CHESTER — On its face, the assemblage of words makes little sense. But Nate Harriel manages to lend some logic to it.
Harriel is 24. This is his sixth preseason with the Philadelphia Union since signing as a Homegrown in January 2021. The changes surrounding make him, “one of the younger but older guys in this team,” a tautology that makes sense perhaps only in the muddled world of the Union.
Harriel is closer to the beginning of his career than the end. But he’s over the median age in a rebuilt squad that, after 2025’s surprise run to the Supporters’ Shield, jettisoned the defensive veterans that made it happen.
Kai Wagner is playing for Birmingham City in the English League Championship. Jakob Glesnes is with the L.A. Galaxy. The team’s third All-Star in 2025, Tai Baribo, plies his trade for D.C. United.
That makes Harriel, again just 24, a backline elder statesman.
“Yeah, it’s very interesting,” Harriel said Tuesday at the first full training session of the season. “But at the same time, it’s a business at the end of the day. It hurts to see those guys leave, because they’re great friends that you’ve made over the past five years, great people on and off the field. So there definitely is going to be a change, but all you can do is adapt to it. You can’t complain about it. We’re so confident in the people that we have here.”
Turnover is the name of the soccer game.
More so for the Union given the club’s embrace of youth development, ambivalence to paying for past production and insistence on a small-market, selling-club mindset. For the team that has accumulated the most regular-season points in MLS this decade, it’s hard to argue with the results, unless you shift the discussion to MLS Cups won.
This year’s upheaval seems of a different character than last year’s, when Jim Curtin was fired after a 12th-place finish in 2024 and Bradley Carnell was installed as head coach.
Both shifts are comprehensive if different. Last year’s team had just one center back (Glesnes) that had played an MLS minute. That supposed weakness created room for the emergence of Olwethu Makhanya and Frankie Westfield.
Harriel is emblematic, in a way. Last year, he made 11 starts at right back and 13 at center back. For him, the principles remain the same at the positions. For the Union, the principles remain the same no matter who is charged with enacting them.
“Last year, I was thrown around everywhere to fill in some places when we had injuries or other instances,” Harriel said. “But whatever my job is, I’m willing to do it. I’m not going to go out there and complain. The staff believes in me and is confident in me to put me in all these positions for a reason. So whatever my job is, I’m going to do it to the best of my abilities.”
This year’s change seems significant. But it may be only a perception reflective of Wagner and Glesnes’ stature. They departed in fifth and sixth, respectively, in games played in club history.
At 63 assists, Wagner is the club’s all-time leader. Baribo led the team in scoring last year at 16 goals. Mikael Uhre, now back in Denmark, is third in club history at 38 goals.
But this is a club that moved on from Jack Elliott, third in club history in games played, and all-time leading scorer Daniel Gazdag in early 2025, yet still won a trophy.
Five of 11 starters on opening day 2024 were gone six weeks into the 2025 season. Five starters on opening day in 2025 have already departed.
Alejandro Bedoya, at 38, and Andre Blake, at 35, are the only Union players over age 30. Next is 28-year-old Olivier Mbaizo, then Jesus Bueno and Milan Iloski at 26. Suddenly, Harriel’s “younger but older” makes sense.
At least this season’s pivot is clear from the beginning. The quest for players like Harriel is to replace the leadership and on-field volume once brought by Wagner, Baribo, Glesnes and others.
“It’s definitely going to be different,” Harriel said. “But that’s the good thing about preseason. We go away for basically four weeks by ourselves with the team. So, there’s a lot of time to bond with people, for everyone to speak up, get used to everything. It’s going to be a learning process for everybody.
“This is the first time I can really remember that the club’s been through this big of a change, but it’ll be good. This preseason will really help out, for sure, for everyone to be a leader in their own way, whether that’s a young kid asking questions, or an Ale helping or a Dre helping one of the younger guys.”
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The latest defensive replacement fell into place Tuesday with the signing of Danish defender Japhet Sery Larsen.
The 25-year-old from Denmark arrived for an undisclosed transfer fee through the 2028-29 season with an option for 2029-30. He’s spent the last three years in his second stint at SK Brann, around a year with Bodo/Glimt. He’s helped Brann to a pair runner-up finishes in the Eliteserien and has captained the team, with 98 games and four goals in all competitions.
Larsen has played a dozen games in Europe, including UEFA Champions League Qualifying but mainly Europa League and Europa Conference. He’s a product of the academy at Lyngby BK, in which the Union have a minority ownership stake.
The 6-1, 172-pounder is a Danish and Ivory Coast citizen. He represented Danish youth teams some 30 times at various levels from U-16 to U-21.
“Japhet is a proactive, forward-thinking center back who brings valuable experience from his time competing in the UEFA Europa League,” Carnell said in a press release. “His aggressive playing style fits our system well, and we’re confident his high soccer IQ and leadership qualities will be valuable assets to the team this season.”
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The Union’s training group was bolstered Tuesday by several Union II players, including its two leading scorers.
Milan Jakupovic scored eight goals in just 417 minutes last season. He’s just 16 years old.
At the other end of the spectrum, Stas Korzeniowski had eight goals in 22 games. Selected in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft out of Penn, Korzeniowski turns 23 this month.
Also up from Union II is center back Rafael Uzcategui, the 20-year-old Venezuelan who played 2,284 minutes for Union II last year plus 270 more in the playoffs.
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NOTES >> Everyone on the roster was accounted for Tuesday save for Larsen and Finn Sundstrom, the defender taking part in the combined U-18, U-19 and U-20 U.S. camp in Arizona. … Bruno Damiani and Cavan Sullivan worked together in an early session before the rest of the players came out for training. Damiani then worked off to the side. … Larsen will wear Glesnes’ No. 5. Milan Iloski changed his number to the No. 10 shirt vacated when Gazdag was traded to Columbus. Damiani has assumed the No. 9 jersey left open by Baribo. New signing Ezekiel Alladoh will wear No. 23. … The Union train in market this week before voyaging to Marbella, Spain, for a pair of preseason games. They return to Philadelphia Jan. 27, then head to Clearwater for the final phase of preseason Feb. 2. The Union’s first match of the season is Feb. 18 against Trinidad and Tobago club Defence Force in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in Port of Spain.