Philadelphia Union's return to Major League Soccer play didn’t unfold as they had hoped, but despite the unfavorable 2-1 result, the team’s depth embraced the challenge presented before them, helping hold Inter Miami scoreless through the first half. Homegrown midfielder Jeremy Rafanello was part of that effort, taking over the 10 spot for starter Daniel Gazdag, who’s away with the Hungarian National Team at the UEFA Euros in Germany.
“Rafa did a great job,” Head Coach Jim Curtin said after the match. “He’s been a guy that's worked so hard in training and got rewarded earlier in the season with some minutes. He had a really tough job tonight with Busquets as it got up into the 60-65 minutes mark or so. Probably had a little bit of fatigue just because it's a hot night. He had a tough task."
Saturday’s match against Inter Miami was Rafanello’s third start this season and his first-ever at Subaru Park, and the task he was given wasn’t an easy one. The 24-year-old played 72 minutes, man-marking 35-year-old midfielder Sergio Busquets. In his minutes on the pitch, Rafanello worked hard to ensure the Spanish star didn’t add to his attacking totals of one goal and four assists this season.
“My main role was to try to stop Sergio Busquets and that’s a difficult challenge,” Rafanello said of his assignment. “I grew up watching him my whole life. I’m a small town kid from New Jersey, so I would say it's a dream come true. But it's also just the reality of it. You're gonna play against world class players at this level and it just gives you more and more confidence to be able to build off of those sort of things and build off this performance.”
It’s very likely that Saturday is just the start of what could become an expanded role for Rafanello this summer. The Union will remain shorthanded for the weeks ahead due to the Euros, Copa America, and eventually the Paris Olympics, and the Homegrown is part of the contingent expected to be consistently available amidst the team’s revolving door of players representing their respective national teams in international soccer's busy slate of tournaments.
In his third year as a pro for the Union, Rafanello is eager to embrace whatever is asked of him in the matches to come.
“When you get an opportunity, you tell yourself that you're fully capable of doing whatever the coach calls on you to do. Coach trusts me to go out there and do the job, and I think that's all I really need more than anything. Just a nod from Jim and the coaching staff is enough to be like, alright, they trust me, and I'm gonna go out there and show him that I can do it.”
His personal progress aside, Rafanello shared a similar sentiment to his disappointed teammates, expressing the group’s unwavering desire for success as they head into the second half of the season.
“We’re just waiting for that second clip, I would say. We started off the season well at home and now, we've had a couple of losses coming to us that fans aren't too happy about, but their feeling is our feeling every single day," he explained.
"It's just that empty feeling that there's something else there that has to be on the end of this. I think we're growing towards it. I think we already have, but we just have to find our rhythm once again.”
The team will take on another formidable opponent in FC Cincinnati on the road, before returning home for a rematch against Charlotte FC on Saturday at Subaru Park.
