Union II Aims for First Trophy in High-Stakes Eastern Conference Final Against Columbus Crew 2

Union II’s young squad embraces the underdog mentality as they prepare for a historic showdown at Subaru Park.

(Credit: Philadelphia Union II)

Chester, Pa. — After defeating Crown Legacy 4-3 on penalties, Union II will face off against defending MLS Next Pro Eastern Conference Champions Columbus Crew II. In the thrilling shootout, Andrew Rick came through with two critical saves, and CJ Olney scored the game-winning penalty. Columbus enters the match after a 3-2 victory over Chicago Fire II, where they let two leads slip but secured the game-winning goal in the 57th minute from Xavier Zengue. Columbus comes to Subaru Park as the highest-scoring team in the playoffs, with nine goals. Meanwhile, Union II brings the best defensive record, conceding only one goal.

First Trophy On The Line For Union II

Two years ago, the First Team won the Eastern Conference Finals, defeating NYCFC 3-1. This was the second trophy for the Union in club history. It took them 11 years to win their first trophy, the Supporters' Shield, in 2020. Now, the Second Team has a chance at their first trophy in their third season as a professional club. Whenever you reach the opportunity to win a trophy, it doesn’t take much to motivate players. However, Head Coach Marlon LeBlanc told the media on Friday that, with the two-year anniversary of the First Team lifting the Eastern Conference trophy, he and his staff shared the video of those players lifting the trophy with the fans at Subaru Park—showing the players that they have a chance to replicate that same moment.

“We sent them—and shared with them—the video of our first team winning it a couple of years ago and having that moment in that same stadium a couple of years ago, where Ale [Bedoya], with one leg taped up, barely gets up the stairs and gets to lift that trophy with the team—the excitement, the energy, and the passion that came with that,” said LeBlanc. “They've earned the opportunity to do the same. They deserve that opportunity to lift the trophy, but more importantly, they've got an opportunity to do it with their own fans. And hopefully, if we can do that tomorrow, with the fans in the stands and get to share that moment with them, there’ll be even more of a buzz about what this project is and what Jay [Sugarman], Ernst [Tanner], and Jim [Curtin] have committed to doing with the second team, building upon it moving forward for years to come.”

This season marked the third consecutive season that Union II has reached the playoffs, but it’s the first season that the club won a playoff game. In their debut season, they finished third in the Eastern Conference (11-9-4, 40 pts) and lost to Toronto FC II 1-0 in the first round of the playoffs. The following season, Union II finished seventh (12-12-4, 42 pts) and lost to New England Revolution II 3-2 in the first round of the playoffs. Now, in 2024, Union II finished second (15-9-4, 52 pts) and have defeated NYCFC and Crown Legacy in the playoffs. Union II also finished tied for first in the league with 59 goals scored and tied for fifth fewest in goals conceded, allowing 41. What’s even more impressive is that this Union II team is the youngest in MLS Next Pro, with an average age of 18.6 years old. Marlon LeBlanc will always be quick to tell you that developing these young players is the most important part of his job. Everything else is secondary. A big part of that development is watching these players get called up to their various youth national teams. There have been a total of seven players this season with MLS Next Pro contracts called up to their youth national teams, with Frankie becoming the seventh when he was called up with the US U20s in October.

Embracing The Underdog Mentality

We’ve seen it with the first team over the years embracing the ‘Underdog’ mentality, punching above their weight, and catching teams by surprise with a hard-tackling, pressing, outwork-you playing style—a style that exemplifies what the city of Philadelphia is all about. A young team like Union II shouldn’t be in this position, knocking older teams out of the playoffs. They shouldn’t have multiple come-from-behind victories, but yet this team does. They’ve been battle-tested all season long; they show the grit that Philadelphia fans expect from their sports teams, yet they’re still looked at as the underdogs against Columbus. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Columbus Crew II has been in the Eastern Conference Finals for the last three seasons, and they’ll look to win their third consecutive Eastern Conference Final.

“As far as we're concerned, that underdog mentality comes—look, we're the debutantes in this game, right?” said LeBlanc. “They've been here two years in a row. We've had an underdog mentality all season long; we've talked about our age all season long. And I think all season long, we've told you that we weren't going to use it as an excuse. So here we are now, coming into this game with that chip on our shoulder. We always seem to punch above our weight, but now we're hoping to punch above our weight and win something. The guys are motivated to do so.

“I think the underdog mentality isn't necessarily like Rocky and Apollo—one is a champion and one is not. When we talk about an underdog mentality, we're talking more about the personality of our city and the personality of our club: that we are fighters. We may not carry the possession, we may not look like the better team, but when it's all said and done, we end up on the right side of things. That’s more the underdog mentality we're talking about.

“We had an expectation to be here as an underdog. We have an expectation to go out and try to win tomorrow as an underdog—a personification of the fighting spirit more so than a feeling that we're not supposed to win or that we're not supposed to be here.”

Fourth Meeting Between These Two Teams

Marlon LeBlanc, during the playoff process, has been saying that he and his staff have been reluctant to pick Columbus in the playoffs because of how often these two teams have played during the regular season. For those unaware, during the first two rounds of playoffs in MLS Next Pro, the highest seeds get to select which of the lower seeds they want to face in the playoffs. Union II came into the playoffs as the No. 2 seed, while Columbus Crew II came in as the No. 7 seed. Now, with Union II and Columbus Crew II the last two remaining teams in the Eastern Conference, there is no avoiding each other.

This will now mark the fourth time this season these two teams will have played. Union II went 1-1-1 against Columbus this season, including 1-0-1 at Subaru Park. Union II won 3-1 in the first meeting at Subaru Park, with forward Sal Olivas scoring a brace. In the second meeting, they tied 1-1, with Cavan Sullivan scoring in the 29th minute, while Columbus equalized in the 65th with Brent Adu-Gyamfi. During the three different meetings this season, we’ve seen LeBlanc go with two different striker pairings: Eddy Davis and Markus Anderson, and Davis and Sal Olivas. With seeing Columbus so often this season and going with multiple different partnerships up front, Marlon LeBlanc sees that as an advantage in terms of Columbus not knowing exactly what lineup they’ll see.

“Yeah, I think it's really important. I think the foundation for doing that was laid over the course of the first 28 games of the season, though,” said LeBlanc. “I've alluded to this in the past: sometimes it was forced—we play who we have available to us—and other times, it's intentional. We put guys out there and give them opportunities to grow and to learn, because that experience matters. And so I'm not the kind of coach who, at 60 minutes, is going to make a change. I'm not the kind of coach who is just going to play guys for the sake of playing them. We try to be strategic and purposeful in the way we make changes. Sal offers us one thing, Eddy offers us another, and Markus offers us something completely different as well. I've used Jamir Johnson as a forward; he offers something different from those three. José Riasco offers something different from those four.

“So, they've all gotten an opportunity to play this year, and I think that's the most important thing. We're not throwing them to the wolves here in the playoffs and asking something of them that they haven't experienced before. We've been purposeful in the process of their development, giving them opportunities to play and mixing and matching some of those striker partnerships. Hopefully, it's put us in a situation where we can depend on multiple people down the stretch—you don't get that unless you give them opportunities. And they've had opportunities to do that already this year.”

Where To Watch

The match will be available on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV, with kickoff set for 6:00 p.m. EST on November 2nd. If you haven’t gotten tickets yet, you can go here, with tickets listed at $10!

Video Credit: Apple TV/Philadelphia Union