Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Union hit the road to L.A.
If nothing else in this woebegone season, the MLS schedule has granted the Philadelphia Union opportunities to pull out of its nosedive.
CHESTER >> If nothing else in this woebegone season, the MLS schedule has granted the Philadelphia Union opportunities to pull out of its nosedive.
Last week brought the 10th-place team in the Eastern Conference to Chester. This week offers up the 10th-place team in the West, a squad with one fewer loss in seven games in 2017 than it posted in all of 2016.
Hope doesn’t exactly spring eternal these days in Chester, but there have been more daunting trips to Los Angeles than the one the Union undertake Saturday night (10:30, CSN). The Galaxy (2-5-0, 6 points) are next-to-last in the West, fresh off a 3-0 home thumping by Seattle. L.A. has lost three times at home, the same quantity as in the 2015 and 2016 seasons combined.
So the Galaxy aren’t exactly the juggernaut they’ve been in the past, even if the talent of players like Giovani dos Santos, Jelle Van Damme and Romain Alessandrini far outstrip any alternatives the Union offer.
“It doesn’t do us any favors because now LA is going to upset with how that result went in their building, and now they’re going to continue to work on things as well this week,” Union manager Jim Curtin said this week. “They’re still a very strong team that has a bunch of guys that are winners in this league, a lot of experience, a lot dangerous weapons offensively. So we’ll have our hands full.”
Results have been hard to come by for the Union (0-4-3, 3 points) away from home, but then they haven’t exactly flowed freely at Talen Energy Stadium either. On the heels of a disastrous 0-2-1 homestand, the Union at least get out of dodge for the weekend, booking an early arrival in Los Angeles Wednesday night to clear their head sin an attempt to dissipate the funk shrouding their season in what Curtin called “the most challenging stretch I’ve ever had in 17 years of pro soccer.”
“Our guys getting away now, maybe clearing their heads, getting to sleep in a different bed in a hotel could maybe be an advantage for us because nobody’s happy with how things have gone over these last three games,” Curtin said. “We wanted them to be something that got us back on track. We failed in that regard, and now we’ll have to look towards LA and try to get a result out there.”
The stats have gotten a bit stale, but time for them again: The Union are winless in 14 regular-season outings, tied for the eighthlongest streak in MLS history, and 15 games including the playoffs. The Union’s last win came last August.
While it’s just anecdotal, the Union have had a penchant for perplexing results in middling years past, part of a league blessed (or cursed) by parity. Consider the Sept. 2013 trip to high-flying Kansas City, a 1-0 win that arrested a five-game slide. Or in 2012, the 2-1 win in Los Angeles, the Union’s only win at the StubHub Center, just weeks after the dismissal of Peter Nowak with a thoroughly underwhelming team.
Last week’s dictum was that the long-awaited first win didn’t have to be pretty to be pretty important. This week’s may be that it doesn’t have to make sense. And if it’s a fluky breakthrough that finally brings down the dam separating the Union’s decent play from results, what better time than in a place where they’ve historically struggled?
“I’ll always be a guy who points to myself first and looks in the mirror first,” Curtin said. “I get the tough moment that we’re in right now. And as the guy that’s leading the group, it’s my job to get it fixed. I still believe we have the talent in our locker room to do so and that’s what we’re going to continue to strive for.”