In Orlando, Union raring to go in MLS tourney
The phrase of the day from Jim Curtin was “adjust and adapt.”
Speaking via video conference from Orlando, the Union manager acknowledged that the situation his club is in, six days before it begins the MLS Is Back tournament, isn’t ideal. But amid the global array of situations that range from slightly sub-optimal to positively catastrophic, adjusting and adapting to unique playing conditions is no sacrifice.
The most important aspect of Day 1 in the MLS Bubble at Walt Disney World’s Swan and Dolphin Resort is that no Union player or staffer tested positive for COVID-19 across two screening rounds. The club brought its full roster to Florida, and no soccer injuries are hampering Curtin’s selection options.
As Curtin talked about how he’s encouraged the team to make the best of the moment instead of pessimistically picking it apart, you could almost hear Eric Idle belting about bright sides.
“Is there a risk? Absolutely there’s a risk,” Curtin said, in front of a new backdrop that includes a Black Lives Matter graphic among sponsorship emblems and the club crest. “You saw what happened with FC Dallas. But hopefully that’s a onetime situation and we go from there. But if it does go from there, I think the league will be able to adjust and adapt to it.”
Much of that risk is unseen, as Dallas’ recent rash of positives attest. Curtin praised his players for doing their part and trying to minimize the chance of exposure before leaving Philadelphia, which included a socially distant send-off from Chester and a charter flight Thursday. He spoke highly of how MLS and Disney have orchestrated things, from testing to check-in to the weight lifting and training sessions the Union planned Friday.
The Coronavirus situation is not as optimistic as the MLS powers had hoped for when the tournament was announced June 10. With the case curves morphing from maybe unbending to certainly sprouting skyward, the competition seems increasingly precarious. But Curtin, as in many other aspects of his more than half-decade as a coach, is firmly in the “control what you can control” camp. His team will follow the rules and the science, he said, and hope that it’s enough.
“I think we have to handle the approach to this entire pandemic with humility,” he said. “We don’t know exactly what the future holds. It seems to change, on a national level, quite frequently. I think all the precautions that the league has put in place, we’re going to follow. Could they have predicted there’s going to be an increase like this, yesterday being almost 60,000 people (new cases) in the United States? I don’t think anybody could’ve predicted that. So there is still uncertainty and the unknown.
“What I do know is that as I walk around this bubble, every precaution is being taken, from the meals to the testing to the sanitation and hand sanitizer in hallways. I haven’t laid eyes yet on another team. The only people I’ve seen are the Philadelphia Union and we’ve been here for almost 24 hours now. They’re going to do their best. There’s no textbook, there’s no coaching manual, there’s no blueprint for how to handle this. There’s certainly going to be things that are learned, things that are adapted to and adjusted to, and that’s natural.”
What also seems natural is his team’s enthusiasm for getting back on the field. The Union scheduled a practice Friday evening at 7. They have morning sessions slated for next week, in preparation for Thursday’s 9 a.m. opener against New York City FC. The Union did a 75-minute intrasquad exercise Thursday where Curtin pushed fitness to near game levels, and he remains pleased with the results.
Until the Union are told otherwise — until they have to adjust and adapt — the club is focused on its opener with escalating excitement.
“The mindset and mentality for everyone has really shifted,” Curtin said. “It feels real now. It feels like the start of a competition.”