Hope springs eternal for soccer fans the world over as summer dawns, months of labor bearing the fruit of new signings and new possibilities as the global deck of soccer talent shuffles itself to the hands of the highest bidders. The silly season is the habitat of boundless hope, where even the unlikeliest of dance partners can pair up like gawky teens in the last hazy, desperate moments of a high school dance.

Sheanon Williams is one of only two players
on the Union's active roster acquired during a summer transfer window.
(AP)

For the Philadelphia Union, though, there should be no delusions of grandeur as to the summer harvest. If history is any indication, the Union’s dealings this summer will trade in equal measures perplexing, unjustifiably optimistic and downright futile. The past missteps, many borne of fits of midsummer pique, have backed the club into a tight logistical corner ahead of this window, the curtain on which officially rose Wednesday. That should temper already low expectations, the chances of appreciably improving a squad in dire need of reinforcements looking modest.

Presented below is the ignominious track record of the Union’s front office in transfer windows gone by. It reads like a carnage of misfits, mysteries and mirages that define the organization’s half-decade struggle to find the playoffs, and more elusively, a consistent direction through the world of MLS.

Hyperbole aside, the most damning indictment of the Union’s blithering transfer ideology resides in a single number. The club enters its sixth summer transfer window, the period of movement that owns primary status in the world’s most affluent leagues but is rendered secondary to the winter window by MLS’ peculiar schedule. But when the club resumed training from its July 4 weekend break, only two players (Fabinho and Sheanon Williams) signed during a summer window were physically present in the group assembled at PPL Park. It’s a staggeringly low number.

(Since transfer window openings vary, this appraisal considers any player movement into the Union from June on. That includes free-agent signings of players new to MLS in September.)

2014 

If you look five years down the road, this could be the set of transactions that dooms the Union to prolonged mediocrity. All the rhetoric, in hindsight, seemed too rose-colored, blinded by afterglow of a little tournament in Brazil. To compete in MLS, read the script from which the media was often regaled, the Union required World Cup talent. So they splashed out for Rais M’Bolhi, oblivious of the risk that 120 minutes of glory in Porto Alegre against Germany could be overshadowed by a decade tracing a nomadic path across Europe’s club scene, and fought to return Carlos Valdes from loan, the defender strong-arming his way out of Argentina’s San Lorenzo through a daily soap opera broadcast 140 characters at a time. Fast-forward 12 months, and the Union can’t ship M’Bolhi out of town quickly enough while the combination of Valdes’ worn-down body and outsize salary have the Union presumably hoping that the another suitor will step in where Uruguayan club Nacional has reportedly soured on the Colombian. The odds of either ever returning to supplement their total of 17 combined matches in a Union kit since the latest jersey unveiling is slightly less remote than MLS Cup making an appearance on the banks of the Delaware in the near future, but not by much.

The third, less heralded (read: retrospectively reviled) addition was Brian Brown, on loan from Jamaican club Harbour View FC. It was a little too much, too soon for the 22-year-old, who notched two goals and one assist in eight games (one start). He’s got two goals in 11 matches with NASL side Indy Eleven this season, a level more aligned with his talents. But you have to wonder if the Union would’ve had greater latitude to take a chance on Brown when his loan ended had they not squandered two international spots and undisclosed piles of money in concocting their post-World Cup recipe for disaster.

2013 

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Conor Casey's day with the Union may be done
after the team declined his option Monday. (AP)

At long last, the Philadelphia Union have announced some action this offseason, declining options on five players.

Those not returning are midfielders Corben Bone and Fred, and forwards Conor Casey, Brian Brown and Cristhian Hernandez, while the Union also announced that Brian Carroll is out of contract.

Bone, who spent four largely indifferent seasons with Chicago, was drafted by the Union in Stage One of the 2013 Re-Entry Draft. He made just two MLS appearances totaling 13 minutes, capped by a red card after just one minute May 14 against Kansas City. The 26-year-old spent the end of the season on loan with USL Pro side Wilmington Hammerheads.

The 35-year-old Fred was signed via a Waiver Draft in late March after training with the club through most of the preseason. Fred appeared in 11 matches in his second stint with the Union, scoring the game-winning goal against New York July 16.

