Philadelphia Union cultivate USA Olympic pipeline: "It's one identity"

The US men’s Olympic soccer team booked Saturday’s vital 4-1 Group A win over New Zealand in Marseille, on the sunny south coast of France. But you could also say the big W was made in gritty Chester, Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia Union defender Nathan Harriel earned the penalty kick that led to the young Yanks' opening goal, then took the shot that provided the follow-up opportunity finished by Walker Zimmerman to push the lead to 2-0 after just 12 minutes.

The US' all-important third strike came off the foot of Paxten Aaronson, rated by some observers as Saturday’s man of the match, a Union homegrown who spent his formative years in Chester and Philly’s affiliated YSC Academy facility just up the road in Wayne before earning a reported $4 million-plus transfer to Germany's Eintracht Frankfurt.

Union way

Despite appearing as a substitute in both of their first two matches, midfielder Jack McGlynn ranks second on the team in chances created, and with Gianluca Busio nursing a hamstring issue, he could be in line for a start in Tuesday’s pivotal group-stage finale vs. Guinea. He and Aaronson are the only two holdovers left from the US Under-20s group that earned the United States this Olympic spot in the first place, by winning the Concacaf U-20 Championship two years ago – a squad that included four Union academy alums.

“I think we have a lot of players from Philly programs in every age group, which means that they are doing a good job with their academy and developing players,” Olympic coach Marko Mitrović said in May. “Definitely, they're doing a great job.”

For all the accolades Philly’s youth-centric project has gained over the past several years, as many of their products have advanced to the senior USMNT and/or earned big moves abroad, as much consistent success as it’s helped their first team attain – peaking with the 2020 Supporters’ Shield and a trip to the 2022 MLS Cup final – these Summer Games are the biggest stage yet for the Union way.

“It's kind of showcasing that like our club – even though we're not the best power, we know that – but that's a positive for the club that we're here,” said McGlynn, “and we can put a name out for the club while we're here.”

Embracing the city

What’s in the water in southeastern Pennsylvania? The sample size is now large enough to say with confidence that this is more than the quirk of a ‘golden generation’ or the region’s talent pool.

“We know the tag that we have,” Harriel told reporters in the days leading up the the start of their Olympic campaign last month, “what we’ve produced with Mark [McKenzie], Auston Trusty, Brenden Aaronson; Paxten is here, Jack. So I mean, our academy, I would say it's the best in the country at producing top talents.”

Harriel, it should be noted, hails from Oldsmar, Florida, and spent most of his youth career at Clearwater Chargers SC before joining Philly’s system at age 17 in 2018 and rapidly climbing the ranks. McGlynn is a Queens native who signed on with the Union’s academy because its residential program was more feasible than the unwieldy daily cross-Gotham commutes he and his family would have to grapple with as part of the New York Red Bulls or New York City FC youth systems.

Whether the kids are recruited from the Union’s backyard or scouted from points far afield, all are immersed in a high-pressing game model that emphasizes diligent defending, rugged physicality and a team-first ethos – values crafted to reflect the city and its people.

“I see it as super gritty,” said Harriel. “It’s a blue-collar city, as we all know, nothing’s fancy about it, nothing special about it. But there’s people that are going to work really hard, work for the team, not be selfish. And I think that me, Jack and Paxten represent that to the best of our ability.”

Youth-focused

It’s no coincidence this ties into how the Union are perennially one of MLS’s lower-spending teams in terms of first-team salaries and transfer fees paid. Union minority owner Richie Graham likes to point out it’s not as if the club has failed to invest; they’ve simply chosen to invest differently, by building an academy that supplies players, and eventually hefty outbound transfer sales, to the senior side while also providing talent for the US national teams.

A decade’s worth of commitment to these ideas has established a culture, one that stepped up to a new level last year when the Union opened an expanded training center, the WSFS Bank Sportsplex, in the shadow of Subaru Park. The 32-acre complex boasts an array of indoor and outdoor facilities for the use of all of the club’s teams as well as the wider community.

“As a club, it's one club, it's one identity from U-12 to the first team. We all play the same way, we all have the same mentality,” said Harriel. “And it's also nice that the academy kids see the first team training because we're all at the same complex, so just being in and around that environment, it breeds professional athletes for sure.

“It just shows that when kids get chances, when they get bumped up from the U-17 teams to Union 2, they perform well, and then when they get bumped up from Union 2 to train with the first team, it's a hard adjustment, but they still perform well. They don't back down from the moment.”

Conceived, founded and funded by Graham, YSC Academy is key to Philly’s rise into a youth powerhouse, with its holistic approach to development guided by a rigorous academic curriculum and cultivation of people skills in addition to the overarching on-field principles that characterize Union teams of all ages.

“The biggest thing that I think separates us that doesn't get talked about enough is the school that we have here,” Philly head coach Jim Curtin told MLSsoccer.com. “So we can look parents in the eye and say ‘yes, we want your child to play in Subaru Park and be a top professional for the Philadelphia Union.’ That is the goal for all of them. But the reality is only a very, very small percentage can do that.

“But what we can promise is they're going to get an education that not only sets them up for college, but sets them up for life skills. It's not an ordinary school, the job that the teachers do there, the way that the kids are able to look you in the eye, shake your hand, stand up and present in front of a classroom,” he added, readily admitting YSC is head and shoulders above his own alma mater, Bishop McDevitt High School. “These are things that are taught that are real-life skills and life preparation that these kids get. So I think that's our biggest separator right now.”

Considering the vibrant potential of the rising generations who’ve won honors in MLS NEXT and other youth competitions, headlined by 14-year-old wunderkind Cavan Sullivan and the accelerating hype around him, it seems clear the assembly line is still cranking along.

Earning your stripes

The Union’s veterans and imports are part of the recipe, too. They provide guidance and set the standard that fresh-faced academy young’uns must meet and eventually exceed if they are to continue their progress.

“We know the club is big on youth. Obviously we also want to win. But as Jim said, if he's ready, he's ready,” club-legend goalkeeper Andre Blake told MLSsoccer.com on the night of Cavan Sullivan’s historic debut.

“That’s how you really build a team that's going to be successful. If you have a kid that's really good, you need to have really good players around him to kind of protect him and to also let him have time and space to grow, and to kind of help him to figure it out. So I think that's very important.”

Even as Curtin focuses on coaxing one more Audi MLS Cup Playoffs run out of the aging core of the first-team roster, the work of blooding youth is always front of mind.

“It's part of the business plan, it’s part of the sporting model here at the Union, to develop young players, and Jim has shown that if they earn it from the way they train, they know that they're going to get playing time,” said midfielder Alejandro Bedoya.

“You see Jack McGlynn, Nathan Harriel now who are representing us in the Olympics, Cavan's brother Quinn getting a lot more playing time, and then the amount of guys that we've had on the bench in recent weeks and that are playing with Union 2 as well, getting proper game time, that this club does take into account the young players, and they really mean it when they say that they're about talent scouting and development and recruitment.”