CHESTER, Pa. – Of the Philadelphia Union’s two starting center backs, one is a World Cup veteran that once played in the English Premier League, was drafted first overall, won an MLS Rookie of the Year award and captured an NCAA championship.
The other is a late-round draft pick that suited up for a little-known Division III program and, before this May, had never gotten into an MLS game.
But for Richie Marquez, the more inexperienced piece of the center back pairing that has him next to captain Maurice Edu, his meteoric rise from the Division III ranks to MLS starter is nothing out of ordinary.
“It’s normal,” Marquez told MLSsoccer.com this week. “It’s a game. I feel like if you work hard enough, you can accomplish anything – in any aspect of life, not just soccer.”
When the Union host the Portland Timbers on Saturday at PPL Park (7 pm ET, MLS LIVE), Marquez will almost certainly make his eighth straight start and ninth overall since being called upon in a pinch early in Philly’s 1-0 loss to Toronto on May 2.
Since that daunting debut against one of the league’s most prolific attacks, the 23-year-old defender has played beyond his age, emerging as a calming influence in the back and helping the Union to three shutouts in the past seven games.
“His growth has been huge,” Union head coach Jim Curtin said. “Every game, he’s kind of like a warm blanket back there. He makes you feel comfortable. I’m not nervous. He does a good job of putting out a lot of fires.
“You know what you’re going to get with Richie. He’s going to win things in the air, he’s going to break up plays, and he’s very fast – deceptively fast.”
During his weekly press conference, Curtin said that Steven Vitoria – who started the season at center back, alongside Ethan White – has returned to training after a nagging hamstring issue has kept him out for more than two months. But the Union coach also said that the offseason acquisition from Benfica “has to work hard” to regain his place in the lineup.
And that’s because of Marquez, who believes these last couple of months will be the start of something big for him.
“I think it was just the right timing,” Marquez said. “Obviously last year you get drafted and you expect big things and you come in hungry, but I think going to [Union USL affiliate] Harrisburg helped me a lot. And coming in this year, I was motivated. Coach motivated me from the beginning of the year and was telling me that my opportunity was coming.”
Curtin isn’t the first coach to instill that kind of confidence in the young center back. Marquez added that his coach at D-III Redlands in California, Ralph Perez, “told me I could do it and I took his word to heart.”
Perez, who has coaching experience in the US national team system and in MLS, relayed that same information to the Union, who scooped him with the 44th overall pick of the 2014 SuperDraft and were pleasantly surprised at how much the 6-foot-2 defender looked the part when he arrived in camp.
Now, they have no plans to take him out of the lineup.
“I couldn’t be happier to see a young guy grab a hold of a position and not let it go,” Curtin said. “That’s something I take pride in seeing a young player do. Any player that gets a run of games, the first thing I say is, ‘Don’t let me take you off the field.’ And he’s done that and has earned the right to continue as the starter.”
