here<\/a>.) It will more closely resemble that of its parent league, Major League Soccer. The eighth and ninth place finishers in each conference will conduct a play-in game before each conference undergoes its process of choosing its playoff match-ups. The playoffs will begin after the FIFA late-September\/early-October international break. The change increases Union II\u2019s playoff chances by making a ninth postseason slot available.<\/p>\nKellan LeBlanc has returned from his red card suspension. Thus, Gio Sequera returns to his role as a versatile substitute in both outside channels defensively and in the midfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Union II plays at home the day before the first team who are also playing at home. Double duty for first team reserves seems unlikely save for the usual trio: center back Finn Sundstrom, striker Malik Jakupovic who did not dress, and benched, disciplined striker Sal Olivas. Also, the Academy U-18s open their season at home the next morning.<\/p>\n
In the space of 24 hours and 30 minutes \u2014 7:00 PM Friday to 7:30 PM Saturday \u2014 the top three Keystone Sports and Entertainment soccer teams will all play games in Chester.<\/p>\n
It seems unlikely that new, previously unknown academy amateurs will join interim head coach Chris Harmon\u2019s gameday roster. As he did successfully last weekend away to Cincinnati 2 in northern Kentucky, Harmon had to beat Columbus Crew 2 without extra reinforcements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before tap Crew 2 lay third in the eastern conference on 45 points from 24 games played. The Ohio team is currently poised to host a first round playoff game and choose between the final two candidates for its opponent. Union II lay 12th on 36 from 25, three points below playoff qualification. But they knew that if they were to win out, they would make the playoffs as a visiting team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although arithmetically it is technically not the case, in every non-arithmetic way Union II must win the match against Columbus. If they do not, they become dependent on teams above them losing points to third parties.<\/p>\n
Legendary Columbus Crew attacking midfielder Frederico \u201cPipa\u201d Higuain has become almost that good as a developmental head coach in MLS NEXT Pro. His team will be well prepared, and Union II\u2019s match will be difficult. Higuain himself was absent from Crew 2\u2019s bench serving a suspension for a red car received in his previous match.\u00a0<\/p>\n
First half<\/p>\n
Midfielder Kellan LeBlanc had Union II\u2019s first significant chance of the match with a header on target, but Columbus keeper Luke Pruter had an impressive one-handed save to deny him.<\/p>\n
Columbus battled back with many attacks, but couldn\u2019t find the target. The visitors had 67% of possession for the first half but only two shots on target.<\/p>\n
Columbus center back Rui Aoiki was cautioned in the 34th minute for holding onto striker Theo Reed during hold-up play. Head official Anthony Sobolevsky had let a lot more physical action go uncalled leading up to that foul.<\/p>\n
Both teams had a few more chances, but could not capitalize. The half ended in a deadlock.<\/p>\n
Second half<\/p>\n
Oscar Benitez was cautioned in the 46th minute.<\/p>\n
Columbus\u2019 keeper Pruter had an important double save to deny Kellan LeBlanc and John Ruf, respectively, in the 52nd minute.<\/p>\n
The visitors made two changes in the 58th minute and two more in the 65th.<\/p>\n
Giovanny Sequera and Timo Mendoza entered for John Ruf and Abdoulaye Diop in the 69th minute, leaving Theo Reed as a lone striker in a 4-2-3-1. Kellan LeBlanc became the most attack minded of the three attacking midfielders.<\/p>\n
Tyler Gladstone entered for Willyam Ferreira in the 80th minute.<\/p>\n
Matheus De Paula received a yellow card for a hard foul outside of the box in the 81st minute.<\/p>\n
Union II pulled ahead at last in the 83rd minute when Jordan Griffin scored a low, driven shot from a tight angle, assisted by Kellan LeBlanc.<\/p>\n
A Columbus player went down in the box in the 87th minute, but did not win a penalty.<\/p>\n
Oliver Pratt entered for Jordan Griffin in the 90th minute. Griffin started cramping after his goal and needed to come off.<\/p>\n
Columbus began to pile on attacking pressure in stoppage time.<\/p>\n
Matheus De Paula had to step off the field after experiencing a cramp in the fifth minute of stoppage time, leaving Union II to weather the final storm a man down.<\/p>\n
Next Match<\/p>\n
Union II will next play away on the 9th day against Chicago Fire II at 4:00 PM Sunday, September 13th. Before\u00a0the immediately upcoming match week, Fire II are tied for the eighth playoff slot on points but disqualified down to ninth by the first tiebreaker, wins in regulation. Of course, we now know that they would play in the play-in game as the away team, should current conditions continue.<\/p>\n
Three points<\/p>\n
Kaiden Moore\u00a0has looked promising in his recent outings at center back.
