Philadelphia Union and Portland Timbers depart USL Championship after getting great value from second teams
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Oct 21, 2020
Two MLS teams have withdrawn their second
teams from the USL Championship.
The USL made it official last week that Philadelphia Union II (formerly Bethlehem Steel) and Timbers 2 FC won't be back in 2021.
What is
surprising is the that Union and Timbers have been two of the more MLS successful teams in recent years -- they are currently second in their respective conferences -- and how they have used their
second teams, in their own way, has contributed to their success.
The Union has nine players on its 2020 roster -- and three more arriving in 2021 -- who got their start with its USL
second team, either signing a USL pro contract or playing on academy contracts before they signed MLS contracts.
They include Brenden Aaronson, who spent two seasons at Bethlehem
Steel before joining the Union first team in 2019. After less than two seasons, the Union has parlayed Aaronson's success into a record MLS transfer fee for a U.S. club with his pending move in
January to Austrian champion Red Bull Salzburg. Mark McKenzie, also a target of European clubs, also played at Bethlehem Steel as an amateur player.
The Union was one of the first MLS teams to use its second
team as a proving ground for academy players and signing them to Homegrown deals after they initially intended to head off to college. The first one was Auston Trusty, who signed to a pro
contract just before he was supposed to head off to University of North Carolina for his freshman season.
The Union's first two Steel products, Derrick Jones and Trusty, were
traded in the offseason, but generated up to $925,000 in allocation money, just another way its second-team program has paid off.
Philadelphia Union 2020 roster (second-team alums):
Brenden Aaronson (27 games as USL academy player in 2017-28, signed MLS HG contract ahead of 2019
season)
Cory Burke (46 games on USL pro contract in 2016-17, signed MLS contract in December 2017)
Jack de Vries (6 games as USL academy player in
2019, signed MLS HG contract ahead of 2020 season)
Anthony Fontana (19 games as USL academy player in 2016-17, signed MLS HG contract ahead of 2018 season)
Olivier
Mbaizo (signed USL pro contract in January 2018, signed MLS contract in April 2018)
Michee Ngalina (24 games on USL pro contract in 2018, signed MLS
contract in May 2019)
Mark McKenzie (9 games as USL academy player in 2016-17, signed MLS HG contract for 2018 season after freshman season at Wake Forest University)
Matthew Real (6 games on USL pro contract in 2017, signed MLS HG contract for 2018 season)
Cole Turner (15 games as USL academy player, then on USL pro contract in
2019, signed HG contract ahead of 2020 season)
Philadelphia Union 2021 roster (second-team alums):
Paxten Aaronson (14 games as USL academy player in 2020, signed
MLS HG contract ahead of 2021 season)
Nathan Harriel (36 games as USL academy player, then on USL pro contract in 2019-20, signed HG contract ahead of 2021 season)
Jack McGlynn
(14 games on USL program contract, signed HG contract ahead of 2021 season)
Former Philadelphia Union
players (second-team alums):
Derrick
Jones (26 games on USL pro contract in 2016, signed MLS HG contract for 2017 season)
-- Traded to Nashville SC in 2020 for $175,000 in 2020 GAM.
Auston
Trusty (13 games as USL academy player in 2016, signed MLS HG contract in August 2016)
-- Traded to Nashville SC in 2020 for $300,000 in 2020 TAM, $300,000 in
2021 GAM, $150,000 in conditional 2021 GAM.
The Portland Timbers have taken a different approach. Without the ambitious academy program the Union built, the
Timbers have only two Homegrown players they'll developed on their current roster.
Bu they used Timbers 2 to park young Latin American signings, including Venezuelan Pablo Bonilla
and Costa Rican Marvin Loria, who have both played more than 600 minutes in 2020.
The value of Timbers 2 -- and it was considerable -- was in providing playing time to players
unable to break through on the first team. In paid off in late 2018 when Jeremy Ebobisse, the No. 4 pick in the 2017 SuperDraft, finally got his chance with the first team and was a big
contributor in the Timbers' run to the MLS final.
"Having a USL team has been very important for us and for any club that is serious about soccer," Portland head coach Giovanni
Savarese told
Soccer America ahead of MLS Cup 2018. "Having the chance for some players who didn't have a chance to play with the first team to stay game-fit is very important. But they also need to understand that
when they go to the USL they need to be competitive, to keep on developing, to keep on growing. They need to understand it is not just a step down to get a game, they are helping the USL team win and
they need to stay on the right path so if they are given the opportunity to play on the first team they are ready."
