Rosenberry and Yaro together again in Philadelphia

Keegan Rosenberry didn't expect this to happen. When he saw the Philadelphia Union select Georgetown teammate Joshua Yaro with the second pick, he didn't think he'd be heading to Chester with him.

"To be honest, I thought the chances would have decreased, because you take two kids from the same school in a row," Rosenberry said. "But no...I couldn't be happier with the way this turned out."

Rosenberry, a four-year starter at right back for Georgetown, was denied a homegrown contract with the Union just a month ago. The move would have allowed the Union to sign Rosenberry on the basis of his time with the team's academy, but he was controversially deemed ineligible for such a contract.

"I don't know, I was actually of two minds after the homegrown claim didn't work out," Rosenberry admitted. "Why would they waste their pick on a kid they could've gotten homegrown, and maybe they think I'm still good enough to use a pick on."

But as happy as Rosenberry is to finally be a member of the Union, he might be even happier to pair with his college teammate once again.

"Knowing Josh, not only as a player, and I think the media does a great job of capturing how good he is, sometimes what they don't see is how good of a kid he is," Rosenberry said. "His character off the field and in the classroom; his work ethic is something that I hope to emulate and something I hoped to emulate when I was at school. [He's] an honor to play with and hopefully continue to play with."

Joshua Yaro, a Generation adidas center back, was widely projected to go to the Chicago Fire with the first overall pick. When the Union realized that the Fire weren't going to draft him, they pounced, sending General Allocation Money and Zach Pfeffer to the Colorado Rapids for the second overall pick. The Union were ecstatic to get him, and it seems that the slip didn't bother Yaro, either.

"The guy that went number one rightly deserves it and he's a good player," said Yaro. "He's someone who worked hard for it. I'm perfectly happy with ending up with an organization like the Union. I didn't really care about [pick] number one, number two, number three, number 20, you're still going to be on a team and you have to work your way up."

It certainly doesn't hurt that Yaro might literally be playing alongside Rosenberry, as he has done for the past three years.

"It feels great and I'm glad it happened this way because he's not someone that I've gotten to know just as a player but as a person. He's someone that I get along with well," Yaro said of his Georgetown and Union teammate. "It would be great if we get to play the same way we played at Georgetown: side-by-side. That would be awesome. I'm really excited and really happy, and looking forward to starting my new career with someone I already know."