\nJordan Griffin\u00a0scored his second goal of the season.
\nJohn Ruf\u00a0started his first match for Union II since April.<\/p>\n
B O X S C O R E
\n\u00a0Lineups<\/p>\n
Union II (4-2-2-2, L-R). Interim head coach Chris Harmon. Roster sources: 1st \u2014 2+1; U II \u2014 5+3; AA \u2014 4+5. Starters\u2019 average age = 18.9.<\/p>\n
Starters: George Marks, Jordan Griffin (Oliver Pratt\u2014 90\u2032), Kaiden Moore, Finn Sundstrom, Matheus De Paula; Abdoulaye Diop (Timo Mendoza\u2014 69\u2032), Oscar Benitez; Kellan LeBlanc, Willyam Ferreira (Tyler Gladstone\u2014 80\u2032); Theo Reed, John Ruf (Gio Sequera\u2014 69\u2032).<\/p>\n
Marks
\nGriffin
\nMoore
\nSundstrom
\nDe Paula
\nDiop<\/p>\n
1st
\nU II
\nU II
\n1st
\nAA
\nAA<\/p>\n
26.8
\n17.9
\n18.8
\n19.8
\n17.8
\n16.6<\/p>\n
Benitez
\nLeBlanc
\nFerreira
\nReed
\nRuf<\/p>\n
U II
\nU II
\nU II
\nAA
\nAA<\/p>\n
22.2
\n18.5
\n17.6
\n17.8
\n17.3<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Substitutes: Matthew White; Rafael Uzc\u00e1tegui, Matteo Gallegos, Sam Gallego, Sal Olivas.<\/p>\n
White
\nPratt
\nUzcategui
\nGallegos
\nMendoza
\nSequera<\/p>\n
AA
\nU II
\nU II
\nAA
\nAA
\nU II<\/p>\n
16.9
\n22.9
\n21.9
\n17.5
\n17.1
\n20.5<\/p>\n
Gladstone
\nGallego
\nOlivas<\/p>\n
AA
\nAA
\n1st<\/p>\n
17.2
\n16.5
\n20.1<\/p>\n
Crew 2. (4-3-3). Head coach Frederico Higuain. Per Transfermarkt, full squad average age = 20.1.<\/p>\n
Starters: Luke Pruter; Issac Heffess, Rui Aoki (Gianmarco Di Noto\u2014 84\u2032), Brent Adu-Gyamfi, Zach Lloyd, Nico Rincon, Gio De Libera (Johann Chirinos\u2014 64\u2032), Prince Forfor (Tristan Brown\u2014 64\u2032), Immanuel Ewing (Kevin Gbamble\u2014 58\u2032), Oneal Taylor, Jamil Danjaji (Chase Adams\u2014 58\u2032)<\/p>\n
Substitutes: Stanislav Lapkes; Jackson Bonos.<\/p>\n
Goals<\/p>\n
UII: Griffin\u2014 82\u2032<\/p>\n
Yellow Cards<\/p>\n
C2: Aoki\u2014 34\u2032<\/p>\n
UII: Benitez\u2014 46\u2032<\/p>\n
UII: De Paula\u2014 81\u2032<\/p>\n
Whistle & Flags<\/p>\n
REF: Anthony Sobolevsky, AR1: Adam Cook, AR2: Jennifer Dumaine, 4TH: Tyler McElhinney<\/p>\n
Stats<\/p>\n
U II
\nStatistic
\nC 2
\nU II
\nStatistic
\nC 2<\/p>\n
17
\nShots
\n16
\n3
\nOffsides
\n0<\/p>\n
8
\nShots on goal
\n5
\n5
\nGoalkeeper Saves
\n7<\/p>\n
3
\nBlocked shots
\n4
\n15
\nClearances
\n8<\/p>\n
281
\nTotal Passes
\n441<\/p>\n
73.7
\nPass Accuracy %
\n81.2
\n14
\nFouls
\n10<\/p>\n
5
\nCorners
\n11
\n2
\nYellow Cards
\n1<\/p>\n
2
\nTotal Crosses
\n4
\n0
\nRed Cards
\n0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo Philadelphia Union II Philadelphia Union II defeated Columbus Crew 2 at Kinetic Field on Friday night to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-279420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}