CHESTER, Pa. — There’s a danger to typecasting soccer players based on their country of origin, Jovan Lukic knows, even if the midfielder’s game carries a very Serbian air, of technical skill but above all combativeness. Upon his arrival to MLS last month, Lukic wasn’t sure quite what he’d find. At 23, he had played in Portugal after a brief, training-only dalliance with an Austrian club that immediately shipped him away. MLS would be different, Lukic expected, but how, he was unsure. The surprise has brought out his best. “When I got here, I was actually surprised and impressed,” Lukic said this week. “I thought, in America, in MLS, the players were softer than in Serbia, because our special thing is to be fighters. Then I came here and I saw the intensity is insane, on the trainings, on the games, it’s insane.” Lukic has adapted immediately. A starter in each of the Union’s first three games (all wins) to open the 2025 season, he looks a safe bet to hold that spot for the foreseeable future, starting with Sunday’s visit from Nashville SC (2:30 p.m., Fox29). Lukic’s highlight-reel goal in last Saturday’s 2-0 win over New England fetched attention, but it’s almost the least of what he’s done this season. In Bradley Carnell’s 4-2-2-2 system, Lukic has been vital as a stay-at-home No. 6, lending stability to a team that finished outside a playoff position last year chiefly because it allowed far too many goals. Three goals in three games is a step in the right direction, even if the shutout in Foxborough owed as much to New England’s goalless start to the campaign and its loss of striker Leonardo Campagna in the first 10 minutes to injury. Lukic has brought what the Union patently failed to add last year after Jose Martinez’s departure for Brazil: A dynamic, two-way, defensively responsible midfield presence. Instead of shuttlers like Jack McGlynn and Leon Flach last year, two talented young players with clear holes in their games, Lukic is doing a more balanced job in a system that accentuates his defensive strengths, with the offensive contributions a bonus. Even before the goal pinged in off the far post, Lukic helped the Union exert control over a poor Revolution. His ability to win tackles and play sound positional defense is evident. But of increasing importance and upside is his ability to play balls forward in the Union’s quick-strike offense, yielding 10 goals in three matches. He has a penchant for a particularly ironic class of service. The first goal the Union scored in Orlando was set up by a weighted ball that Lukic played through the right channel onto the foot of right back Frankie Westfield near the end line, cutting out three defenders. In New England, he played a similar ball to the underlapping run of Alejandro Bedoya, which pushed back the defense, creating a half-space for Indiana Vassilev to collect in the box and find Lukic for his strike. That’s long been a specialty of Lukic’s, played through the space on either side of a singular defensive midfielder and designed to scramble the lines. It’s the space he patrols defensively, as a twin No. 6 with Danley Jean Jacques “Every time I can do that, every time I have the situation, that’s the best ball you can put,” Lukic said. “When you drop the lines back, also in the middle, between forward and midfield, between me and the defense, those balls between the lines are always the best, so it’s a big opportunity to score a goal. So I try whenever I have a situation to do it.” Lukic’s game is emblematic of the soccer culture he was raised in. Though not the biggest country among European powers, Serbia has qualified for three of the last four World Cups. Its exports to bigger leagues have tended to be tough midfielders and defenders – Nemanja Vidic, Branislav Ivanovic, Aleksandar Kolarov. The most prominent midfielder in recent years is former Chelsea and Manchester United stopper Nemanja Matic, and while Lukic said Matic is one player he looked up to, the similarities between the games of the 6-4 Matic and the 5-11, 140-pound Lukic are slight. Another Lukic – Sasa Lukic (no relation), who plays in the English Premier League for Fulham – is a more relatable comp. “We just want to play football, give the best and want to win,” Lukic said. “That’s our like mentality. We hate to lose.” Goals are not normally a part of that. Saturday was his fifth career league goal and ninth as a professional. He rates his best goal as being one against RFCU Luxembourg in the UEFA Conference League qualifiers while with FC Cukaricki in 2022. But he’s grateful to Carnell for giving him license to get forward. He has nine shot attempts in three matches, after five in a half-season in Serbia in the fall. It’s a sign of what may be to come. And it’s part of why Lukic, recalling the New England goal, evinces equal parts surprise at his recent attacking turn and joy at what might come. “I would choose this (goal) one as my favorite,” he said. ...read more read less