Home game secured, Union want more

HARRISON, N.J. — The Union’s three-game road trip started in unfavorable fashion, a 2-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls Sunday night.

But veiled in that result was event from the dead of Saturday night, a milestone that both illustrated and informed how far the Union have come this season.

A series of draws or losses from the teams chasing the seventh and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference was required to create sufficient space for the Union to clinch a home game, which goes to the top four teams. Yet each of those inept dominoes fell, some on the West Coast deep into the night.

So the Union arrived at Red Bull Arena Sunday to take on the then-sixth place Red Bulls knowing that it had secured objective No. 2 on the preseason punch list.

First, the Union had gotten to the postseason (with a month to spare, even), the third time in four years and the first time the club has ever made the playoffs in consecutive seasons.

Second was the home game, bringing playoff soccer back to Chester for the first time since a onegame cameo in 2011.

“We’re chasing some points now,” is how manager Jim Curtin put it Sunday night. “It’s great to clinch a playoff game at home, which is important, so I will step back and be proud of the club for that, but we’re going to chase every point.”

The reason was underscored a question later, when Curtin was asked how his team would try to climb past Atlanta, which sits in second, two point ahead.

“We were pushing for first place,” Curtin said. “It’s still possible.”

Even in the disappointment of Sunday’s result, the point remains that the Union are in a place few expected them to be to start the season. The playoffs were possible, maybe even likely. But so comfortably entrenched in the race for first place in the East? That’s the surprising bit.

The top three teams in the East each have three games remaining, and here’s how it stands:

- New York City FC has 58 points and finishes vs. Atlanta, at New England and at the Union.

- Atlanta United has 54 points and finishes at NYC, at Montreal and vs. New England.

- The Union have 52 points and finish at San Jose, at Columbus and vs. New York City.

It would take the Union losing out and either D.C. United (48 points) or the New York Red Bulls (47) winning each of their last two games for them to crawl past the Union, who can finish no worse than fourth. The second place team would host both a first-round game and a conference semifinal, a huge advantage. It would also mean a drastically easier first game against whichever team survives attrition to grab the seventh spot instead of a team like Toronto, D.C. United or Red Bulls, one of which will be sixth and take on the third seed.