Curtin, Union turning to youth amid wave of injuries
Jim Curtin has played the good soldier plenty of times in his nearly seven years at the helm of the Union. He’s fielded questions about squads so thin that summoning optimism was a true feat. He’s put a brave face on situations that were sub-optimal, to say the least.
But as Curtin approaches the 2021 campaign, with one new signing who’s been in camp for one day, no forwards outside the M*A*S*H* unit and poised to name a bench where no one can legally buy a drink, what once would’ve been veiled trepidation instead has a sheen of hard-earned excitement.
“We told the guys today, look around – this is the group that’s going to be getting on the plane,” Curtin said via Zoom Tuesday. “No one’s going to be pulling for us in Costa Rica. We’re going to be there by ourselves. This is the group that has to get us through the first leg and set us up for the return leg.
“I think the players understand that, and it doesn’t take a genius when you start to add up the bodies that there’s going to be some young guys on the field maybe getting their first live minutes.”
It’s too early to use words like “dire,” and the push-pull of preseason optimism and injury adversity seems almost unfair for a team on the precipice of its biggest step yet, taking part in the CONCACAF Champions League next week. But given the uncertainty before camp opened and the disjointedness that descended once it did, the reality on the ground in Chester is, well, ominous.
Before Tuesday’s surge in personnel, the Union were practicing with 15 field players. The entire forwards corps — Kacper Przybylko (back), Sergio Santos (toe), Cory Burke (ankle), Jack de Vries (concussion protocol) — was absent. Jamiro Monteiro, Olivier Mbaizo and Matt Freese remain away on international duty. Tuesday brought the return of Jose Martinez (knee) and Stuart Findlay (ankle/visa).
But Findlay is unlikely to take part in the first leg against Deportivo Saprissa on April 7 in San Jose. Martinez starting would be a stretch. Przybylko hasn’t practiced in a week. Monteiro and Mbaizo will be back.
But as Curtin said, that genius comes to a quick conclusion: Beyond a cobbled-together starting lineup, the bench gets real thin, real fast. And the aim shifts to damage limitation to give a presumably healthier Union a chance to make up ground in Leg 2, April 14 at the Subaru Park.
The difference in version whatever-pointoh of the Union is that Curtin is just fine with that. Brenden Aaronson and Mark McKenzie are playing in Europe not long after their 20th birthdays because they capitalized on chances as teens. That’s the hope for the next wave, whether it’s Nathan Harriel at 19 or Paxten Aaronson and Quinn Sullivan at 17 or Brandan Craig at 16.
Aaronson, in fact, has the team’s only goal in three preseason matches.
Those kids aren’t just going to make the plane to Costa Rica; one more slip on the training field and they could make the starting lineup. That once would’ve constituted
an emergency. Now, Curtin paints it as an opportunity.
A lot has changed to propel that change in mindset. The development of McKenzie, Brenden Aaronson and others is positive reinforcement. There’s acceptance across the organization, especially from veterans like Alejandro Bedoya and goalie Andre Blake, that this is the club’s model, that expensive veterans aren’t coming over the hill. Success on the field, in the form of four playoff berths in five years and the 2020 Supporters’ Shield, indicates it works.
“I think there is more equity and belief and trust from the coaching staff that look, more times than not when you throw young players out there, good, young American players, they rise to the occasion, they step up in a big way and that’s what they’ve done for our club,” Curtin said. “They’ve rewarded the club; we reward them with minutes, and
I think it’s worked out well for both of us.”
So there was Curtin at the mic Tuesday, talking about gaining experience, about surviving and advancing with a continental twist. But crucially, he was talking not just about throwing young players to the wolves or, in the Union’s view a worse outcome, scrambling to sign veterans to fill spaces. Instead, he framed it as putting young players in position to succeed, via the minutes they get and the support system around them.
“There won’t be any excuses,” Curtin said. “We’ll go with the guys we have. It’s not about who’s not with us. It’s about who is with us and who gets on the flight to Florida and ultimately Costa Rica to survive and advance.”