Despite recent struggles, Curtin won’t point fingers
CHESTER » The Philadelphia Union had reason to rejoice Wednesday in the return of a key figure to practice. But with manager Jim Curtin spending most of his weekly press conference stressing that one individual isn’t to blame for recent struggles, the notion that one person could play savior was dampened, too.
Jamiro Monteiro returned to the practice field after missing four games with an ankle sprain, though that doesn’t mean he’ll be fit to return for Sunday’s match at D.C. United.
Monteiro, who sprained his ankle July 3 under the red-card crunch of Orlando City’s Sacha Kljestan, trained in full Wednesday, including a pair of full-field scrimmages in sticky conditions. Curtin will check how the ankle responds before making a determination for Sunday night’s trip to Audi Field (7:30, FS1).
“Obviously we’ll have to see how his body responds, but overall it’s great to have him back in the group,” Curtin said. “The four games we’ve missed him, you’ve seen how important he is to the group; to the offense, to the defense, on both sides of the ball. It’s early to respond until I exactly see how his body comes back off of the 50 minutes. Overall in the exercise, he showed some rust but he looked very good.”
Monteiro wasn’t available for comment. The midfielder has been magnificent since signing in March, and the club is 1-2-1 in the last four without him.
However, Curtin spent the bulk of his time pointing out that no one player can be solely blamed for outings like the 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Montreal last week.
“It’s not as fickle as now starting to point fingers and blaming individual guys,” Curtin said. “That’s not what we’re going to be about. We win as a team and we’ve won a lot of games this year and we’re in first place because of that strong defense, and now when we lose a couple, we can’t just point the finger at a couple of guys and have them take all the blame.”
Curtin offered perspective on the litany of candidates for criticism, especially for a defense that has allowed four goals in three of its last four road trips, the last two 4-0 thumpings. One commonality between losses at Real Salt Lake and Montreal was the absence of left back Kai Wagner, first through injury and then suspension. He’s back this week, which will help.
“We missed him,” Curtin said. “I think Jamiro was missed as well. But all teams go through parts of the season where they have injuries, have suspensions, so we need to be better as a group, as a whole, and show our depth a little more. We win as a team, we lose as a team.
“Kai was missed for sure, but as a team now, we still need to be better in attack, better in defense and we can’t let games get that wide open, especially on the road where it’s so hard to get points as it is.”
None of the defensive regulars are immune from reproach. Auston Trusty and Jack Elliott have struggled in central defense, and Curtin lamented both 4-0 games for featuring preventable mistakes on goals conceded rather than superb passages of play by the opponent. He hinted that Mark McKenzie could get a chance, with the 20-year-old getting regular minutes with Bethlehem Steel.
“He’s had a great mentality and great attitude,” Curtin said. “And obviously we need to get him going. There’s opportunity.”
Ray Gaddis is another target, one who had a particularly rough go in Montreal. His place is more stable given that his most natural replacement, Olivier Mbaizo, is still working back from a knee injury.
Mbaizo trained with Steel and is likely to get minutes for them Thursday night, which would be his first action in more than two months.
Gaddis is emblematic of the Union’s toughness and a big piece of why they remain in first place in the East. Even a pair of tough results doesn’t erase the positive work of the first two-thirds of the season in Curtin’s eyes.
“It’s not going to be one of us that takes the fall for everybody,” Curtin said. “We’re all in it together. Ray is the right back that has put us in first place as well, so it’s not as easy to just say, ‘oh we lost 4-0; who are we going to blame?’ I don’t subscribe to that. I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t do that way of thinking. I’m going to always back my players, and Ray is a guy that gives everything every day.”