Union manager Jim Curtin says the team still has ‘a piece or two’ to add to the roster

If the Union’s roster seems a little light on firepower to you at the moment, you aren’t alone. The team knows it, too.

“I’m sure there will be a piece or two that comes in and joins this group moving forward,” Curtin said after Tuesday’s training session at the Chase Fieldhouse facility in Wilmington, where the team has started its preseason work.

“The group that you see right now is not the final product that wants to still be playing in December, I think that that’s clear,” Curtin said. “Our group is not exactly filled right now, it’s not perfect right now, and it’s not supposed to be perfect right now. You want to be peaking at the right time with your group, and I think there’s still some pieces to come.”

The defense got the boost it needed in Stuart Findlay, who has yet to arrive in town because of pandemic-enforced immigration rules. He’s expected to join the team after it heads down to Clearwater, Fla., for just under two weeks starting March 12.

Now the question is what the Union will do to boost the attack — and if your first thought on reading that is that you’ve read it every year, you’re right. That’s life in the big leagues. Sporting director Ernst Tanner said last week that he’s shopping, but didn’t want to guarantee when he’d make a deal.

» READ MORE: Stuart Findlay likes how the Union's playing style resembles some of Europe’s trendiest teams

The spring timeline looks like this: while in Clearwater, there will be scrimmages against Orlando City (March 15) and the Chicago Fire (March 20). The Union will return to town on March 24 and play a closed-door scrimmage against an as-yet-unknown opponent on March 31, then kick off the season with their Concacaf Champions League opener at Costa Rica’s Saprissa on April 7.

For now, Curtin is getting an extended look at his new crop of academy products, which has much promise. Sixteen-year-old midfielders Brandan Craig and Quinn Sullivan have already drawn attention from scouts at big European clubs, and 17-year-old playmaker Paxten Aaronson — Brenden’s younger brother — showed some really nice flashes last year in the USL.

Also new this year are another 17-year-old, midfielder Jack McGlynn, and 19-year-old right back Nathan Harriel.

“For 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds to jump in and play against Ilsinho and Kacper [Przybylko], and Jamiro [Monteiro], and Jakob Glesnes, and do well, you know, speaks to the talent that they have,” Curtin said. “Have they been perfect? Absolutely not. They’re going to get better, though, each and every day.”

But for as much as the Union pride themselves on giving young players playing time, entrusting significant roles to rookies that young is likely too much to ask — especially when the team aspires to win a trophy for the second year in a row.

“My math might be off by a little bit, but I think we’ve come down almost three years in our team’s age, which is a significant drop for sure,” Curtin said.

What would help the team most for developing the teenagers is to know what will happen to the Union’s reserve team this year. That’s where young rookies can get the right kind of playing time at the start of their careers.

The Union pulled out of the USL Championship, where it had run a reserve team since 2016, after last season in anticipation of MLS launching its own reserve league this year. But the launch hasn’t happened yet, with the pandemic and MLS’ offseason labor negotiations among likely factors.

» READ MORE: MLS and players avoid lockout, but scars of negotiations may last a long time

“There’s a plan in place — there’s lots of moving parts from the league’s end, and ideas and a strategy team to get things going,” Curtin said. “We’ll get our players, I can promise, double-digit games this year against high-quality opponents in the future. We recognize how important bridging that gap is.”

Curtin added that he wasn’t allowed to say everything he’s heard, but “there will probably be some things coming out in the near future … You can rest assured we’re going to have games for these guys to play and keep them sharp.”