Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Next challenge is to defuse a Galaxy god
CHESTER » The first question for Jim Curtin Friday morning after the Philadelphia Union’s training session unsurprisingly centered on two syllables that have struck fear in the hearts of soccer players the world over: Zlatan.
While the Union boss was quick to point out that the L.A. Galaxy pose a greater threat than just the 6-foot-4, 11-time league champion, Swedish talisman, it’s doubtful most of the sellout crowd at Talen Energy Stadium will be there tomorrow night (7 o’clock start) primarily to see anyone other than Ibrahimovic. And why not reach for a little hyperbole in describing a man who, in welcoming LeBron James to the Lakers this month, tweeted that Los Angeles now had a king to complement its presiding God?
“There’s no other guy you can kind of compare him to,” was how Curtin put it.
The conversation starts at Ibrahimovic, who has matched his superhuman presence with some pretty tidy soccer this season, scoring 11 times in 14 games. But it doesn’t end there. He’s complemented by Frenchman Romain Alessandrini and his constant threat bombing the wings, plus the Mexican World Cup duo of Giovani and Jonathan dos Santos. And with Ibrahimovic resting out West (to the dismay of 36,573 who trekked to Foxborough last week), former Union man Chris Pontius completed a brace in stoppage time to send the Galaxy past New England, 3-2.
So there’s more to measure up than just the only player ever to suit up for seven teams in the UEFA Champions League. And the Union will do that with a pair of 19-yearold center backs in Mark McKenzie and Auston Trusty.
“They have a lot of weapons that can hurt you,” Curtin said. “… A lot of real dangerous guys in and around the goal that can make a play and can kind of carry them in moments of the game where they’re maybe not playing their best. We need to be focused for the 90 minutes.”
“He’s still a forward,” Trusty said. “He still plays a position and we’re used to marking those people. He’s a top player, and he’s been a top player throughout his career, but kind of just treating it like a regular game. It’s the same game as always.”
So far, the Ibra experiment has worked. The Galaxy (8-7-4, 28 points) sit sixth in the West. They’re riding a six-game unbeaten streak (3-0-3) and have lost just once since early May. They carry a sturdy 3-3-3 road record, but they’ve surrendered 12 goals in their last six road contest. It won’t help that central midfielder Perry Kitchen (yellow-card accumulation) and defender Ashley Cole (red card) won’t travel this week, possibly bringing former Union man Sheanon Williams into the picture for a Philly reunion.
Keeping the game compact is one of the key talking points for the Union (7-9-3, 24 points). A day of rain to weigh down the pitch should help that effort, tamping down the Galaxy’s counter-attacking verve.
“You don’t want to get into an end-to-end shootout with them,” Curtin said. “You look at a lot of the scores that they’ve had, and it’s a lot of 4-3 wins, a 3-2 win here in the last one. So they can kind of outscore you. And you don’t want to get into a track meet with them because they have such individual quality in their group to punish you and make you pay.
“We want to be organized. We want to press together. We want to do the things that make us a really good team at home and continue in the good form we’ve been at home.”
The Union feel good after a 1-0 win over Orlando City sealed their place in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals Wednesday. With a friendly last Saturday against Eintracht Frankfurt that offered a turn of work for reserves and a break for starters, the Union have the fresher legs of the two teams.
Curtin pledged a little squad rotation with a mostly healthy roster, save for Ilsinho’s ongoing quad strain that is at least a week and a half from his return to training. CJ Sapong could be restored to the lineup to try to break his 10-game scoreless streak, while a wing depth option like Marcus Epps could start.
But even within the team concept, it all seems to come back to minimizing Ibrahimovic.
“It’s going to be a little bit of Andre (Blake) making a big save, a guy having to make a big block or a big tackle in the box, not giving up free kicks around the box because he’s so lethal with those,” Curtin said. “We’ll have our hands full, but our group is a real team. We’re all 11 guys on the same team, everyone attacking, everyone defending, and we still think that can hold up even against these superstar teams that we do play.”