Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Timbers begin critical homestand
CHESTER >> With the U.S. national team, Alejandro Bedoya has had favorable recent luck with dire situations and fulfilling promises of minimum point returns from key situations.
So when the Philadelphia Union midfielder offers similar projections for his club’s three-game homestand, the members of a team mired in last place in the Eastern Conference are apt to take notice.
“We’re looking forward to getting back at home,” Bedoya said Wednesday, “and nothing less than seven points is the goal, I would think.”
From the season’s first four games, the Union have gleaned a scant two points. And with the team in the very real danger of digging a hole too large to escape, something must be done quickly to shock the season back to life.
The effort begins Saturday when Western Conference front-runners Portland come to town (7 p.m., TCN), kicking off three straight, potentially makeor-break home games.
Playoff berths can’t be clinched in April, any coach will agree. But they can be lost. The schedule presents the Union (0-2-2, 2 points) a sizeable opportunity to bank points at home the next three weeks, and failure to do so could be as detrimental to morale as to the standings.
So far, the Union’s confidence seems impervious to the lackluster results and, to be fair, slightly less lackluster play. The team’s messaging isn’t weighed down with the full heft of recent futility, manager Jim Curtin restricting his gaze only to the four contests in 2017 and not the 12-game winless run that dates to last August with a group that he emphasizes is substantially different from the current corps.
But it’s best not to test the bounds of self-belief at this early juncture, and a result against the Timbers could provide a booster shot to all the cheerleading.
“It’s still, when you talk with all the players individually … there’s a real belief in the group that yes we’ve come on the wrong end of some results, but it’s not as if we’ve been outclassed in games, where we say, ‘Man, that team is a lot better than us,’” Curtin said. “So again, there’s still a feeling of belief that if we continue to execute on the field, some of these breaks will go our way.”
The Timbers (3-1-1, 10 points) aren’t exactly a designated slump-buster. They lead MLS with 13 goals scored, a number goosed by a five-goal rampaging of Minnesota United in the expansion club’s inaugural game. Portland has a road win, having topped Los Angeles aided by a questionable red card.
That game stands in opposition to the prevailing trend in MLS of home dominance: Road teams in the first month sport a 7-24-14 record, a mark the Union have gleefully contributed to (0-2-1).
The Union’s main focus, as much as exiting the fraternity of three remaining winless MLS sides, is to assemble a complete performance for the first time. They were unlucky in their other home game this season, a 2-2 draw with Toronto March 11, but also hampered by a late defensive let-off. Bad halves nullified otherwise decent efforts in Orlando and D.C. United.
Though the Union were the better team in the second half at RKF Stadium last week, it was insufficient to overcome a disastrous opening 45 minutes. Replicating that effort, times two, is the first step toward ending this quagmire of results.
“We’re still being optimistic and staying positive,” Bedoya said. “The D.C. game, the second half, we were all over them really. You look at everything how we played there, that’s how we need to be playing from when the whistle blows to when the game’s over. I think when we look at the video, we see that when we put everything together, we’re a very good team.
“That’s an important part to just stay mentally strong and I think we’ll get out of it. It’s still early in the season, long season, long way to go and we’ll get out of it.”