. Six minutes into the frame, Logan Farrington struck a terrific free kick that swerved past Union II’s defensive wall and past goalkeeper Andrew Rick.

Sullivan’s night ended in the 64th, subbed out for right back Jamir Berdecio. The move shifted Olney to the attacking midfield position where Sullivan where had been, and Berdecio took the right central midfield spot in front of starting right back Gavin Wetzel.

Alas, Wetzel was too slow to react to Sali when he ran to the back post to slam in Herbert Endeley’s cross. Rick had little chance to stop the shot with Sali so wide open.

» READ MORE: Former Union coach Jim Curtin left lasting moments from his time in Philly. Here’s 10.

That left 23 minutes for one of the teams to find a winner. But Union II would have to find it without two more starters. Davis was subbed out for Giovanny Sequera in the 72nd, and centerback Olwethu Makhanya was correctly ejected in the 75th for fouling Farrington from behind on a breakaway.

The play capped off a very underwhelming year for Makhanya, a 20-year-old whom the Union signed to a first-team deal last summer. He was given a prized Under-22 contract too, a reduced salary cap hit for young prospects, but he still has yet to play a second for the first team.

Union II coach Marlon LeBlanc made two more substitutions in the 80th minute: centerback Carlos Rojas and forward José Riasco for Olney and Vaquez.

Rick made some great plays after Dallas’ equalizer, a save of a Farrington free kick in the 76th and a leaping punch in traffic in the 83rd. But he ran out of luck when North Texas’ Pedrinho backheeled a shot into the far post at the start of second-half stoppage time.

» READ MORE: A bad call or the right time? Social media reacts to the firing of longtime Union coach Jim Curtin.

In his postgame news conference, LeBlanc noted the youth of his team — 18 years old and change on average, the youngest team in MLS Next Pro. Dallas’ lineup was years older on average, and at that time in a prospect’s life that difference is significant.

“I think the main message to the fan base is, if we could achieve with this group of players, this young group of prospects — we had one player legally allowed to go and buy himself a drink [age-wise] on the pitch that started this game today — you can’t be more excited for what the future holds in store for this club,” he said. “Because for that team to go out against a team three years older, on average, per player, and put up the fight and play as well as they did for so long, this club has nothing but good things in store for them. On a different day, maybe it plays out a little bit differently, but for us to be that young and compete that well, we have nothing but great days ahead with the Philadelphia Union.”

Still, it wasn’t surprising when the Apple broadcast’s play-by-play announcer invoked the Union’s collapse in the 2022 MLS Cup final and compared that game to this one. The two games weren’t of nearly the same consequence, at all. But it doesn’t help the Union organization that it’s got the label of chokers in big games.

Time will tell whether these players, and the Union’s front office and ownership, will win a title to fix that.

“These kids are reaching the culmination of the highest level that they’re currently playing at, at such a young age. It bodes so well for the future,” said LeBlanc, whose own future is uncertain after Curtin’s firing. “I apologize to the fans that we couldn’t get the job done today, but I know in my heart of hearts that those guys will come back and they will be better for it. They will be more seasoned for it, and the first team will get a better product of a player, because they’ve been through what they’ve been through at such a young age now.”