Five big questions facing the Union this offseason

As the Union begin their offseason, it’s time to look ahead to some of the big questions the team faces before preseason training camp starts in two months. Here are five key talking points to consider this winter.

When the Drexel Hill native’s contract expired after last season, there was a belief that the Union wouldn’t bring him back, clearing the way for academy prospect Anton Sorenson to be Kai Wagner’s backup.

But Real ended up re-signing here and playing in seven games for the Union’s first team. Most of them were as a late-game defensive closer, but he made two starts late in the year and they were both shutout wins: 2-0 at the New York Red Bulls on Sept. 3 and 4-0 at home over Toronto in the regular-season finale on Oct. 9.

Intriguingly, some of those appearances came on the left side of the midfield diamond. Even more intriguingly, Real made five of his 10 starts for the Union’s reserve team this year at centerback.

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That versatility is an asset, but it might not be needed next year. If Wagner moves on to Europe as many expect, the Union will want Real to become the starter they’ve been waiting for him to be ever since they signed him nearly five years ago.

Sorenson, meanwhile, did not play a minute for the first team. He played 22 games for the Union’s reserve squad, all starts. But his lack of any playing time in MLS shows that he still had some work to do this year, particularly with his defending.

Union II head coach Marlon LeBlanc told The Inquirer in September that Sorenson put in the work. We’ll see if that translates to first-team minutes next season.

All of these things are true at the same time: Gazdag’s excellence kept Paxten Aaronson off the field this year, the same thing could have happened next year, and the Union are selling Aaronson well before they had originally planned to.

It’s also true that it would have been unfair to Aaronson to park a player of his talent and potential on the bench for another year. And it’s absolutely true that when a team of Eintracht Frankfurt’s stature offers a check as big as it reportedly did — $4 million plus incentives plus a sell-on fee — the Union need to take it.

» READ MORE: Paxten Aaronson, Olivier Mbaizo and Kai Wagner may have played their last games for the Union

But with Aaronson leaving, the Union have no true backup for Gazdag at the attacking midfield spot. Jack McGlynn is better in a deeper role, and Quinn Sullivan is better as a winger or second forward than as a midfielder.

Even if the Union switch their midfield from a diamond to a box (two attackers in front of two defenders), they will need an extra body on the roster. Academy prospect Bajung Darboe could be the long-term answer, but the 16-year-old — his birthday was Monday, in fact — still needs some polishing.

In the short term, Union sporting director Ernst Tanner will probably have to go shopping.

And speaking of prospects …

This is always one of the most fun offseason questions to ponder. This time, the big names to watch come at the one position where the Union have never brought a player through the academy to the first team: striker.

Fans who attended the September exhibition against Mexico’s Pachuca got a taste of Nelson Pierre, a 17-year-old from Harrisburg who was this year’s first signing to the reserve squad before it debuted in the MLS Next Pro league.

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He scored five goals in 20 games, and LeBlanc told The Inquirer that Pierre “is 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.”

Pierre might still be a year away from the big jump, but he’s a candidate.

The biggest name is Marcos Zambrano-Delgado, a 17-year-old from Ecuador who joined the Union’s academy with his brother Mateo at the start of 2021. It was big news in MLS scouting circles when they came aboard, and it was big news at the U.S. Soccer Federation, too. Marcos played for Ecuador’s under-15 and under-17 teams, but switched nationality to the United States this summer and joined the U.S. under-19 team.

Zambrano-Delgado played only two games for the Union’s reserve team this year, because he was still in the team’s youth academy. But his name is on a lot of people’s lips inside and outside the club. Had he not been with the U.S. under-19s when the Union played Pachuca, he’d likely have been at Subaru Park.

Just like basketball players when they make their jumps from high school to college and the pros, there’s a learning curve for soccer prospects as they progress. Keep Pierre and Zambrano-Delgado’s names in mind, though, because their time is coming.

» READ MORE: Union II coach Marlon LeBlanc's scouting report on his top young prospects to know

Of all the great signings Tanner has made, none has had a bigger impact on the Union’s success than Martínez’s brilliance as a defensive midfielder. But there have been a lot of high risks with the high rewards, and not just when it comes to card-earning fouls.

Those risks went on full display in Saturday’s championship game loss to LAFC. Though he set up Gazdag’s goal to tie the game at 1-1, Martínez made mistakes on all three of the home team’s goals: a turnover and foul on the first, late marking on the second, and a loose play before the third that forced Olivier Mbaizo to blast the ball into the stands. That gave L.A. the throw-in that led to Gareth Bale scoring the goal of TV executives’ dreams.

And that was all before Martínez was stopped from the penalty spot in the shootout while Burke, Mikael Uhre, Jack McGlynn and Alejandro Bedoya were on the bench.

Leon Flach became a much better passer from the midfield anchor position this year, and Richard Odada showed glimpses of huge potential in his 6-foot-3 frame. If there’s an offer of consequence from abroad for Martínez this winter, will the Union take it? They might just think about it.

» READ MORE: The wizard of Subaru Park, José Martínez, has been a main ingredient of the Union’s success

This isn’t about his talents, because he’s clearly a very good player with a high ceiling. It’s about where Sullivan fits on the field. As noted earlier, he’s more naturally a forward than a midfielder. Union manager Jim Curtin said as much after Sullivan shone at left wing with the U.S. under-20 team in Olympic qualifying this summer.

But the Union didn’t play with wingers this year, because of Ilsinho’s retirement. Could that change next year? Sure, if the Union want it to. It would also help Sullivan if the Union go to a box midfield, because he could play to the left of Gazdag.

Sullivan could also go back to playing deeper in midfield. But Jack McGlynn has become Alejandro Bedoya’s chief backup, and should see a lot of playing time in what’s expected to be Bedoya’s final season.

“Whether he’s playing as a winger, whether he’s playing on the side of the [midfield] diamond, whether he’s playing as a second 10 [attacking midfielder], I think they’re all options that we can utilize him in,” Curtin said in July after the Olympic qualifying run. “And he’s certainly a guy that has earned more minutes for the first team.”

The question is exactly where. We’ll have to wait to learn the answer.

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