The Union have taken care of most of their offseason needs but still lack centerback depth

New midfielder Jovan Lukić and soon-to-come striker Bruno Damiani have been key additions. But the team might need one more starting-caliber centerback beyond Jakob Glesnes and Ian Glavinovich.

Jakob Glesnes (right) in action for the Union last year.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Feb. 13, 2025, 5:55 p.m. ET

The Union went into the offseason with three major areas to focus on: striker, central midfield, and centerback.

Striker will soon be taken care of. Talks are near the finish line to sign Bruno Damiani for a club-record $3.4 million transfer fee from Nacional in his native Uruguay; depth-wise, Eddy Davis earned a promotion to the first team after his great season for the reserves in 2024.

Central midfield was taken care of with the signing of Serbian Jovan Lukić and the promotion last summer of marquee academy prospect CJ Olney. Though the Union didn’t necessarily want to lose Leon Flach and Jack McGlynn this winter, Lukić is projected to fill Flach’s defensive role, and Olney will fill McGlynn’s more creative one. (Olney has long been on track for such a job, and McGlynn’s departure accelerated his rise on the first team.)

There also have been similar moves at centerback: the signing on loan of Argentine Ian Glavinovich and the promotion of much-touted 17-year-old academy product Neil Pierre. But that might not be enough.

After all, the team lost two starters last year: Damion Lowe in a departure to Saudi Arabia in August and Jack Elliott in free agency after the season. Glavinovich is the only newcomer, and Jakob Glesnes the only returnee with starting-caliber talent right now. Pierre is too young, and 20-year-old reserve Olwethu Makhanya hasn’t yet shown he’s at that level.

Former manager Jim Curtin famously stuck to starting Glesnes and Elliott as much as possible over the years, even though the Union achieved their greatest feats in years with more centerback rotation.

Mark McKenzie helped deliver the 2020 Supporters’ Shield, and Stuart Findlay (albeit with far fewer minutes than McKenzie) helped with deep playoff runs in 2021 and ’22. Lowe then played a key role in the Union’s Concacaf Champions Cup and Leagues Cup runs in ’23 and ’24, years when the schedule became jammed with games.

That won’t happen this season, with the U.S. Open Cup the Union’s only tournament on deck. So there will be fewer times of year when the schedule is jammed with midweek games. But rotation can be healthy for its own sake, and new manager Bradley Carnell said he’s open to it.

“I can’t say how and what happened prior, but I’m never afraid of changing,” he said. “I’m never afraid of fresh faces in the lineup, I’m never afraid of using all the substitutes. … All I can give is what I’m seeing in training and who’s earning and who’s deserved those minutes.”

The Union will play their last preseason scrimmage on Friday, a closed-door game vs. CF Montréal at 1 p.m. in suburban Orlando. Then they’ll get ready for the Feb. 22 season opener at Orlando City. So a news conference with Carnell on Thursday was a good time to ask if he’s satisfied with the depth he has at the moment.

Because of a minor injury, Glavinovich hasn’t seen game action since the Union’s first preseason scrimmage, when he played 36 minutes against Czech club Slavia Prague in Spain. But he’s expected back for Friday’s game after training fully Thursday.

Right backs Nathan Harriel and Olivier Mbaizo also have been held out of the last two scrimmages because of minor injuries, and Harriel’s missed all three so far. That has forced newly signed academy product Frankie Westfield to move from left back to right back, which he’s capable of, but it still isn’t ideal. Carnell said the veterans “might be both ready to go” for opening day.

“We’ve been working at certain combinations and certain projections and giving guys some minutes and progressions,” he said. “Right now, it’s about the base of the foundation, and Frankie Westfield has done a great job there. He’s fully bought in, he knows exactly what’s going [on], he plays according to a lot of the principles that we’re doing intrinsically. So that’s been a fun watch.”

But, as he also admitted: “Good thing the game’s not this weekend; it’s next weekend.”

The day’s most optimistic news was Carnell’s assessment of Glesnes.

“He’s been in real good form, and he’s been an excellent leader,” the manager said. “He sees the kind of game we’re giving him to play, he can really excel in. I think we’ve seen the Jakob of old here, and he’s been a real ringleader around the group.”

We won’t know about that for sure until the games officially count. But nothing would benefit the Union more than the 30-year-old getting back to the level that won him MLS’s Defender of the Year award in 2022.

Carnell also offered a reminder that signing players isn’t his job, it’s sporting director Ernst Tanner’s. The manager surely has some of his own desires, but the way the Union are run, Tanner signs players, and Carnell coaches them.

“There’s a lot of chatter, obviously, out in the outside world and as long as that window’s still open, there will continue to be a lot of chatter,” Carnell said when Damiani came up. “But right now, all I know is this group that we have on the ground today — all the players we’re trying to get progressions here, minutes, get them a good base and a good foundation that will stand them through the whole season.”