MLS Next Pro football returned to Subaru Park on Sunday afternoon as Union II, coming off a three-week break, returned to action and played hosts to a struggling Carolina Core FC team, which was looking for its first win of the 2026 season.
Coming out of the three-week break, Coach Richter had quite a few new names at his disposal for this game as Andrew Rick returned to the Union II squad for the first time in 2026 and started in goal. The backline featured four names that have been mainstays for Coach Richter this season, as Jordan Griffin, Finn Sundstrom, Giovanny Sequera, and club captain Rafael Uzcategui all started.
The midfield four contained a few new starters to the team, with academy players Tyler Gladstone and Matheus De Paula joining Mamoutou Berthe and Kellan LeBlanc in the middle of the park, with Malik Jakupovic upfront alongside his prolific partner from last season, Stas Korzeniowski, who was making his first appearance for Union II this season.
Philadelphia Union II scored four in a 4-1 win over Carolina Core FC.
Image Provided / Philadelphia Union II
The game started with the visitors putting pressure on Union II early, looking for a quick start to find their first win of the 2026 season. The early pressure gave the visitors a huge chance in the 6th minute as Rafael Uzcategui stepped in to block a dangerous ball across the box, before Carolina put the follow-up effort over the bar.
Union II grew into the game after some early warning signs from the visitors, and went close twice within a minute. Academy player Tyler Gladstone has a huge chance to score when his midfield partner, Matheus De Paula, sets him up in the middle of the box, but his shot is deflected for a corner. Gladstone then found Jakupovic from the resulting corner, but the striker's shot was cleared off the line.
Thankfully for both Union II and Malik Jakupovic, it was only a few minutes later until they found the opening goal of the game. After some brilliant defensive work from Uzcategui, the central defender found Kellan LeBlanc in midfield, who picked the ball up and moved forward down the left side before pinging a wonderful ball to the back post for Jakupovic.
Jakupovic, who’s been in phenomenal form since his debut back midway through last season, took the ball down, flicked it over the head of an oncoming defender, and smashed it home on the volley into the far bottom corner. Another top-quality goal for the young striker, who is looking like one of the best young talents the Philadelphia youth ranks have seen in quite some time.
A mere five minutes after that Jakupovic opener, his strike partner joined the fun as Stas Korzeniowski doubled Union II’s lead. After putting some pressure on a Carolina defender, Stas won the ball back, worked his way into the box, and finished with a fantastic strike, as cool as you like, into the bottom corner.
The game had turned into complete domination by the home side at this point, and right before the half-hour mark, Jakupovic almost got his 2nd goal of the game, but his strike was well saved by Carolina’s goalkeeper down low.
Union forward Malik Jakupovic scored another goal in another start for the second team.
Image Provided / Philadelphia Union II
It would be less than a minute after that strike, though, before Union II had tripled their lead and Stas Korzeniowski had grabbed his second of the game, carrying on where he left off from last season’s impressive goal tally.
Stas did some brilliant work on the ball down the left side, taking it around two defenders before cutting inside and working his way to the middle edge of the box. He then let a shot off, but as it went through the pressing defender, it took a huge deflection and completely wrong-footed the Carolina goalkeeper.
Half time came and stopped the bleeding for the visiting team from Carolina as Ryan Richter’s men were running riot and led 3-0 after 45 minutes. Within the opening ten minutes of the 2nd half, Union II went extremely close to grabbing a fourth goal when Kellan LeBlanc almost scored a worldie from just outside the box, but his strike rattled the post and stayed out.
Kellan LeBlanc went close again nearly ten minutes later, but his strike was saved to set up a corner, and from that resulting corner, Union II finally grabbed their fourth goal of the game as Tyler Gladstone delivered a brilliant ball into the box that found the head of captain Uzcategui and he made no mistake by smashing the header into the back of the net.
Carolina Core grabbed a consolation goal just over 10 minutes from time as Arnaud Tattevin got a shot past Andrew Rick in goal, but Ryan Richter’s men saw out the remaining minutes and won the game impressively.
Next up is a road trip for Ryan Richter’s men as they travel north of the border to take on Toronto FC II on Friday night, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 pm ET.
Union forward Stas Korzeniowski scored a brace in another game with the second team.
Image Provided / Philadelphia Union II
