Investment in depth pays off in CCL progress
Tuesday’s 4-0 handling of Alianza in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League was many things for the Philadelphia Union. Perhaps most enduringly, it provided proof of concept.
The Union went out and acquired three players this winter from within MLS — one a regular starter last season, two borderline starters that Jim Curtin and the front office thought could be more in the right situation. Under the assumption that the Union needed more than 11 or 14 starters for the season ahead, they bolstered the roster and set out a challenge for Curtin, who has been consistently (and, to be fair, successfully) resistant to rotating his squad to if not change his stripes at least adapt them.
Through five games, the Union are navigating the schedule challenge. They’ve been able to put their A team out for three MLS games, winning two. They sent out a B team in El Salvador last week to do a job, and the reserves returned with a clean sheet and a tie, a successful trip.
And then Tuesday, Curtin was able to add another layer. Instead of a straight first- or second-choice side, he was able to mix and match. He went with one of the new faces, Damion Lowe, to spell Jack Elliott, who had started three games in seven days. The Jamaican defender, acquired from Inter Miami, rewarded that faith with another clean sheet plus the opening goal just before halftime.
“I think when you take in the elements, the different things that go into playing in CONCACAF, in Champions League, Damion has experience at the highest level with the national team of Jamaica playing against tough opponents, away, home, and has been in those types of battles,” Curtin said. “To have a guy like that in our group is fortunate. I thought he played excellent.”
Curtin opted for one of the other signees, Joaquin Torres, from the start. Torres has already made good on preseason promises, having avoided frustration against an inferior Chicago side on the weekend with one strike of his left foot for the game-winning goal.
Tuesday, Curtin could play matchups with Torres. Assuming Alianza would sit deep, he wanted Torres to attack a bunkered-in defense, in lieu of Mikael Uhre, more of a threat to run in behind. It didn’t result in goals from open play, but it forced Alianza into a red card in the 40th minute, a penalty Curtin thought should’ve been called in the first half
and one whistled in the second that Daniel Gazdag finished.
Then there was Andres Perea, who scored a brace after coming on at the hour mark, to salt things away.
Much as those contributions were vital, Curtin lauded them as just rewards for an equally vital performance a week earlier in Central America, on a rougher field where soccer was in short supply.
“The guys that went and played in El Salvador and fought for that 0-0, I don’t think people realize how hard that is, number 1, and how important that is,” he said. “And we made eight subs in that game, and each one of those guys set us up in a big way so that tonight would look like it did. It’s a growing moment to know what these games look like.”
It’s also, Curtin hopes, a growing moment in the aspirations of winning this competition. The Union face Mexican opposition in the quarterfinals, Atlas FC overcoming a three-goal first-leg deficit against Honduran club Olimpia Tuesday night, scoring a 4-0 win at Estadio Jalisco.
The Guadalajara club is in baffling form. It won the Apertura tournament in 2021 and the Clausura in 2022, their first Liga MX hardware in 70 years, then added the Campeon de Campeones title in 2022. But it’s mired in 16th place in Liga MX this spring, one win from 11 games putting them on the brink of crisis.
The oddity of Atlas’ situation suggests that the Union won’t know what to expect from the two-leg tie, which begins in Chester the first week of April. Except that, much like against Alianza, the Union are going to need a full complement to, as Curtin said with a nod toward the calendar, survive and advance.
“I think we used our depth,” he said. “I think we showed that we have a big squad that we can utilize, and it’s going to be a very busy season.”