Schedule presents mandate to start fast
The last two Philadelphia Union seasons were almost indistinguishable, at least from a glance at the final standings.
Both years, the Union went 1114-9. Both years, they finished with 42 points. The difference was in the texture, even more so than the competition of the league around them.
In 2016, the Union started fast, won four of six, lost just three of their first 14 and sat in playoff position wire-to-wire. In 2017, it was eight without a win to start the campaign, then four straight victories pegged back by three consecutive losses, the playoff positions always a mirage in the distance.
What mattered, then, wasn’t so much a “what” but a “when.” Both
teams were wildly inconsistent, struggled to defend home ground for stretches and were only marginally competent on the road. But the 2016 Union, with the wind in its sails, confidently scraped together results it objectively shouldn’t have, which buoyed the self-belief further. The 2017 team, in perpetual chase mode, was always on the outside looking in, bearing the sheen of desperation.
The schedule makers, in their serendipitous ways, have laid before the Union a test in 2018, one to see if they’ve learned from history or dare it to repeat. Five of the Union’s first seven games are at Talen Energy Stadium. Five of the first seven are against nonplayoff qualifiers in 2017. Saturday’s opener with New England (7 p.m., PHL17) fits both criteria. So the directive couldn’t be clearer.
“Starting fast is critical in MLS,” manager Jim Curtin said Wednesday. “I think you guys can just compare our last two seasons where we started fast and it kind of carried us through. Getting that confidence early, maybe winning a game we probably deserved to lose or turning a tie into a win can be the difference and catalyst to starting well. Or going the other way like last year did when we started with a decent result — 0-0 in Vancouver which is a tough place to go — then you have the Toronto game that could’ve been a win and becomes a tie and all of a sudden you’re winless.
“Yeah, it’s a very fine line in our league. It’s critical to start the year fast. We have a favorable schedule early on in terms of the amount of home games vs. away games.”
A quick start to the season could help the Union break the inertia of last year’s bugaboos. The club was an abject 1-10-6 on the road last year, despite banishing the years-long albatross of not producing results at home, where it bagged 10 wins.
This year’s squad is largely the same as last year’s, and it hopes the continuity will pay dividends. The front office did what it set out to in adding an impact
scoring winger in David Accam via trade from Chicago and this week’s signing of No. 10 Borek Dockal. The insertion of those two can amplify the foundation built in recent years and hopefully spell the difference in games.
The system seems more coherent than in the past. Dockal is a technical No. 10 who’ll look to engage the talent around him, namely speedy wingers Accam and Fafa Picault and forward CJ Sapong. Combined, that triumvirate accounted for 37 goals and 16 assists last year, and even if Sapong is due for a dip from the finishing that furnished a career-high 16 goals, the raised talent around him should make his chances more frequent and at a lower physical cost.
Add in Dockal, who is more of a facilitator than his predecessor, Roland Alberg and his unflinching nose for goal, and the additive benefits for the entire corps could be significant.
“I think it helps CJ a lot in that now everybody will share the load,” Curtin said. “Goals are the hardest thing to do in our sport, so CJ carried
us in a lot of ways last year. A significant amount of the offensive workload went through him. … I do think now David and Fafa running off of him is a real weapon. You add in Borek and his ability to play a through ball, I think it gives CJ a lot of time and space.”
The heart of the midfield will be manned by a veteran contingent of Dockal, Alejandro Bedoya and Haris Medunjanin. Andre Blake is settled in goal with a new long-term contract.
The defense presents question marks — can Jack Elliott duplicate his stellar rookie form, as many Union youngsters have failed to? Can Keegan Rosenberry do the same after a sophomore season in the wilderness? Are teenagers Auston Trusty, as the likely starting center back Saturday, and Matt Real, as the only cover on the left for Fabinho, capable of shouldering the minutes sent their way? The Union built in a manner that preserved a chance for Trusty, Real and Saturday’s presumed No. 10 starter Anthony Fontana to get the minutes they need to progress; will they reward that faith?