Hernandez was signed as a Homegrown Player before the 2012 season. He played in two matches, totaling 26 minutes in 2012, then spent most of the last two seasons with Harrisburg City. This year with the Islanders, he was limited to just 15 minutes while floating around several positions.

Brown spent the last four months of the regular season on loan from Jamaican club Harbour View FC. He played in eight games (one start) and scored twice, notching the game-winning goal against Kansas City Aug. 1, then scoring against SKC in a 2-1 win Oct. 18.

Casey, acquired via Stage Two of the 2012 Re-Entry Draft, scoring 18 goals and seven assists in 56 matches with the Union. Casey scored six of his eight MLS goals this season in a six-match stretch from May 31-July 16.

The Union’s roster stands at 24 players ahead of this week’s Expansion Draft (Wednesday) and the two phases of the Re-Entry Draft (Friday, then next Thursday).

Declining options doesn’t close the door to returns for any of the players, though it would be on renegotiated deals. Casey made $192,000 last year. Carroll raked in $185k, while Fred made $65k and Hernandez made $74k.

Union (4-2-3-1)

MacMath

Fabinho-Edu-White-Gaddis

Carroll-Okugo

Wenger-Fred-Cruz

Ribeiro

Bench: Blake, Le Toux, Nogueira, Maidana, Valdes, Brown, Williams

Red Bulls (4-4-2)

Robles

Duvall-Sekagya-Olave-Armando

Sam-McCarty-Alexander-Luyindula

Cahill-Henry

Bench: Meara, Kimura, Eckersley, Bover, Christianson, Stevenson, Sene

Preview 

- Jim Curtin said pretty bluntly Thursday that he wants players training before a game. When Rais M’Bolhi didn’t arrive back in the states until Friday, the decision was made to go with Zac MacMath for at least one more game. The appearance is MacMath’s 100th in MLS, 99 of them starts.

- Given the conditions and the Open Cup final looming Tuesday, the Union are resting most if not all of their big guns. They have only four regulars out there, not including Carlos Valdes, Sebastien Le Toux, Conor Casey (who doesn’t make the bench), Cristian Maidana or Vincent Nogueira. The conditions are poor, and that might factor in, but the challenge is clear to the reserves to take care of business.

- That said, this isn’t a youth team. Brian Carroll is out there with the sole objective of keeping a clean sheet. Danny Cruz and Fred are well rested. The biggest revelation concerns Pedro Ribeiro, who apparently has supplanted Brian Brown in the forward pecking order.

- The gaping absence for the Red Bulls is MLS leading scorer Bradley Wright-Phillips, who’ll sit the bench with a hamstring injury. In place of his 21 goals this season, Thierry Henry will lead the line, and Tim Cahill gets a start after a sub appearance midweek. Given the glut of games for the Red Bulls (including CONCACAF Champions League Wednesday), not pushing Wright-Phillips makes sense. Saer Sene is also looming on the bench.

Lost in the hysteria of Tuesday night’s thrilling win over FC Dallas in the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup – a win that earns the Union a chance to play for their first trophy in club history on home soil in September – was the crucial realization of what it means to compete on two fronts.

Less than 70 hours after the celebrations died down at Toyota Park, the Union will have to figure out a way to field a team to take on Houston in a meeting of playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference.

That’s for the third game in seven days, barely three days removed from 120 grueling minutes in the Texas summer heat, to turn around another effort in the sweltering conditions of Houston.

It’s a task that will test the newfound depth that Union manager Jim Curtin boasted about this week, for sure. But there’s a twofold installment of good news for the Union.

1) All things considered, they’ve got some fresh legs;
2) Whoever gets named, it won’t be worse than the last squad to represent the Union in Houston.

Let’s address the latter point first: Here’s what the team that faced Houston last July 6 looked like.

The predicament for the Union was so dire that John Hackworth actually opened the door to the doghouse to let Roger Torres out for 19 minutes, trying to bring some shape to what might have been a 4-2-4. He was joined among the illustrious subs by a 30-minute runout for Don Anding, his only MLS appearance, and a late cameo by Matt Kassel. The unused subs? Jimmy McLaughlin, Cristhian Hernandez (whose name MLS spells wrong) and Chris Albright. Yet despite all that, the team still almost scratched out a result, only separated from a draw by a soft goal by Ricardo Clark on a defensive breakdown.

