The Union will play Mexico’s Pachuca on Saturday, but with not a lot of players

With the Union's reserves in the playoffs, Jim Curtin's squad will have a short bench. But there will be notable players to watch, including a marquee academy-bred forward prospect.

Union manager Jim Curtin.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Sept. 23, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET

There will be a soccer game at Subaru Park on Saturday at 6 p.m., with the Union playing Mexican club Pachuca. There will be fans in the stands and food on the concourse, and Union manager Jim Curtin said there will be a penalty kick shootout if the game ends tied, so the teams can practice for their respective upcoming playoffs.

But there might not be a lot of players on the field.

It will be the case for both sides, because of the current FIFA window for national team games. It will be especially true for the Union, though, because the club’s Union II reserve team has a playoff game in Toronto on Saturday (7 p.m., free live streaming at MLSNextPro.com). Some young prospects who might have been featured against Pachuca will be up north instead.

The reserves will also be shorthanded, though, because some of those players are away with U.S. youth national teams — especially centerback Brandan Craig and major striker prospect Marcos Zambrano-Delgado. And on top of that, a combination of visa issues and MLS Next Pro roster rules will bar other players from that trip. (The key rule is that playoff eligibility is based on a minutes-played minimum in MLS Next Pro, so teams can’t stack their squads with first-teamers at the last minute.)

So Curtin will have a few players on hand Saturday that he doesn’t usually. They include some who are on MLS contracts but usually play with the reserves: midfielders Jesús Bueno and summer newcomer Richard Odada, and academy-bred forward Jeremy Rafanello.

It will be the first chance for many fans to see Odada in person, since Union II’s games at Subaru Park don’t draw big crowds. Odada has played twice for the team so far.

“I don’t want to put pressure on him to try to do too much too early in the game, just let the game come to you,” Curtin said. “You’re here for a reason: do the things like ball winning, like good diagonals [passing] to start the attack, that you’re good at, at that No. 6 six position.”

The most notable prospect staying in Chester is Nelson Pierre, a major forward prospect from the Union’s academy. Born in Lebanon, Pa., and raised in Harrisburg, the 17-year-old was Union II’s first signing of the MLS Next Pro era in March.

“He’s got unteachable and uncoachable pace — he’s one of the fastest, probably, two or three players in the club, whether it’s a first-team guy or all the way through the academy,” Union II coach Marlon LeBlanc said. “It’s the off-the-ball movement part that’s gotten better for him. And I think if he can continue to develop that side of things and learn more about the tactical side of counter-moving with the other forward … his physical tools, like I said, are unmatched. It’s now just getting the brain to catch up with the body.”

On the whole, though, don’t be surprised if the Union have a very short bench Saturday. Cory Burke and Alejandro Bedoya will be on it as they nurse minor injuries (Burke’s is a hamstring he tweaked last Saturday in Atlanta), while Mikael Uhre was excused to take his family to Denmark for a few days for his mother-in-law’s funeral. He returned to Philadelphia late Thursday.

“We want to stay healthy, we want to get through it, push guys fitness-wise, but also not have any injuries,” Curtin said. “If our national team guys are here, this is a great exhibition, great timing … We’ll make the most of it and put a good product on the field.”