Philly Leader

Philadelphia Union faced Slavia Prague in a friendly match on Sunday at the Marbella Football Complex. The Czech team won 1-0, but the game was seen as productive for Philadelphia, with nearly the entire roster participating.

"We're four days into training camp, so today we learned, and I learned a lot about this team. It's a bunch of proud young men, and I appreciate the work they put in," stated Carnell post-match.

Carnell highlighted the effort made by his players despite distributing minutes across various lineups. "We asked a lot of them today. Obviously we had to distribute the minutes accordingly, but the guys put out a hell of an effort, and I'm really proud of them."

The starting lineup included both seasoned starters and newcomers like Ian Glavinovich, a 23-year-old Argentinian center-back who joined on December 20th. Throughout the match, Carnell used five different lineups involving 26 players and three goalkeepers: Andre Blake, Oliver Semmle, and Andrew Rick.

"Nothing to read too much into right now," Carnell said regarding his tactical changes. He emphasized building internal competition among players during games and training sessions.

The game allowed individual players to demonstrate their skills while providing Carnell insights into team dynamics. "They're fiesty. I think we earned the respect of the opponent in the first half," he noted about Slavia Prague's reaction during the match.

He acknowledged that matching Slavia Prague's intensity was crucial since they are mid-season ready for competitive matches. "We're still some weeks away from that, and we were able to compete at a very high level. So that's all I ask of the group."

Carnell used different player groups throughout his debut as Philadelphia Union's Head Coach:

Starting XI included Andre Blake; Kai Wagner; Olwethu Makhanya; Ian Glavinovich; Frankie Westfield; Jesus Bueno; Alejandro Bedoya; Quinn Sullivan; Daniel Gazdag; Mikael Uhre; Tai Baribo.

Group 2 featured Oliver Semmle replacing Blake while maintaining most other starters.

Groups 3 through 5 saw more changes with new inclusions such as Nick Pariano and Neil Pierre joining along with others like Jeremy Rafanello consistently featuring across groups.

Philadelphia Union will continue their training in Marbella before facing Aarhus Gymnastikforening on January 26th in another friendly match.