Union enter 2020 with ready-made identity
There have been mysteries. There have been gaping voids. There have been questions that seemed to have no easy answers.
In the 10 Union preseasons that transpired in the 2010s, the preseason quandaries have run the gamut, from the nearly existential to the merely trivial.
But the dawn of a new decade brings with it a new possibility. The Union, who open training camp Monday morning at the 76ers Training Facility in Wilmington, do so facing a unique set of circumstances.
For the first time, the club enters a season with a ready-made identity, on and off the field. The questions that Jim Curtin, overseeing his sixth preseason in charge, aren’t a matter of type but merely of degree. And the Union, in what sounds like a foreign assertion, enter the preseason, on paper, as one of the best clubs in the Eastern Conference.
The extent to which they can replicate 2019’s success, in tallying season-highs in wins and points and making the Eastern Conference semifinals, will be up solely to the players present Monday for what constitutes a nearly complete roster.
“Yes it was a successful season, but we can’t be satisfied,” Curtin said at the season-concluding press conference in November. “What should motivate us is looking at the final four teams that made it and recognizing that those are all great teams but teams we had success against this year. There’s more that we need to do. We need to improve. We need to move on toward next season, toward 2020, continue to work together hard on the training field, continue to embrace the new style of play and come back strong next year.”
That last part is something Curtin has proven an ability to accomplish. The club has matched or improved on its point total in each of the last four seasons. It has qualified for the playoffs three times in four seasons after just one berth in its first six. It’s knocked the “no playoff wins” monkey off their backs.
The Union enter the season with just one hole in their starting XI, at the No. 6 role. And they already have two serviceable options there, MLS veteran Warren Creavalle and international prospect Jose Andres Martinez, and are linked to the potential starter, Slovakian Matej Oravec, via the rumor mill. Should the Union produce a mystery training camp guest as in years past — Ken Tribbett, Oguchi Onyewu, Aurelien Collin — they’d be only contending for a bench role.
The other questions are less about the who and more about the how. The Union have the talent in defense, particularly with an upgrade at the No. 6 from master distributor but marginal ballwinner Haris Medunjanin, to allow fewer than the 55 goals in 36 matches (including playoffs) last year. That will surely be a focus of Ernst Tanner’s evolving tactics, as the trade of Auston Trusty virtually ensures that Jack Elliott and Mark McKenzie are the firstchoice center-back duo. Kai Wagner is the entrenched left back after a sensational opening season in MLS, but his backup, Matt Real, should be pushing for minutes. On the other side, eyes will be on whether Olivier Mbaizo, supposedly the heir apparent at right back, will ever unseat the steady if one-dimensional Ray Gaddis, who’s also coming off a strong season.
The midfield hierarchy seems set. Alejandro Bedoya, Brenden
Aaronson and Jamiro Monteiro performed at extremely high levels last year, the latter two in their first seasons in MLS. Though a (mostly Homegrown) passel of options awaits behind, including the limbo that the club is in with Ilsinho after extending a new contract offer in the offseason, the bulk of the minutes will go to those starters, as has been Curtin’s preference in reality.
That leaves the forward contingent, which features a player that arguably overperformed last year and two that underperformed. The expectation may not be for Kacper Przybylko to score 15 goals and be tied for fifth in MLS again. But then he shouldn’t have to, if Sergio Santos can overcome the injuries and adaptation phase that marred his first season in MLS and Andrew Wooten can recover after not finding his feet in his first summer in Philadelphia. That says nothing of the wild card that is Cory Burke, currently on loan in Austria and who could rejoin the club after visa issues are cleared up in May, and the 12 goals he scored in the last season and a half.
When the Union gathered for the first time under the bubble at Penn last January, the pieces were mostly in place, but with three notable exceptions. Santos had signed in December, but Wagner and Marco Fabian wouldn’t be brought in until February, and the capture of Monteiro waited until the season had begun.
This year, it looks as though the biggest acquisition, the re-signing of Monteiro, is in the past, even with the Oravec signing on the horizon. Perhaps one more move to infuse more creativity into midfield awaits, and there will be training openings as McKenzie and Aaronson are away with the U.S. National Team.
But when the Union open camp Monday, what you see will be more or less what you get. And for the first time in Union history, that kind of statement inspires more optimism than pessimism.