As we countdown the days until the MLS season begins, we will be looking at 25 players from greater Philadelphia who have made an impact on the league 25 years after the first ball was kicked. Read the rest of the series at brotherlygame.com/philly-mls-25.
Eastern University has hosted a number of big games over the years at Olson Field but few have ended being as influential on the professional game as a 2013 friendly played on the Main Line campus.
As the story goes, the game between the Philadelphia Union Academy U-18 team and Philadelphia Lone Star (then known as Junior Lone Star) featured a teenager named Derrick Amaniampong, who caught the Union staff’s eye and eventually led to the Ghana-born midfielder joining the Union Academy setup three miles away.