Philadelphia Union capped off a productive trip to Spain on Sunday, taking on Danish Superliga side AGF in their final friendly abroad. Despite the 2-1 loss, it was a strong 90 minutes featuring appearances from 23 different players and the first Union goal of 2025.
Head Coach Bradley Carnell used three different groups in the match, beginning with a veteran-heavy Starting XI that featured two budding academy products in Cavan Sullivan and Frankie Westfield. Another face of note in the first group was Homegrown Jack McGlynn, who arrived in Spain on Thursday after a successful stint with the United States Men's National team that brought about his first senior team goal. After just one training session with the group, Carnell played McGlynn, alongisde the rest of the starters, for the entire first 45'.
Starting XI (1' - 45')
Andre Blake, Kai Wagner, Olwethu Makhanya, Jakob Glesnes, Frankie Westfield, Jesus Bueno, Jack McGlynn, Cavan Sullivan, Quinn Sullivan, Daniel Gazdag, Mikael Uhre.
Group Two (45' - 60')
Andrew Rick, Kai Wagner, Olwethu Makhanya, Jakob Glesnes, Frankie Westfield, Danley Jean Jacques, Alejandro Bedoya, Quinn Sullivan, Daniel Gazdag, Markus Anderson, Mikael Uhre.
Group Three (60' - 90')
Andrew Rick (Olivier Semmle 73'), Isaiah LeFlore, Neil Pierre, Frankie Westfield, Nick Pariano, Danley Jean Jacques, Alejandro Bedoya, Eddy Davis III (Jeremy Rafanello 73'), Markus Anderson, CJ Olney, Chris Donovan.
The starting group found the first goal of the match in the 25th minute -- Wagner kept a Bueno corner in play, heading it toward Sullivan who blasted it against the post for a riccochet in.
The latter groups didn't fare as well, allowing two AGF goals in the second half. The first goal in the 67th on a right-side counter attack and the game-winner came 10 minutes later, but after the match Head Coach Bradley Carnell assured that his focus isn't on the final score.
"Growth is all I wanted to see," Carnell said.
"I wanted to see a team and a collective effort. Every day that we've been on the field, every session that we've had, I've seen a lot of good, positive things happen with this group in such a short span of time. Again, it's marginal gains, small wins, and today we might have gone down on the game in the scoreline, but I felt we came leaps and bounds with the team."
As for the combinations themsevles, Carnell provided insight into his choices and reasoning behind the absence of Tai Baribo and Ian Glavinovich, who didn't dress for the match.
"Just trying to get relationships going. Every day is one day further that I get to know more about the guys, and the guys get to know more about what we're trying to do here," Carnell said.
"We had to mitigate some of the players -- Tai as well as Ian. We decided not to play them today because they were struggling a little bit in training yesterday just from a little bit of stress and fatigue. So, we kept them out."
The match officially closes the team's training trip to Marbella, Spain. They'll embark on a long travel day back to Philadelphia on Monday morning, where they'll stay for a week before flying to Florida for the official start of preseason in Clearwater.
