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For information on submitting an obituary, please contact Reading Eagle by phone at 610-371-5018, or email at obituaries@readingeagle.com or fax at 610-371-5193. Most obituaries published in the Reading Eagle are submitted through funeral homes and cremation services, but we will accept submissions from families. Obituaries can be emailed to obituaries@readingeagle.com. In addition to the text of the obituary, any photographs that you wish to include can be attached to this email. Please put the text of the obituary in a Word document, a Google document or in the body of the email. The Reading Eagle also requires a way to verify the death, so please include either the phone number of the funeral home or cremation service that is in charge of the deceased's care or a photo of his/her death certificate. We also request that your full name, phone number and address are all included in this email. All payments by families must be made with a credit card. We will send a proof of the completed obituary before we require payment. The obituary cannot run, however, until we receive payment in full. Obituaries can be submitted for any future date, but they must be received no later than 3:00 p.m. the day prior to its running for it to be published. Please call the obituary desk, at 610-371-5018, for information on pricing. CHESTER — The finalists for MLS’s Defender of the Year hinted strongly in this direction, but Wednesday it was confirmed by the league that both Jakob Glesnes and Kai Wagner were voted to the league’s Best XI, as voted by media, players and clubs. Glesnes finished second in Defender of the Year balloting, his 15.05 percent of the total vote share trailing the 22.12 of Vancouver’s Tristan Blackmon. Wagner was third at 9.91 percent. Wednesday they joined Orlando City right back Alex Freeman, voted the league’s Young Player of the Year, and Blackmon on the Best XI. It is, as Glesnes pointed out, a far cry from where the team was at this point last year, namely, eliminated from playoff contention wondering how much renovation would occur in the squad and two days shy of the firing of coach Jim Curtin. “It’s a good feeling,” Glesnes said Wednesday after training. “It’s a hugely different feeling that I was having last year when we were standing here at this time. So of course, it’s really fun, but also it says that we as a team had a really great year, and it has been fun to be a part of that.” Both defenders were voted to the Best on the team in 2022. That season and this year are the only two instances since 2012, when Sporting Kansas City did it, that a club has had two defenders on the same Best XI. This is the first time since 2004 that MLS has named a Best XI with four defenders on it, and it’s rarer still to have two genuine fullbacks. Wagner is heartened to see both him and Freeman on the team. “I think this year everybody saw that I’m also really good in defending,” Wagner said. “And that was one big thing for me before the season that I want to go back to is defending a little bit more. So I’m really, really happy that this season two fullbacks got the recognition.” Both players bounced back from rough 2024 seasons, individually and collectively. Glesnes was still feeling the effects of sports hernia surgery at the end of 2023 that ended an ironman streak of 102 consecutive starts. He needed a cleanup procedure and felt the effects last year, looking a step sluggish in a defense that was shorthanded after the midseason departure of Damion Lowe. Wagner was pretty good in 2024, starting 32 games and appearing in all 34 with a goal and 13 assists. He’s one of the league’s best set-piece suppliers and a rare-chance creator from left back. He was fifth in MLS this season at 3.0 chances created per 90 minutes and by far the best among defenders, with Inter Miami’s Jordi Alba second at 2.0. His 90 key passes were fifth in MLS. In 2024, the Union allowed 55 goals in 34 games, slumping to 12th place in the Eastern Conference and a first playoff miss since 2017. This year, the club won the Supporters’ Shield with 66 points. It led MLS with 35 goals allowed in 34 games. Subtract an unsightly and aberrant seven-spot surrendered in Vancouver and the Union allowed 28 goals in 33 matches, two shy of the record of fewest concessions in a 34-game season that the club set in 2022. “How we turned things around, I think it shows a lot about mentality, how we talked a lot about in the preseason,” Wagner said. “Of course, the coaching change was big too, and Bradley (Carnell) and his team stepped in and turned a lot of things around, just small details all the time with video sessions, good training sessions. We saw it in the first week in Spain already that he can handle big things. So this year was really exciting and has been a lot of fun.” The duo is among the longest tenured Union players. Wagner arrived in 2019 and has played 204 league matches (198 starts) with eight goals and 63 assists, the latter figure the franchise record. Glesnes has played 181 games (178 starts) with nine goals and 10 assists. Both are three-time All-Stars, including this season, with Glesnes winning Defender of the Year in 2022. For those keeping score at home, among the Union’s primary five defenders to end the season, they have had two named to the Best XI, one in Olwethu Makhanya named to the MLS’s 22 Under 22 rankings and two who’ve gotten to play at major international tournaments: Nathan Harriel at the Gold Cup for the U.S. senior team and Frankie Westfield at the U-20 World Cup with the U.S. Both veterans are also among the primary custodians of the club’s identity and work ethic, something new coach Bradley Carnell has leaned on this season. “To see how (Jakob) has bounced back, to see Kai’s conviction about how he goes about his business, whether it’s in the attacking end of the field or just gritty, standout defending, has been a real role model for everybody,” Carnell said. “I think Kai’s messaging sometimes, Jacob’s on the training ground, is an exemplary leader of the pack. You get talkers, you get doers. He does both. He talks a lot in training, and he does a lot in training. And Kai pushes everyone with his quality and standards. Kai elevates everyone’s game, because he has a really high level about how he does things, whether it’s from a technical standpoint or tactical execution.”
