Curtin to return to coach ‘more dynamic’ team

CHESTER >> By the end of Monday’s season-wrap-up press conference, Ernst Tanner had laid out the broad strokes for the 2019 Philadelphia Union season.

The coach would be Jim Curtin. The spine of the roster was announced in a flurry of moves. Changes to the playing style would be implemented.

But those heavy lines left plenty of space for Tanner to apply his fine transfer-market brushwork and make the 2019 squad reflect its new sporting director. The ideology he articulated Monday makes clear the “why” of that process, if not yet the “who” or “how.”

“We have been doing very well in our possession game, that’s for sure something that we will also focus on,” Tanner said at the dais at Talen Energy Stadium. “But in a way, it is time to change some other things in order to take the next step. That has also something to do with a little bit more tactical flexibility. I want to see a little more dynamics in our game, playing a little bit more aggressive and with more compactness and make use out of transitions and vertical play.”

Far from hollow buzzwords, those specifics – dynamics, pressure, transitions – will be the lens applied to each player and coach as Tanner determines their viability with the club.

The first to pass that test was Curtin, who will return next season, his fifth full season with the club. He returns on a oneyear extension, with Tanner playing it year-by-year in, “agreeing to continue our collaboration.”

“Jim led us to the playoffs for the second time in a three-year period,” Tanner added. “His relation to the players for all that I have seen is very, very good and he’s an expert in developing young players, which will be a focus for the future.”

Curtin has a career record of 54-64-36 since taking over as the interim coach in the middle of 2014. He led the Union to the playoffs in 2016 and 2018, both times losing road Wild Card games as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. He’s piloted the Union to three U.S. Open Cup finals, all losses.