MLS is just days away from kicking off its 30th season! The Philadelphia Union is readying for its 16th year of existence. 2025 is going to be a very interesting year for Philly. A new coach and a stricter fit to Ernst Tanner’s philosophy will mean some high-paced energy drink soccer.
With any season comes expectations. This year, the Union’s are tamed with a bit. It’s no longer about being a top contender in the East; instead, it’s about getting back to the playoffs while developing young players to play in the limelight. We have taken a look at expectations for the Union’s MLS campaign, and their hopes in the US Open Cup. Now and for the next few days, we’ll look at player development, coaching tactics, and the overall vibes of the club.
- The MLS Campaign
- The US Open Cup
- Player Development
- Coaching Tactics/Adaptability
- The overall club culture/vibes
We all know how the Union loves to develop their young players and play them in the first team. Let’s take a look at how they might do with that in 2025.
Philadelphia Union’s Player Development Expectations
The Union has been known as a team that develops young players through the model of playing their kids and then selling them for a big profit to refund the academy and the first team. For the most part, we have seen the first two parts of that. Philly develops players, and they rise to the first team, find relative success, and then get sold. The amount has been determined by the level of the player; some sell high, some not so much. In 2025, we will likely see more of that.
Philly has 13 homegrowns on their roster. Not all are going to be bonafide stars, but all of them have the potential to be important for this season in their own way. Whether they are contributing to the first team, playing primarily for the second team, or going out on loan to a lower division, player development is a crucial part of this team. What will that look like in 2025?
Baseline Success: Play the Kids… appropriately
Under Ernst Tanner and now new head coach Bradley Carnell, this team will be tasked with getting in a spot to compete for the playoffs while balancing the development of the homegrowns and the other young players Philly has brought into the club. To be successful this season, they will have to play the kids. Philadelphia wants to play high-paced, energy-drink soccer; a great place to do that is to play their youthful players.
They are more willing to do the hard work, all of the necessary running, and constant hunger will be key. If the club tries this for a bit, and it doesn’t work, they have no choice but to rotate their young players and keep playing them the roster dictates it. The baseline success is to do what the Union has been doing for years: find ways to play their kids and let them develop on the field. The club will find its way to failure in club development if it deviates from what has worked.
Unmitigated Failure: Play few Homegrowns OR play Homegrowns who aren’t ready for 1st team minutes
Philly has a balancing act to figure out this season. A lot of it has to do with finding the right young players to play on the first team. Who is ready to play at the MLS level? We know that Quinn Sullivan and Nate Harriel are starters for this team, but how will other homegrown play this year? Will we see a lot of David Vazquez and CJ Olney, and then there’s the elephant in the room of 15-year-old star Cavan Sullivan? Will these players play more or less than they should?
Failure will come if the Union relies too much on its homegrowns or if it completely abandons them. One scenario is more realistic than the other, and it involves the club leaning on young players who aren’t fully ready for MLS. Playing the kids is exciting for some fans; however, if they get beat down every week by the rest of the league, it won’t be fun to watch.
Overachieving Success: Find the correct balance of minutes for Homegrowns to balance out veterans
The best way for the Union to have success in player development is to find a balance of young players playing in the appropriate spots. This is a very young team. Aside from homegrowns, the roster is full of 20-somethings who are looking to make names for themselves. All three new signings fit this description; they need to play a lot, while some of the homegrowns should be used to supplement them.
If Philly can balance homegrowns, young up-and-comers, and veterans, then we will see the team develop all of its players appropriately. If they lean too much on veterans playing the majority of the minutes or put in kids just for the “splash” they get from an engagement perspective, then this club will not be successful this season. Player development is a hard thing to quantify, but the blueprints are there to start the season. Keep things balanced out to start, and hopefully, that balance will bring in the results needed to be better than they were last season!
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Featured Image Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
