Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Union is the team to beat in playoff run
Union ready to tackle MLS playoff run as the team to beat
In the before times, when an MLS schedule could be described as “regular,” the question was posed to Jim Curtin on several occasions: Having played and beaten a team twice, what must happen, tactically and psychologically, to beat them a third time in a season?
There’s no playbook for when MLS teams meet six times.
In his latest expedition into uncharted territory, Curtin is readying the Philadelphia Union for Tuesday night when they play the New England Revolution for, yes, a sixth time this season in the first round of the MLS Cup playoff s. While the preponderance of games and the record ( 4- 0- 1) may look Harlem- Globetrotters- vs.- WashingtonGenerals- esque, the reality is far from that.
“Every game’s been very close,” Curtin said Monday on a Zoom call. “We respect them a great deal. And they’re playing some of their best soccer right now, obviously with Carles Gil and ( Gustavo) Bou in good form. We’ll have to do our best to contain those two guys, try to limit the amount of times they’re on the ball. But it did make for a fairly easy scouting report. … We certainly know each other about as well as two teams can know each other.”
It’s been, as an OHSA- mandated- style sign probably reads in Chester, 16 days since the teams’ last game. There was plenty on the line then, the Union winning 2- 0 to claim the Supporters’ Shield, the fi rst trophy in club history. The result dropped the Revs from sixth to eighth, meaning they had to beat No. 9 Montreal in a play- in game Friday, won, 2- 1, by a thunderbolt by Bou in stoppage time.
The two- goal margin is the outlier in this topsyturvy 2020. Sergio Santos won the MLS Is Back Round of 16 game, 1- 0. The teams waged a 0- 0 draw in Foxborough Aug. 20 in the Phase 1 restart. The Union then bagged a pair of 2- 1 wins, Anthony Fontana dispatching the 10- man Revs at Subaru Park Sept. 12 and then again scoring in Foxborough Oct. 18, the Union winning sans Jose Martinez and Alejandro Bedoya.
The Union have beaten a team three times in the same season only three times in club history: Columbus in 2016, the Revs in 2018, the New York Red Bulls ( playoffs included) last year. Trying for five wins is … well, as new as empty stadiums, charter flights and bubble tournaments.
“Would we have liked a different opponent, the one that wasn’t maybe so familiar with us? I think they’d probably say the same thing,” Curtin said. “But this is the situation, this is how the matchups came in what’s been a very unique and challenging season.”
There are wrinkles. Gil, who scored against Montreal, missed the first four installments with an Achilles injury. The Union blanketed him out of the game on Decision Day, Martinez as his shadow. But the Spaniard, who was the 2019 MLS Newcomer of the Year, has grown sharper and fitter the last two weeks. If left unchecked, he can run the game from midfield and tip the balance.
The Union blanked the Revs with Matt Freese in goal instead of Andre Blake. But the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, who had pins surgically inserted into his fractured hand, is ready to go. Despite Freese’s performance in his stead, Blake’s return is huge.
“Andre has trained every day in one way, shape or form but the last three days fully with the hand, really testing the hand and it passed every test so far,” Curtin said. “So we’ll see how he responds to today’s training session, but he’s ready to go.”
“We support each other. We push each other every day,” Blake said last week, about the Union’s “GKU,” their goalkeeping union. “Iron sharpens iron. Ever since preseason, they came in, Joe ( Bendik) wanted to play, Matt Freese wanted to push for minutes as well, so that only pushed me even more. It was really important as we continued to challenge each another and we kind of build that bond. It’s competitive every day in training, but it’s good competition and there’s only good things that come from that.”
Jamiro Monteiro, who played twice for Cape Verde on international duty, was one of the players MLS flew via charter back to the States, meaning he doesn’t have to quarantine and can play. Olivier Mbaizo, away with Cameroon, missed out on a charter and is quarantined, ruling him out.
With the tactics scouted and settled, this week has been about the Union handling their side of the equation. Last year, they got their first playoff win, a classic 4- 3 win over the Red Bulls after extra time, in a game where they trailed 2- 0 and 3- 1 at half. This year, they add the weight of being favorites.
Curtin has sought to lift that burden. He’s talked to his friend and Red Bull Salzburg coach Jesse Marsch, a fellow Supporters’ Shield and Coach of the Year winner, about that challenge. Particularly for the Union, who’ve cultivated a ferocious underdog mentality, morphing into the favorite is a significant narrative shift, one they’ve had plenty of time to contemplate and try to control for.
“We’re trying to find the balance of, yes there’s been a lot of individual accolades for the team so far and a lot of people are even picking us to win MLS Cup, but keeping them humble and hungry, is something we stressed all week,” Curtin said. “To play freely, to play with no fear, and it is a new role for us to be a favorite in the playoffs, but we have to approach it now with the same intensity and discipline that we have all season. …
“I’m trying to do my best to take that off of them, telling them to do the same things that got them here, play with that same chip on their shoulder, that same underdog mentality and that same intensity and energy that they’ve had the entire year. It’s a hard thing to do because when the media starts to talk about us a little more, it’s hard to not get distracted, but I think this group has been really resilient and focused in that regard in trying to play the exact same way we did all season, especially in Subaru Park.”