Fabian, Monteiro could face the Fire together

CHESTER >> There’s a certain perspective that Jim Curtin imbues evaluations of his team with these days. Though it’s more nuanced than one sentence can do justice to, allow this one to try: Saturday’s trip to Chicago could be just the third time that the first-place Union has their two key offseason additions in the starting lineup simultaneously this season.

The Union (13-7-6, 45 points) have accomplished a slew of firsts in 2019. They are six games over .500 for the first time, can surpass the franchise-best for most weeks in first place in the East (14, set in 2011) and are on pace to blast past season-bests for points and wins.

And they’ve done that with their two most influential pieces, Jamiro Monteiro and Marco Fabian, having started just two games together. That lens is vital when Curtin chides his team for lacking sharpness, for instance, in last week’s 2-1 win over Houston.

Saturday at SeatGeek Stadium, the Union could take their season-long experiment to a new level. Fabian is fully recovered from a nagging ankle injury that cost him the better part of two months. He’s got four goals and an assist in six starts since returning to full strength.

It just so happens that the first start in that string came a game after Monteiro hit the sidelines with an ankle sprain, suffered July 3 at the outstretched boot of Sacha Kljestan’s red-card challenge. Monteiro missed four games and has been a substitute in the last two, though Curtin admitted this week that they were being cautious with Monteiro and are ready to turn him loose.

“He wanted to be in as a starter, and I maybe held him back and was maybe a little bit cautious,” Curtin said Wednesday. “With the minutes that he got against Houston and now the start of this week, he’s fully healthy to go this week. We’ll take the training wheels off, so to speak, on that one. He’s free to go.”

That’s a boon for Union fans who are curious what the team looks like with Fabian and Monteiro. They’ve only been in the same lineup twice – April 13 in Los Angeles, when Fabian left after 23 minutes with his ankle injury, and May 11 in Toronto, when a less-than-100-percent Fabian went 58 minutes and Monteiro conspired with Kacper Przybylko to win the game late.

In total, Monteiro and Fabian have played 241 minutes together. And yet, the Union are the pace-setters in the East. It’s just one way in which Curtin can evaluate a rather unimpressive win last week by praising his team’s ability to get a result while still exhorting them to play closer to their capability.

“A lot to work on, a lot to improve,” Curtin said. “We’re in first place, but still not content. It’s a locker room that is together, that is strong, that is not satisfied with the performance, not even after the win.”

Chicago (7-11-9, 30 points) is the latest obstacle. The Union have won four of the last five against the Fire, including a 4-3 victory last year in Chicago and a 2-0 result at Talen Energy Stadium July 20.

The Fire have to rebound from a 3-2 loss in Portland late Wednesday night, in which the Fire went down 2-0 early, then lost Aleksandar Katai to a red card in the 30th minute. They still fought gamely, even scoring in second-half stoppage time (via former Union man CJ Sapong) after the Timbers appeared to put the game to bed at 3-1, but spent a lot of energy. Nico Gaitan, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Dax McCarty didn’t make the trip, but a bulk of the squad will carry heavy legs.

The Fire are a conundrum. Their season-long underperformance on expected goals (i.e. they are scoring less and conceding more than underlying numbers indicate they should) is one of the most drastic in the league. They’re even on goal differential yet sit 10th in a conference where the last two playoff spots are occupied by sides (New England, Montreal) with a combined minus-18 goal differential. Chicago is three points behind Montreal for the final playoff spot, though the Impact have a game in hand.

That posits plenty of desperation for the Fire, who play four of their final six on the road, where they have just one win. Anything but a win could end their playoff chances.

The game also holds outsized importance for the Union. It’s their last road trip for more than a month, but the troika of teams visiting in the next few weeks — D.C. United, Atlanta United, Los Angeles FC — is comprised of three playoff teams, including the second-place side in the East and what will be the runaway Supporters’ Shield winner. With three road games looming after, including at playoff sides Red Bulls and San Jose, and six of the Union’s final eight against teams above the playoff line, the collision with the Fire, even away from home, is one of the most winnable left.

“It’s going to be a fight,” Curtin said. “You look at our schedule and are like, man that’s tough. Go through each one and they all look brutal. So it’s going to be a real fight down the stretch.”