In 2019, Ebobisse tied for the Portland lead with 11 goals and was the
only Timber to appear in all 34 league games. In 2020, he leads the Timbers with eight goals.
Eryk Williamson's emergence in midfield (two goals and five
assists in 16 games) has been one of the biggest stories of the Timbers' 2020 seasons. He didn't play for the Timbers in 2018 after they signed him out of the University of Maryland, acquiring his
Homegrown rights from D.C. United, and he made only seven appearances in 2019. Still, he got plenty of playing time in the USL Championship (15 games in 2018 and 19 in 2019).
Portland Timbers 2020 roster (second-team
alums):
Blake Bodily (35 games as USL academy player in 2015-17, signed MLS HG contract for 2020 season after three seasons at University of Washington)
Pablo Bonilla (1 game on USL pro contract in 2020, signed MLS contract in June 2020)
Marco Farfan (18 games as USL academy player in 2016, signed MLS HG contract for 2017
season)
Marvin Loria (31 games on USL pro contract in 2018, on loan from Saprissa, signed MLS contract in December 2018)
Renzo Zambrano (32 games on USL pro contract in 2018,
signed MLS contract in December 2018)
Former Portland Timbers players (second-team alums):
Kendall McIntosh (20 games on USL pro contract in 2016,
signed MLS contract in January 2017)
-- Signed by New York Red Bulls in 2019 Re-Entry Draft.
This is just madness. Development of youth players shouldn't be the same as pulling away from the craps table after a short but successful run at the casino. Bethlehem Steel team--gone. Now it's just a "brand"--all those original supporters can just suck it. USSF is failing--thanks voting members for reinforcing the status quo. I guess we're just supposed to be happy because there are about a dozen escapees who fled to Europe and developed into USMNT-level professionals? Gaaaaaaa!
And no reasons given?! Without this second team, what are their plans for developing/promoting players?! Just their youth teams? The article could have delved into this a bit deeper.
MLS is moving quickly to (1) develop their own 'reserve' league and (2) detatch their young academy and prospects from the engangled of USL contracts. Is anything USSF could have done in this case as these are two stand alont leagues? Probably not. Did USSF help development in the US by creating the DA for boys then girls then pulling the plug? Or, did they put a spoke in the wheel of the two franchise systems, MLS and USL, that should have been developing their own academies? For me, the USL growth is a disrupter here. Three years ago, USL Championship was not even Division 2., it was only NASL. Today, USL has formed their Championship, League 1 and League 2. Their march to an Academy system was already planned, before DA unplug and pandemic. They will carry on after. The existence of this configuration is a threat to MLS. MLS was asleep at the wheel when this competing franchise system grew up in thier playground. Now they are taking steps to deal with it. We'll see, probably too late.
too late meaning, to late to stop USL from becoming a serious alternative and turning what MLS thought was going to be a money minting monopoly franchise system, like MLB, NBA, NHL and NFL, where teams are like anuities with exponential asset appreciation, into a less predictable duopoly that they cannot control.
One more thing to think about - if the USL Academy system is a success - and it has a good chance to be - because of it's structure - and - because of the MLS Next structure - think about what that means to MLS. Currently much of the country is divided into territories for teams. Houston Dynamo can't go to Dallas to recruit for example, now neither can go to Austin. But will there be restrictions on USL Academies? Probably not. Have not read anything on this. What if USL academies start churning out prospects? So you have a more flexible recruit platform. Now what if USL Academies start putting boys in college, and maybe even sending/selling boys to Europe? Now you see what I mean by the threat that just the USL Academy poses to MLS and MLS Next. The next battle front is developing and selling on talent and capturing that revenue to fund your academy id and dev activities. It is true what they say, talent is here. Question is, can MLS keep it in the bottle?
USL would be where it is without MLS. I personally believe they only out there reserve teams in their to help USL grow. I see two eventualities here. 1. Promotion/relegation with mls and USL. I find this unlikely but maybe one day. 2. What is more probal9 is MLS and USL having MLB type affiliation like AAA, AA etc.
I meant USL wouldn't be*