Photo @PhilaUnionII
With CJ Olney now signed for the first team, there is an interesting combination in the first team for the future midfield. The second team has already had this combination at times. It consists of three teenagers and seems to play the tight diamond formation 4-1-2-1-2, with clear differences to the first team’s style of play and the way it has played so far.
This difference can be described as “extremely fluid interchangeability.”
There has always been a primary number 10 player in Daniel Gazdag and his predecessors Jamiro Monteiro and Borek Dockal. That primary player has moved to other channels and depending on the game, others have occupied the front tip of the diamond. But those three number 10 players each remained primary. Productivity dropped as opponents pushed them out of the central channel. Just recently, Cruz Azul repositioned its best defender to neutralize Gazdag’s influence.
There will be less differentiation between primary and secondary roles between Cavan Sullivan, CJ Olney and David Vazquez. On Union II, there is no noticeable drop in productivity when one replaces the other at center. And keeping all three out of Zone 14 at the same time has not been accomplished yet.
A scoreboard will likely say Sullivan is the 10, Olney the left 8 and Vazquez the right. But the rigidity of the ink on paper will not reflect reality. And the way the three already play together is a whirlwind of interactions that allows only glimpses through each of the three front vertices of the organization’s narrow diamond. To say the interactions create unpredictability like Heisenberg’s subatomic particles would be an exaggeration of reality. But the defenders can’t simply predict what or who will be where or when.
The only corner that is likely to remain constant is the 6, the defensive midfield. And Sanders Ngabo is not afraid to go forward when he sees the chance. Unfortunately, Sullivan, Olney and Vazquez were not defensive midfielders comparable to the young Dane if they had to rotate there.
When the youthful trio was together, Union II’s formation appeared to be a 4-1-3-2 whose first line of defense was maintaining possession. Currently, this 4-1-3-2 dominates an MLS Next Pro game for the first 20 or 25 minutes. Only FC Cincinnati 2 has successfully defended it, and that was by anticipating where Union II’s passes were going and interrupting or intercepting them, not by taking a key player out of the game.
When taking free kicks, Sullivan (14.9 years old), Olney (17.6) and Vazquez (18.5) are all left-footed, but all seem to be practically “ambidextrous” in other aspects of their technical ability. Neither is a physical giant. Vazquez is the slimmest at 1.75m and 65kg and the one who has not yet made his first-team debut, although that could also be due to his international involvement. Olney is the same height as Vazquez but weighs 5kg more, while Sullivan is an up-and-coming bundle of energy at 1.70m and 68kg.
Olney and Vazquez both played in the preseason opener against Flamengo of Brazil on Jan. 21 in St. Petersburg. Olney played the first half and Vazquez the second. Sullivan later went to Florida with Union II and played the second half of their 5-0 opener on Feb. 6.th against Florida Premier FC. Until the end of June, Sullivan’s professional participation was limited due to his obligations to his Academy U17 teammates in MLS NEXT as well as his contract status.
As the oldest, Vazquez has trained daily with the first team the longest and has logged the most minutes in qualifying for the FIFA U17 World Cup and Concacaf U20 World Cup. He is certain to play in the FIFA U20 World Cup in Chile, which unofficially runs from Sept. 27 to Oct. 19, 2025. Olney was the first to be called up for the U20s this summer when he was injured and should be closely considered for the trip to Chile. Sullivan played for the U.S. U15s in the Concacaf U15 Championship in 2023, but FIFA does not sponsor the U15 World Cup.
Hopefully Vazquez will get his first start later this season. Next year it will be interesting to see how the trio develops. Having three 10s playing the three front corners of the diamond could restore the level of tactical unsustainability that Gazdag’s three-man coverage reduced. The Union always say that their business plan is to discover new innovations. Using three interchangeable 10s together could be that.
