Union focused on advancing to semis of CCL tournament
It’s all in front of the Philadelphia Union Tuesday night at Subaru Park.
The home team holds a 3-0 lead over Atlanta United after the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal. It stands 90 minutes of even average soccer from making the final four of the continental competition in its first go.
Jim Curtin doesn’t require a reminder of how monumental an achievement that would be. His team, after Saturday’s 2-0 loss to New York City FC, doesn’t need to be told the penalty for not adopting the right approach to a game.
“It’s a very big moment,” goalie Andre Blake said Monday. “It’s the CONCACAF Champions League and we’re very close to getting into the semifinals, the final four. Definitely big for the club. We just have to enjoy the moment and keep going.”
The team with the highest aggregate score after the 90 minutes will move on. The Union have three away goals in hand, which is the tiebreaker. The winner gets the survivor of the semi between the Portland Timbers and Mexico’s Club America, which shifts to Estadio Azteca Wednesday night tied at one.
The semifinals would take place Aug. 10-12 and Sept. 14-16.
The big question mark for the Union, one that will repeat at least once in the coming weeks, is how they play without Jose Martinez. The Union are without the Venezuelan midfielder Tuesday due to yellow-card accumulation. The red card he picked up against NYCFC last week will keep him out of Saturday’s game against Chicago and almost surely longer once MLS levies supplemental discipline.
The role likely falls to Leon Flach, who has impressed with his positional awareness on the left side of the diamond. That would move Jamiro Monteiro wide left and insert Anthony Fontana at the No. 10.
It remains to be seen if Flach can play the position like Martinez, specifically in Curtin’s praise for “El Brujo” and his ability to mesh tackling with distribution.
To that end, Curtin will build in flexibility. Assuming that Sergio Santos starts up top, the Union can flex to a 4-2-3-1 look, Alejandro Bedoya joining Flach in the engine room of midfield in what he considers a “Plan 1A, Plan 1B” scenario.
Curtin is excited to see the 20-year-old Germanborn midfielder get a look at the No. 6 role, which he said is the one Flach most seems himself as.
“We’re going to get to see him in that deeper role, which is a good thing,” Curtin said. “We’ll obviously be missing Jose for the next league game as well, so we have to stay compact and disciplined and see how Leon does.”
Atlanta’s motivation is clear. They don’t have much to lose in a competition which they’re halfway eliminated from. Part of the reason is that they played with that kind of recklessness in Leg 1, attacking as if there wasn’t a return game once they went down 1-0 and opening themselves up for away goals two and three.
Atlanta must chase the game. The Union must resist that charge and use it against them, as they did so lethally last week.
“The onus is on them to come into our building and go for it,” Curtin said. “I’m sure they will. And we need to be disciplined and intense and not give away silly fouls, silly mistakes and try to keep a zero for as long as possible.”
It’s been a study of contrasts for the Union this year. They are 3-0-0 in the Champions League, scoring eight goals and allowing none. They’re 0-2-1 in the league, scoring once, conceding four. That includes consecutive home losses for the first time in nearly three years.
But after a letdown on the weekend, the Union should be on high alert for complacency. Leading 3-0 halfway through a continental tie is as good a time as any for that vigilance.
“This team has always been coming back from a tough game,” Blake said. “Hopefully tomorrow we can keep that going. For us, we know they’re a very good team and they’re going to come at us. But we just need to play our game, play to our strength, do what we do best, do what works for us and be good defensively.”
“It’s going to be a very challenging game, a great opponent that’s very well coached,” Curtin said. “We’ll have to be on our A game to see this through. We’re only halfway through.”