With much to celebrate, Union eye more
CHESTER >> Jim Curtin’s opening statement Saturday night, by his admission, stemmed from the same gratitude as most award-show ramblings. But it was soon after that Curtin, in his usual deferential manner, brought a halt to the congratulatory back-slapping.
The Philadelphia Union’s
5-1 win over Minnesota United, which clinched a playoff berth and slid the club into fourth place in the Eastern Conference, was worth celebrating, Curtin said. But there’s a difference between celebrations and culminations.
Curtin’s team didn’t need much reminding of that.
“There’s still stuff to achieve, but now we go into the international break,” winger Fafa Picault said. “There’s no games next weekend. We just clinched playoffs, so that’s something special for us obviously. You don’t want to ignore that part, but we still have work to do and we’re not done.”
The win sends the Union
(15-12-5, 50 points) past Columbus (48 points) into fourth place in the East, combined with the Crew’s loss to Montreal. Fourth would earn the Union a home playoff game, likely against the Crew. The Union only trail third-place New York City FC by three points, with the teams set to collide on the final day of the season.
The Union also toppled the
2011 team’s mark for most points in a season.
Game-wise, matters were put to bed within 23 minutes, the Union up 3-0 by comprehensively bossing the visiting Loons.
“I think that’s what we try to do any time we have a home game, but that result that we heard about it a little bit of extra motivation,” Keegan Rosenberry said. “For us, we felt like if we could break something open early and really put our foot on the gas early, we could break the game open. Credit to the guys, we did that and we pushed from then on.”
Cory Burke opened the scoring in the eighth minute, outmuscling one center back and outrunning the other for his ninth goal of the season. Alejandro Bedoya doubled the edge in the 17th by nicking home a low cross fizzled to the near post by Rosenberry.
Rosenberry notched his first career two-assist game by slipping through to Picault in the 23rd, the speedy winger splitting the hopeless center back pairing of Michael Boxall and Brent Kallman and finishing. Picault, who was called up to the U.S. national team as an injury replacement this week, then added his second in the 44th when the Minnesota defense politely declined to close him out 18 yards from goal and Picault used the five-yard cushion to coolly side-foot a curling shot into the far-side netting.
All six of the Union’s midfield/forward starters recorded either a goal or an assist. Picault is up to 10 goals on the season, nudging Burke for the team lead. Dockal pocketed two assists to take his total to 17, which is tops in MLS and a Union franchise record, displacing Cristian Maidana (15 in 2015). Minnesota got a goal back on Darwin Quintero capitalizing on a slip in defense in the 54th, breaking a 334-minute shutout streak in MLS. But it was soon pegged back by Ilsinho, who made his return from a month out with injury in style via a 79th-minute thunderbolt from distance, Picault the assist.
The Brazilian’s marker capped the night in fine fashion – an evening for a little rejoicing but much more focus on the road ahead.
“I think it confirms what I’ve said in past interviews. That we don’t suck,” Picault said. “We’re doing what we’ve been doing. Honestly it’s what we expect from ourselves. We’ve been together as a group. We’ve been through the hard times together and the good ones. It’s important we continue to do that. We’re not going to get overly confident and overhype the situation. We want to climb the table as high as we can. We’re trying to get third or fourth place. The job is not done, but tonight we’re happy with what we’ve done on the field and we want to keep that going into the next two games.”
“We’ve had the mentality for the last two months now to only look forward and try to climb as high up the table as we possibly can,” Curtin said. “Everybody knows the scores, everybody sees the standings. We’re in a good spot but we still have a lot of work to do. Two good opponents, an international break to recharge the batteries for guys. … Everything’s still to play for.
“I don’t want to act like we’ve accomplished anything but sometimes it’s good to step back and recognize some people that have done a heck of a lot of work this season.”