As midway point nears, season can still go many ways

CHESTER » We’ve reached the Rorschach test portion of the MLS calendar, where the Philadelphia Union are what you want to believe they are.

Finishing the week above the red line in the Eastern Conference applies a rosier sheen to that 16-game inkblot of the first half, for sure. But consider this: If the Union, fresh off a 4-0 throttling of Vancouver Saturday, travel to Los Angeles FC next week and lose, they’ll have 21 points through 17 games, exactly half a season. Meaning they would be on pace for precisely 42 points for the third consecutive season and fourth time in last five years.

That’s one way to look at things. Another is measuring how the Union’s 1.31 points per game compares to previous seasons’ playoff participants (spoiler alert: Not favorably). Or you could judge the Union as the team they’ve been over the last seven games, a stretch where it has posted a 4-2-1 record and collected points at a rate of 1.86 PPG.

Then you can apply the caveat that in those two losses, Alejandro Bedoya and Haris Medunjanin were on the field for a grand total of 19 minutes each, after red cards and resulting suspensions.

You can apply the same lens to the Union’s measurables. They’ve allowed just 21 goals in 16 games, a concession rate that is tied for fourth-best in the East and seventh in MLS, certainly deserving of a playoff space if it continues. But their 20 goals scored, including getting shutout in eight of 16 outings, not so much.

So what exactly can we know about the Union at this point? Manager Jim Curtin is sure of a few things.

“We are at a stage where I know we are going to play good soccer now,” Curtin said. “I know that we are going to keep the ball. I know that we are going to attack and create chances. The only question is how will the group respond to adversity? So if Vancouver did score a goal against the run of play, how strong are we to rebound from that? Fortunately we did not get to find out today, which I am happy with.”

There’s also more certainty on the individual fronts. The Union (6-7-3, 21 points) struggled two weeks ago against Toronto without Bedoya and Medunjanin, but were fine Saturday against Vancouver sans just Medunjanin. They know Borek Dockal is the elite chance creator that the Union were hoping for when they landed him. And they know that the depth Curtin has talked about exists if not yet fully drawn upon. Warren Creavalle has been excellent deputizing for Medunjanin, Ray Gaddis is in the midst of one of his best all-around seasons and Derrick Jones continues to bide his time in USL where he’s a weekly Team of the Week candidate, it seems.

“You talk about professionals, you talk about Warren and you talk about Ray, who have been in and out of the lineup and then they step up and do big things for us,” Curtin said. “So the squad depth that we have and professionalism of those guys when they are called upon they can really raise their level. I am really happy for the two of them.”

Questions loom, not just limited to how they go about replacing Earnie Stewart with minimum friction during a promising season. CJ Sapong isn’t producing, nor is David Accam. How does Curtin awaken them without sacrificing the chemistry others have created, without depriving the lineup of hotter alternatives (namely Cory Burke and Ilsinho)? Does it warrant a summer acquisition if they can move on from lingering non-factor Jay Simpson?

Those questions are different than in seasons past. Curtin isn’t trying to cajole a bad team into playing well. He’s trying to entice a good team into either being great or at least consistently playing at the level it’s capable of. Short of the sluggish start to the season, with Dockal settling in and Accam flailing in the lineup, he’s done that.

Can he do more of it? That too remains to be seen.