Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Struggling Fire offer chance to get on track
CHESTER >> The tone from Jim Curtin this week seemed simple. The Philadelphia Union have been, in recent weeks, giving up too many goals and scoring too few. They’ve struggled on the road and should, returning home, have a chance to right the ship.
And it’s pretty clear the way things should happen Saturday: The firstplace Union host 10th-place Chicago, and it should be a game where the Union take care of business, if they execute.
“There’s six home games and six away,” Curtin said Wednesday. “Two are against Chicago, there’s two against D.C. If you take care of those types of games, the Eastern Conference big ones, everything sorts itself out. Things get magnified right now.”
The Fire (5-9-8, 23 points) have been one of the East’s big disappointments. Despite a 20-goal scorer in Nemanja Nikolic, new DP Nico Gaitan and the immortal Bastian Schweinsteiger, they are mired in 10th, with one win in 10 (1-5-4). They expended a lot of energy Wednesday to draw Columbus, squandering a late lead at home against a fellow struggler, lengthening the already long odds of a playoff chase.
The Fire’s playoff hopes are on life support. The Union can effectively pull the plug.
But to do so, the Union (10-6-6, 36 points) have to sort out their own issues. They’ve hit a rough patch with one win in five (1-2-2), though Curtin pointed out that four of those contests were on the road. The 12-game run to the finish is littered with Eastern contenders (two against D.C., one against each New York side, a trip to Montreal next week and a visit from Atlanta), making the first of two games with the flickering Fire three points they need to keep pace.
The how of it is clear in design. The Union were thoroughly outclassed in last week’s 4-0 loss at Real Salt Lake, more due to how poorly they played. They surrendered eight shots on target, so many off giveaways that Curtin has come to write them off as comical. They had five shot attempts and zero on target, not even requiring the defense to lodge any shot blocks.
The attack has gone through periods of fluctuation in form, and one quiet game doesn’t yet make a lull. With Ilsinho due back after three games out with an adductor strain and Andrew Wooten ramping up his minutes, they have options.
But they also have pressure of a different kind. The Union are playing from ahead, beneficial given that no one in the East has yet mounted a coherent long charge for the front. But the Union haven’t been playing like a first-place team the last month, something they want to get back to.
“We have a bad taste in our mouths in a lot of ways,” Curtin said. “I think we were outplayed in all three phases — offense, defense and restarts — so a lot to improve on, a lot to work on. I think a good wakeup call for the group. I think they’ve taken it that way.” ••• The Union’s goalkeeping situation resolved itself Friday, with a twist.
The Union acquired veteran Joe Bendik from Columbus for a secondround SuperDraft pick. Per the Crew’s release, the Union could send up to $50,000 in allocation money based on Bendik’s performance.
The move allows the Union to return Carlos Miguel Coronel to Red Bull Salzburg, terminating his season-long loan. Coronel won all four of his games with the Union and was excellent with Bethlehem Steel, but using an international spot on a goalie was taxing the Union’s weekly roster assembly.
The move was made urgent when Matt Freese picked up a quad strain this week, requiring Bendik for the bench Saturday. The move frees an international spot, and the Union value draft picks much less than other clubs given their Academy output (recall the trade of the entire draft last year to Cincinnati).
Bendik, 30, has played 176 MLS games in eight seasons with Portland, Toronto, Orlando City and the Crew, toting a career 43-84-49 record. He logged the majority of time behind the 2018 Orlando defense that was the worst in MLS history at 74 goals conceded.
He was traded from Orlando to the Crew in December, presumably to spell Zack Steffen before the Downingtown native departed for Europe (on loan from Manchester City to Germany’s Fortuna Dusseldorf). But with the signing of Curacao keeper Eloy Room and the 11th-place Crew’s season all but over, they cashed out on Bendik. He was winless in six starts, including a 3-0 loss to the Union March 23.
Bendik is 4-5-4 career against the Union with a 1.39 GAA. He was the infamous victim of the Kleberson free kick goal in 2013 with Toronto and Tranquillo Barnetta’s free kick against Orlando in 2016.