Union can quickly erase Timbers loss

There wasn’t a whole lot to be said by the Philadelphia Union late Saturday night after a 3-0 loss to the Portland Timbers.

The Union were a long way from home, playing against a team riding a 14-game unbeaten streak, resting several key starters ahead of Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup semifinal at home. Add in two penalty kicks conceded and the Union’s endemic finishing woes despite enjoying the better of play for long stretches, and of course it was going to sum to a setback.

Manager Jim Curtin is not one to prematurely fly the white flag. No game is unimportant in his mind, and his team gave itself a chance to get a result Saturday, even if it couldn’t follow through and get the job done.

But that letdown comes with the caveat that of the Union’s next month and a half, Saturday’s voyage to the Pacific Northwest was easily the least important game they’ll play.

“We approached the game with the focus on picking our strongest team for Wednesday,” Curtin said. “We identified what we thought that would be and kind of worked backward from there. A lot of different discussions that went on, but we made the choice to rest some key guys for a big match on Wednesday at home. And I still think that the performance of the guys that stepped on the field, a lot of them really did well and turned

some heads. They showed that they belong in the 18 and some of them even in the starting lineup discussions. We’ll take a lot of positives away from that.”

The three goals in Portland were avoidable, to say the least. Fabinho barreled over Alvas Powell in the box to allow Diego Valeri to convert from the spot in the 58th minute and break open a scoreless game that in many ways favored the Union.

In the 83rd, Warren Creavalle clipped Valeri on the edge of the box, letting Dairon Asprilla power home his first goal of the season despite Andre Blake getting a lot of contact on the ball but still allowing his seventh PK goal on as many attempts this season. Then a let off in the 87th sealed the deal, David Guzman heading home Valeri’s free-kick delivery past a bewildered defense.

That was more than enough offense, with Jeff Attinella equal to his two sternest tests, a Derrick Jones volley and a CJ Sapong cutback shot early in the second half when the Union enjoyed a period of sustained attack. For the day, the Union (8-11-3, 27 points) owned 55.5 percent of possession.

The reasons why that didn’t translate into a result are, well, you know them by now. Far more pertinent is what comes next.

After the Union tangle with the Fire Wednesday, the schedule unspools as follows:

Aug. 11: at New England (sixth in the East)

Aug. 18: vs. New York City FC (second) Aug. 25: vs. New England Aug. 29: at D.C. United (11th)

Sept. 1: at Orlando City (eighth)

Sept. 15: vs. Montreal (fifth)

The season’s fortunes will be written over that six-game stretch, at which point the Union could have

an Open Cup final to look forward to and surely will know where it sits in the East’s pecking order. The opportunity exists, by taking care of business at home and denying opponents points at their places, to move up the standings. Currently, the Union are fifth in the conference in points per game, two points behind New England and Montreal (though with two games in hand on the Impact).

With an eye toward Wednesday and beyond, Curtin rested several regulars, including Fafa Picault, Haris Medunjanin and Alejandro Bedoya. With a Portland team that hasn’t lost since April, a result there would’ve seemed unlikely anyway, and the New England trip is by far the more important of the matches bookending the Open Cup clash.

So Saturday night’s disappointment, repetitive as it has become, can more quickly be cleansed from the palate knowing what lies ahead.