Picault, mates hope to find the net against depleted Revs
CHESTER » Sunday’s meeting with New England offers a clear lens through which to view the Union’s 2017 season.
It’s game No. 17, the halfway point of MLS’s 34-game marathon. A win, manager Jim Curtin pointed out Friday afternoon, would be the Union’s sixth, precisely halfway to the franchise record of 12, the uncommonly enduring mark set in the nonplayoff campaign of 2013.
That low standard of excellence is more an indictment of the Union’s past than a glorification of its present. But the point remains that for the struggles incurred to start the season, the Union aren’t in that bad of shape, provided they can ward off a recurrence of those pitfalls.
“It’s not as bad as maybe some may feel,” Curtin said at his weekly press conference. “And I think we still have a very strong group and a group that can get things turned around.”
Sunday’s affair is, flatly, a must-have for the Union, if only for the deluge of factors working in their favor:
New England is missing two of its top attackers, leading scorer Juan Agudelo and midfielder Kelyn Rowe, away with the U.S. National Team. Agudelo leads the team with seven goals this season.
Also absent is Diego Fagundez, suspended by the MLS Disciplinary Committee for an 89th-minute stomp on Toronto’s Sebastian Giovinco last week. The Homegrown player has four goals and four assists against the Union.
The Revs (5-7-5, 20 points), who sit eighth in the East one point ahead of the Union, are the conference’s only side without a road win in their 10th voyage away from home (0-6-3).
The Union (5-7-4, 19 points) won both league matchups last year by a combined 7-0 score.
The Union will have a healthy Andre Blake, who’s given up just two goals to the Revs on 23 career shots faced, a robust save percentage of 91.3 percent.
While the Revs’ attack remains dangerous with the likes of Kei Kamara and Lee Nguyen, it’s diminished this week, which could be bad news for a defense tied for fourth-worst in the East at 25 goals allowed.
“New England (is) a team that is creating a lot of chances, has been on the wrong end of some bounces this year, a dangerous attacking group,” Curtin said. “We know they’re missing a couple of attacking pieces with the national team as well, and it’ll be again in front of our home fans and we’ll look to go out and get all three points.”
Curtin’s challenge this week deals largely with managing minutes after the midweek penalty-kick heartbreak against New York Red Bulls in the U.S. Open Cup. His team logged 120 minutes that night, but it’s merely a chance to brandish the depth Curtin has cultivated this season.
Oguchi Onyewu, Ray Gaddis and Giliano Wijnaldum are fresh at the back. Chris Pontius had a limited run Wednesday, while Jay Simpson logged only 61 minutes, a relatively light night. Ilsinho, who missed out with a since resolved calf injury, is ready to go as well.
The Union looked the fitter team Wednesday in strafing the Red Bulls with 27 shots, 13 in 30 minutes of extra time. That stamina has Curtin encouraged that the Union can rise to the weekend challenge, where a win can bring them within a point of the idle Red Bulls and leapfrog the Revs into eighth, with still a game in hand on both entering the Gold Cup break next week. (The Union also visit an international-depleted Sporting Kansas City Thursday.)
“We will have some fresh legs in terms of with the competitive roster that we have,” Curtin said. “We have guys that we plug in and we don’t really miss a beat, so that’s a strong thing to have in a real balanced team now and a group that I’m confident will be fresh.”