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Nowak disregarded league memo by playing Academy players, trialists in friendlies

The former Philadelphia Union boss thumbed his nose at Major League Soccer in 2011 by ignoring a memo about fielding players who weren't under contract in international friendlies against Everton and Real Madrid. It wasn't the first time he'd done it though.

One of the feel-good stories from the early days of the Philadelphia Union youth development system was when then 17-year-old Cristhian Hernandez scoring the game-winning goal in a friendly against Premier League club Everton FC on July 20, 2011.

As it turns out this moment, like so many others revealed in court documents from a legal case with former Union boss Piotr Nowak, was all a lie.