Weekend Wrap Up - January 21st, 2024
What happened in the Union universe?
After a busy weekend of action across the globe, here are some highlights of current and former Union players around the world.
Mark McKenzie put on a man-of-the-match performance for Genk as they drew against Cercle Brugge. He completed 40/50 passes, played all 90 minutes, and won 12 of his 14 duels.
Jack McGlynn earned his first-ever international cap during the loss to Slovenia. Despite coming off the bench and only playing 29 minutes, Jack completed 38 of his 40 passes and completely changed the game as soon as he joined. One must wonder if he should have started all along. Unfortunately, Nate Harriel did not feature during the match.
José Riasco came in late against Bolivia, and let’s just say he had a bit of a nightmare during the 10 minutes he featured. Most notably, this miss to seal the match:
Auston Trusty played 80 minutes for Sheffield United. The team lost to West Ham by a score of 2-1, but the Union alumn played a good match, completing 78 percent of his passes (31/40) and winning six of his seven duels on the day.
As for the main event, the Union faced off against Flamengo of Brazil in the only open match to fans and media of the entire pre-season.
The team also surprised all of us with a FREE livestream for it.
The Union lined up like this for the first half:
Meanwhile, Flamengo lined up like this:
A few things to remember:
1. Can't lose sight of the fact that this is a friendly in the preseason.
2. Flamengo is a club with 189 million dollars worth of players. The Union has 57 million dollars in players (per Transfermrkt).
3. New and young faces playing for the first time officially.
Here are the only two goals for those who did not get to catch the rare FREE action:
Penalty spot goal at the 12th minute:
An unstoppable goal from Flamengo’s Everton:
The second half was better as the Union rolled out this lineup:
Not much to say about this match other than congratulations to all the players that made their debuts today!
The team will now prepare to take on Austin F.C. on Tuesday, January 23rd in Florida.
Have a great week!
j.
P.S. Please let me know your thoughts on the content so far. I know it is only a few days into this experiment, but I want to be able to serve you all what you want to see. Drop a comment or message me if you have suggestions.
Video Credits: Philadelphia Union and Fox Sports
When Union return to Chester, ask Donovan which Central League (Delco HS) CB David Luiz compares to. /s
Looking forward to your video interviews thru the season.