That game was on the back end of a two-game Western swing, the Union having snatched a draw from the jaws of victory against Real Salt Lake July 3. They were missing Michael Farfan and Danny Cruz due to injuries picked up vs. RSL, Michael Lahoud and Kleberson were on long-term injury absences, and Keon Daniel and Jack McInerney were away at the Gold Cup.

This trip Friday is hardly that desperate. In addition to Curtin divulging Tuesday that “we had planned on calling some guys back from Philly anyway”, he has some fresh legs at his disposal.
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Philadelphia Union (4-2-3-1)

MacMath

Gaddis-Valdes-White-Williams

Carroll-Edu

Le Toux-Nogueira-Cruz

Casey

Bench: Blake, Fabinho, Okugo, Lahoud, Fred, Brown, Wenger.

Montreal Impact (4-2-3-1)

Perkins

Krol-Ferrari-Lefevre-Miller

Larrea-Bernier

Romero-Felipe-Mapp

McInerney

Bench: Bush, Ouimette, Jackson-Hammel, Duka, Tissot, Nakajima-Farran, Mallace.

Preview

 - The Union waste no time inserting Carlos Valdes back into the lineup after inking him to a new deal Monday. The Colombian’s return to fitness was relatively simple, as he mentioned Monday that he’d been training for 10 days after a two-week post-World Cup hiatus. Who he’d be paired with seemed the bigger mystery as the week progressed, but Ethan White gets the nod with Austin Berry not making the 18. He's pretty far down the depth chart.

One of the other big decisions was whether Maurice Edu, after 45 minutes in Wednesday’s All-Star Game followed by a cross country flight, would get the nod. Perhaps that's why he's in a more attacking position, with Brian Carroll to do the dirty work of holding. I suspect Carroll is preferred to Michael Lahoud given the latter's lengthy international ordeal this week.

- Interestingly, the odd-man out, even with Cristian Maidana still nursing a hamstring injury that rules him out completely, is Amobi Okugo. The last time Okugo didn't start an MLS game when not suspended, Peter Nowak was the Union's manager.

- The debut of Rais M’Bolhi will have to wait another week as he’s not in the 18. Chalk up another start for Zac MacMath as he nears 100 league games.

- Expect Brian Brown to play a role in this one. Danny Cruz has been less than convincing than late, and if the Union are up after 60 minutes, Jim Curtin may want to get a break for Conor Casey with the Dallas U.S. Open Cup semi looming just 72 hours away.

- Frank Klopas has vacillated between using one striker or two in his preferred formation. This week, he’s settled on one away from home, making the decision between fired-up former Union player Jack McInerney and Union killer Marco Di Vaio. Di Vaio got the nod in the midweek CONCCAF Champions League game going 90, so McInerney gets his homecoming start. While the McInerney nod isn’t a shock, no Di Vaio in the 18 is a bit.

- All things considered, that’s a fairly attack-minded midfield from Klopas with Andres Romero, Felipe and Justin Mapp marauding forward.

There’s always a debate around this time of year as to how to handle midseason friendlies within the grind of an MLS season. Add competition on another front for the Philadelphia Union in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, and it’s even more complex.

That’s the conundrum Jim Curtin faces this week as his team prepares to take on English Premier League side Crystal Palace Friday night at PPL. There are so many factors – the tactical, between the physical need to rest regulars and the mental need to get those on the fringes of the squad some action, plus the pride aspect of wanting to put on a decent show for the fans while not rolling over to opposition from a superior league – for Curtin to manage.

“I always think anytime you’re representing your league, you should put your best effort out there,” Curtin said Wednesday at PPL Park. “Too many times you see in these games, whether it’s against a club from Mexico or England, they won’t get our best punch so to speak because we’re in the heat of the season. It’s tough. There’s is the business side where they do make a lot of money off the games, so I get that part of it. … Say you’re juggling an Open Cup game with a league match and then they also throw in a friendly, it becomes this, ‘how much do you want to kill your team for a result against a team that’s in the preseason and doesn’t really have their legs?’ It’s a tough one to answer because you’re torn either way.”

