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A day Ernst Tanner has been working toward for the past year came Tuesday as 22-year-old Uruguayan striker Bruno Damiani was introduced at an afternoon press conference at Subaru Park. The Union sporting director said they had been tracking Damiani for the past year but had to work through MLS rules to acquire the talented left-footed forward. The new No. 20 likely won’t be ready for Saturday’s opener. The Union will need to finalize paperwork and acquire another international roster spot.

In the email today:

1. 🇺🇾 Talking About Bruno Damiani

Uruguayan international striker Bruno Damiani has arrived in Chester, setting a new record for largest transfer in Philadelphia Union history.

The 22-year-old joins the Union from Club Nacional in his native Uruguay and his reported $3.4 million price tag surpasses the fee paid for Mikael Uhre ($2.8 million) by more than a half million dollars.

“For me, this was one of the main options to join MLS,” Damiani said during Tuesday’s press conference. “I’m ready to work hard and get on the field.”

Damiani is coming off a season on loan with Boston River in Uruguay’s top flight, where he scored 7 non-penalty goals (12 total) and had 5 assists. He debuted for Nacional in June 2023 and made his senior national team debut in May 24 in a friendly against Costa Rica.

Damiani will require an international roster spot so the Union will need to make a move to make him eligible for MLS play. His signing is also still pending his International Transfer Certificate (ITC) and P1 Visa. Seven of the Union’s allotted eight international spots are filled and they traded the eighth spot to Nashville SC last year.

Tanner struck an enthusiastic tone talking about the new striker in Tuesday’s press conference and noted that it was a long time coming.

“The striker market is very difficult, and, also, not everybody wants to join MLS,” Tanner said. “We had quite an intensive search, and we were basically focusing on the ones we can get and reach. And it’s important that you know the player, that you know about the background of the player, so we were very happy that he speaks English so well already.”

Heach coach Bradley Carnell said it will take time to integrate him into the team but notes that he’s stylistically a good fit with the system. He’s played previously as a lone striker in a 4-2-3-1 but also likes the prospects of pairing in a 4-2-2-2 with Tai Baribo or Mikael Uhre, who will be the presumed opening day starters for Saturday and likely the home opener.

“He’s aggressive against the ball, holds up the play really well, strong in the air, and a dominating threat in the box,” Carnell said.

2. 🐍 Apathy Looms Large As Union Prep for Season Opener

By Matt McClain

The Philadelphia Union are set to kickstart the 2025 campaign down south against Orlando City SC Saturday night with a new coach, a locker room full of Academy graduates and a handful of new signings. While some fans have expressed excitement for the new season under a new coach, large factions of the fanbase are anticipating more of the same: a lack of depth and high-dollar impact players.

The club has essentially double-downed on their frugal approach to roster building despite the rest of league continuing to spend more and more each off-season. Sure, the Union ownership group loosened the strings on their purses ever so slightly with the reported signing of Uruguayan striker Bruno Damiani for a new club-record fee of roughly $3.4 million. But compared to the league at-large, the sums of money that principal owner Jay Sugarman and the rest of the ownership are routinely capable (or willing) to invest in the first team roster remains at the bottom of the league.

See fellow Eastern Conference foe Atlanta United and their new league record transfer fee paid earlier this off-season. Or read up on another Eastern Conference opponent in FC Cincinnati and their ambitious off-season investments. The examples of clubs around the league that are unafraid to splash the cash are abundant.

The club has also decided to limit the available options off the bench once again to start this new season by handing first-team contracts to Union II standouts and Academy grads in place of filling the roster with more experienced and effective players. The combination of relying on untested Academy products to round out the roster while remaining reluctant to go above and beyond money wise in the transfer market have become the ‘norm’ for soccer fans in the Philadelphia area.

Another pillar of the club over the years? Selling Homegrown talents overseas which historically has seemingly been a net-positive. Until recently, with the club trading left-footed midfielder Jack McGlynn to another MLS club and not to Europe (another glaringly obvious source of apathy among the fans).

And surely, that philosophy has worked in the past at times. But that success could also be described as lightning in a bottle amidst years of existing as a small-market club in a massive sports market.

As former coach Jim Curtin once described, the team became a victim of their own success and expectations were then skewed. The moneyball tactics became stale. The Union struggled. They missed the playoffs for the first time in six years. And perhaps in a moment of personal vindication and panic, Sporting Director Ernst Tanner ousted Curtin in hopes of rinsing and refreshing for 2025.

But despite a new coach in Bradley Carnell, a new class of Academy players added to the fold, and a club record signing on the way, the question remains: is it enough?

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3. 🦅 Tweet of the Day: Gainwell’s Jersey

4. 💧 Water Cooler: Season Prediction

Making season-long predictions before the season starts is usually a fool’s errand but hey why not.

5. 🔗 Link Roundup

• Nutmeg Soccer has some pretty bold predictions for the Union this season, picking them to finish 14th in the Eastern Conference and predicting that Cavan Sullivan will play 1,500+ minutes.

• I was honored to be a guest on Andrew Baggaley’s Because Football podcast.

• The Doopy Brothers are back! In their first episode in too long they look at the offseason, share their thoughts on some of the changes, workshop some nicknames and more.

• Loudoun United played the Philadelphia Union to a wild 4-4 draw inside the fieldhouse over the weekend. Stas Korzeniowski, Jeremy Rafanello, Jesus Bueno and Cavan Sullivan scored the goals for the Union.

• The MLS website has the Union starting out No. 27 in the power rankings. They can (and will) only go up from here.

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