Last Season

2022 was a complicated one for both clubs that joined to create City Union. Both Syracuse Pulse and Flower City Union struggled to attract fans at the beginning of the season, with only FCU beginning to make up ground towards the end of the season. Syracuse’s problems with ownership and money were recurring throughout the season, even resulting in matches being canceled or rescheduled to save traveling costs. It was certainly bad off the field and was barely better on the field. While Syracuse would sneak into the playoffs (in the last spot and exiting in the first round), Flower City Union finished dead last with just 9 points. It was a rough season and going into the offseason there was plenty of rumbling about what was happening behind the scenes.

Offseason

The offseason would be a short one for Syracuse when it was announced to “merge” with Flower City Union to become Salt City Union. The merger will see the club playing under different names in two cities (Rochester and Syracuse). It’s complicated, but was done to keep NISA in Syracuse (sort of). And while the merger was announced as temporary, the Syracuse Pulse twitter handle no longer exists (or may have been rebranded).

So let’s look at the roster changes for City Union. The club signed the biggest name in the market and the second highest goal scorer in the league in 2022, Alioune Diakhate. On his own, Diakhate scored more goals than Flower City Union last year. His presence will change this club, as long as they get the ball to him. The vast majority of the roster turned over (as is often the case with clubs not named CFC) with several exceptions, including Michael Cunningham, Mitchell Brickman, and Noah Cavanaugh. Some key signings include two former Bay Cities players (Kwesele, Shaheed), Ghanan international Frederick Opoku, and two ex-Michigan Stars, Kyle Nelson and Stephen Elias. All in all, the roster is upgraded, though it would have been nice to see some key players from Syracuse make the jump over.

City Union will hope for more of the same from Diakhate.

Rochester soccer also fundamentally changed in the offseason, with the collapse of RNYFC. The MLS Next Pro club collapsed after outside investment and a disastrous rebrand. That leaves a vacuum that City Union should be able to exploit and gain followers. According to some fans of the former Rhinos club, FCU has made overtures to the fans of the now defunct club, including offering discounted tickets. We shall see if that pays off this season.

This Season

How good will City Union be this season? Super hard to tell. New head coach (and former assistant coach) Jordan Sullivan will have a brand new squad of players to coach and building chemistry can take time. Not helping is the schedule, with the first four matches against powerhouse Chattanooga FC and the always tough Maryland Bobcats. The schedule eases up after that, with several matches against expansion sides and LA Force. Getting some points from those first four would make a massive difference in how the season goes for the club.

It will be massively important for the club to gather more fans in the Rochester area (and I guess, Syracuse, but that’s a whole can of worms). Particularly after adding some big names (and, no doubt, big salaries) to the roster. The team will again play its home matches in Rochester at Rochester Community Sports Complex, which is a nice lower league facility, but quite a large venue for a team not drawing a ton of fans. Hopefully this season will see more of those.

- Dan Vaughn