We are just about a month away from the start of the Union’s 2023 season! With the second week of preseason coming to a close, Philly is going to get their real first litmus test for readiness in a preseason match against Austin FC. On top of that, there has been plenty of news this week regarding the Union that we’ll get into in this latest edition of Doop Roundup!
Union takes on Austin in preseason action
To start things off, we know Philly will be playing against Austin FC today in their first preseason match. Unfortunately for fans, this match is a closed-door friendly and will not be streamed. The team will be providing updates in blog form on their website and on Twitter. While we won’t be able to see the game, we can still expect to read that all players will get some time to show what they can do in a game situation.
I’d assume we’ll see close to the ideal starting XI for Philly to start the match, and then a full second XI will come in for the second half. In closed-door preseason matches in the past, we’ve seen this exact thing, and then even matches that go longer than 90 to get even more players some game minutes. Time will tell what we read today; hopefully, we’ll get a few highlight videos from the match as well. Either way, we’ll know how this team is doing after their first preseason match of 2023 after today!
Philly faces off against Tijuana and Queretaro in Leagues Cup
At the end of the week, Leagues Cup finally announced the groups for the updated rendition of the tournament that now involves all MLS and Liga MX clubs. Philly is in the East 1 group and will take on Mexican clubs Club Tijuana, and Queretaro FC. The Union is the only MLS side in the east designation that has two Liga MX sides and not another MLS team.
This makes things much more interesting, as Philly players regional matches in the US Open Cup. Not having a group with DC, Red Bull, or New England is a plus just for that reason. Being the only MLS side also means that Philadelphia will host both matches! The competition will kick off in July. Will the Union be able to get out of this group?
Curtin says USA did not inquire about any players for first-team Jan. Camp
In his weekly press availability, Jim Curtin spoke and had some great quotes about his players and their availability for the US Men’s National team. In his comments, Curtin mentioned that US Soccer did not inquire about any players for the first team Jan. camp. Of note, players like Leon Flach, Andres Parea, and homegrowns Jack McGlynn, Quinn Sullivan, and Brandan Craig were on the USMNT radar but none were called into camp.
When the USMNT roster came out for the Jan. camp many thought that the club might have denied players to get called up, but Curtin confirmed this was not the case. The homegrown trio did get called up for the US U-20s but the omission of any other Union player for this USMNT camp is curious. All in all, it means that this Union team can get even more cohesion to gear up for the 2023 season.
BREAKING NEWS!
It looks as if there is another rumor that just came out this morning. Besiktas is rumored to be interested in Jakob Glesnes. The Turkish club is rumored to want Glesnes and pay 4 million Euros to get him. We’ll see if this rumor becomes anything more than that, but it’s hard for me to think that Philly would part ways with such an important player a month before their 2023 season starts.
That’s all for this edition of Doop Roundup. We’ll see how the next week goes, and what developments come from yet another week of preseason action!
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