Supporters’ Shield especially special for Curtin, Gaddis
CHESTER » ESPN broadcaster Jon Champion waited for the final whistle to echo around Subaru Park Sunday before intoning his summary of the previous 90 minutes, if not the previous 11 seasons.
“How victory tastes sweeter,” Champion said, in an accent forged in Yorkshire, “to those who’ve had to wait.”
He could’ve as easily invoked Malcolm Forbes, on the sweetness of victory to those who’ve known defeat. And in manager Jim Curtin and Ray Gaddis speaking to the 15-percent-capacity crowd after the 2-0 win over New England that clinched the Supporters’ Shield, the team was represented by two people who know both patience and resilience.
The two are cosmically linked, beyond Curtin’s declaration that, “I want to be with Ray Gaddis for the rest of my coaching career.” Both defenders, both late-round MLS SuperDraft picks, both from schools far from powerhouses … both men went on to careers that far exceeded pre-draft expectations.
Both have also become fixtures in Philadelphia, through thick
and thin, peaks and valleys.
It’s easy to forget that in 2016, the Union under Curtin went winless in the last seven games of the season, then opened 2017 on an eight-game winless run. A similar drought got Real Salt Lake coach Jeff Cassar fired three games into the season. In Curtin’s third full season as head coach, his record was comparable, at the same juncture, to those that got the previous two Union coaches sacked.
But the organization stuck with him, backed him with players and investment, and let him grow into a viable coach of the year candidate.
“When this thing started, I was a young coach that was finding his way, coming from the Academy, had some time as an assistant but was probably in a bit over (my) head at the start,” Curtin said. “But because of the talent and the players and the support I had around me, was able to learn on the job. I’m grateful for the patience and the long-term vision of this club, that we could do something special.”
Gaddis’s trajectory is similar. Before he became a franchise leader, his work ethic and superlative community presence making him one of MLS’s undisputed good guys, he was at best a polarizing on-field figure.
The second-round pick in 2012 has grown into a better player even now at age 30,
adding more dimensions to a game that early on was onenote, althought that one specialty was lockdown defending, which too few outside backs take for granted. In 2016, when Keegan Rosenberry was the runner up for Rookie of the Year, Gaddis was banished to the bench, making just five starts.
Yet he’s persevered. Gaddis has started all 34 games in a season twice for the Union, in 2014 and 2019. He’s still not an offensive presence, yet to score in 221 appearances, the third-most games in MLS history without a goal. But the franchise leader in games played has become an icon for his play on the field and his work in the community.
“I think of Ray and just all the wars he’s been through, all the battles he’s been through, everything that he gives to the club,” Curtin said. “He leaves his heart on the field, he does so much on the field and off the field for this city and for the locker room. He’s a winner, through and through. There’s no bigger compliment I can give. I want to be with Ray Gaddis for the rest of my coaching career. He’s that special of a player.
“He should never wear another jersey. He’s a true Philadelphia Union player and means so much to the club.”
The journey to this trophy is also sweeter for the trials along the way. The Union (14-4-5, 47 points) bested nearest rival Toronto FC via a 5-0 demolition two weeks ago. They won all nine games at Subaru Park, led
the league in goals allowed and goal differential. Two key players, Kacper Przybylko and Jose Martinez, endured bouts with COVID-19, Martinez’s two weeks ago. They didn’t have games canceled due to the virus like many other teams, but the pandemic’s specter hovered over everything MLS did, from the month in the bubble to a three-phase season.
Off the field, they followed the lead of Gaddis, a founding board member of the Black Players for Change. Warren Creavalle designed the shirts to be worn for players throughout the league in the first game in the Orlando bubble, the first major American pro sports event since the lateMay killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mark McKenzie has stepped up as a leading voice in the players’ movement before his 22nd birthday. Players volunteered for the Fight for Philly campaign while the team was shut down for three months, then pushed to use Subaru Park as a polling place, helping Delaware County play a decisive role in the presidential election.
But Gaddis points to one moment, when the Union decided before their first game back, on July 9 against New York City FC in Orlando, to replace the names on the back of their jerseys with those of Black Americans killed by police. The decision sparked conversation, debate, understanding and growth … the kind of relationship that is inseparable from what takes place on the field.