Curtin said Tuesday that there would essentially be two shifts of players logging 45 minutes each, which makes sense to give the entire roster a nice run out. Curtin also hinted that a couple of guys might get around the 90-minute mark.

So here’s my two cents on what the Union should (not necessarily will) do, gleaning a little from what Curtin said Wednesday and the team’s current needs:

First half
Blake

Gaddis-Edu-Berry-Fabinho

Lahoud-Okugo

Wenger-Nogueira-Le Toux

Brown

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Philadelphia Union (4-2-3-1)

MacMath

Gaddis-Williams-White-Fabinho

Okugo-Lahoud

Le Toux-Maidana-Cruz

Casey

Bench: Blake, Carroll, Berry, Nogueira, Wheeler, Wenger, Brown.

Colorado Rapids (4-2-3-1)

Irwin

Wynne-O’Neill-Moor-Burch

LaBrocca-Watts

Hill-Powers-Serna

Brown

Bench: Berner, Klute, Hairston, Torres, Piermayr, Alvarez, Mwanga

- At long last, the Union have something to show in return for the trade for Jeff Parke: Ethan White gets his debut with Maurice Edu (red card) suspended and Austin Berry healthy enough only for the bench.. After a handful of injuries early in the season, White has a chance to prove his worth, and it’s a stiff test against Deshorn Brown. I suspect that White’s ability to contend with Brown’s speed (along with Jim Curtin’s preference not to move Amobi Okugo back to defense and disrupt the midfield’s burgeoning chemistry) is what makes him the choice here.

- Speaking of the midfield, Vincent Nogueira is healthy enough to make the bench, but the club has expressed a desire this week to be cautious with a groin injury that is the first of that type for Nogueira. As a result, he’s been deemed fit for the last several weeks … without actually playing. And given the job Cristian Maidana is doing in that central attacking role, there’s no need to push him.

- The loan capture of Brian Brown was confirmed around 2 o’clock Saturday afternoon. By 7, he’s on the bench in the Union 18. Seems like another body for Antoine Hoppenot, who’s 0-for-3 in making Curtin’s MLS squads, to climb over. Let’s see what the 21-year-old has got.

- The Rapids are losing two of their leading creative forces in midfielder Jose Mari (ankle) and forward Vicente Sanchez (suspended). That accentuates their dependence on the creativity of Brown up top. With the defensive abilities of Nick LaBrocca and the solidity of this backline, expect the Rapids to sit in plenty and absorb pressure, then try to launch counter attacks with Dillon Powers and long balls played into Brown. And then there's former Union No. 1 overall draft pick Danny Mwanga sitting on the bench. Interesting to see what reaction he would get.

News "broke" last night – via a post on the website of Jamaican club Harbour View FC – that it had agreed to terms with the Philadelphia Union on a loan agreement for 21-year-old forward Brian Brown. While the Union have yet to make the loan capture official, a club source confirmed that they are in the latter stages of negotiations with the player and a deal could be finalized at some point this week.

That source also confirmed a separate release from Harbour View that Brown had been on trial with the club. (And if further proof is needed, Brown’s Facebook page, as referred by Harbour View’s official feed, features a header image of the Union’s locker room.)



The connections to the Union are numerous. First, goalkeeper Andre Blake, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft, came through the youth setup at Harbour View. Blake is part of an uptick in Jamaican influence in MLS in recent years, with three of the first eight picks in the 2014 SuperDraft (including No. 7 Andre Lewis and No. 8 Damion Lowe) hailing from the island nation along with the top scorer from the 2013 draft, Colorado’s Deshorn Brown.

Brown’s agent, per the Harbour View release, is Damani Ralph, who spent two seasons as a high-scoring forward in MLS with the Chicago Fire … where he was a teammate of Union manager Jim Curtin. (Coincidentally, Ralph also followed the same Harbour-View-to-University-of-Connecticut path as Blake.)

And here’s one more coincidence: Brown was on trial in 2012 with Aston Villa in England … at the same time that a young Union forward named Danny Mwanga was also being vetted by then manager Alex McLeish. Neither signed, the reasoning behind Brown’s refusal probably having something to do with the looming issue of getting a UK work permit given the fact that he’d yet to appear for Jamaica.
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