Curtin starting to face familiar early challenges
It’s a very Union predicament to find an indictment within an indictment, but six games into what was supposed to be a course-altering 2018 season, the Union have uncovered one.
With five points through six matches — the last a 2-0 setback in Dallas Saturday — the Union are in danger of flat-lining before May. But somehow that start only ranks as third-worst in franchise history, in a tie with the 2015 debacle. Such are the depths that the club is plumbing.
That historical context won’t help the Union put the ball in the net, but then again nothing else will these days, either. The Union proved they can lose every which way in Dallas: After roundly outshooting opponents in the first five games (four at home), the Union were outshot, 10-2, on target and still managed to lose. Both shots came in a stunning — and stunningly symbolic — sequence in the 58th minute, with Dallas goalie Jimmy Maurer, a career minorleaguer and the backup to injured Jesse Hernandez, denying David Accam and CJ Sapong within seconds. The latter, a desperation clawing at what Maurer hoped was ball-filled air against Sapong, would’ve gone in had the Union striker selected any slice of the other 98 percent of the net with this finish.
He didn’t, which left Jim Curtin to again offer quotes like this postgame.
‘I thought we had a good start again, a lot of possession in the first half, 56 percent on the road, which is rare,” he said. “The challenge now for us obviously is doing more with it, penetrating more, creating more opportunities. I thought … David and CJ made a good play. It bounces to CJ and it looks like we are going to get a goal. It just doesn’t go in and that’s kind of the way things have been going for us right now.”
The problem is simple, if the resolution isn’t. The Union’s alleged difference-makers aren’t playing like it, particularly the two that the club brought in during the offseason for the explicit purpose of shifting the balance in close games. Accam is on the longest stretch of scoreless games in his MLS career at six. Borek Dockal has a solitary secondary assist in five starts. Neither looks integrated to the team, and the whole has been disjointed and increasingly frustrated.
Then there’s the pernicious bad luck explanation. The Union conceded in the 64th minute, when Auston Trusty was called for a penalty for tugging down veteran defender Matt Hedges. It was a harsh call, owing in part to the angle that referee Alan Kelly had, which gave him a glimpse of the hand-fighting between the center backs and not Trusty’s stretch for the ball played in off a corner.
“That call changed the game drastically,” Curtin said. “It’s a game where on a wet night, guys are falling. There is a lot of contact in the box. I think you can let that one go. Auston does recover and gets his foot on the ball. Disappointing in that regard, but the referee made the decision. We were punished and that is the way it is going for us right now.”
Whether or not the “woe is me” narrative continues to serve the Union (1-3-2, 5 points) is debatable. What isn’t is that the Union are drastically underperforming, sitting in 10th place in the East, ahead of only a Toronto FC squad that has focused on the CONCACAF Champions League, the finals of which conclude this week. So of the teams trying in MLS this season, the Union are near dead-last, all while offered a cupcake schedule featuring five teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year.
The rot runs deep. The Union have just three goals in six matches, only one of which came in 11-v-11 play. Players who are supposed to be “volume” guys in terms of touches have shied away from the productive spotlight, Accam in particular. Sapong has squandered numerous chances, including a header in the 56th Saturday from the edge of the six-yard box that he conspired to put over the bar. Sapong has a goal and an assist, but he’s had 20 shots and put only five on target.
The overarching ills undercut any positives from Dallas — like eight saves from a typically stellar Andre Blake, or a solid first start from Mark McKenzie, or the promise of the McKenzie-Trusty partnership. They also necessitate a week of decisions. DC United blow into Chester next week in what is (somehow) already a mustwin. Curtin will be put to the sword on several issues. Is it time to bench Dockal for Anthony Fontana? Does Sapong need a break? And is Jay Simpson, who hasn’t made the bench in several games this season, really the goal-scoring alternative?
It’s not a good place for the Union to be. It’s explicitly the predicament that the club sought to avoid last season by adding more talent to prevent such an impasse. But here they are again.
“It’s difficult. We have to stick to what we believe in,” Curtin said. “We have to continue to keep the ball. We need to penetrate more. We tried to play more down the middle. We had some success there but not as much as we would have hoped for but, yeah, it’s a challenge right now to keep the guys positive, keep their heads up.
“We’ll get back. We’ll sit down. We’ll look at the tape. We’ll make adjustments. I thought that the guys who came into the game actually showed some life, which is a positive. We’ll have some decisions to make now.”