No matter the reason, another missed chance will haunt Union
CHESTER » In any game, in any season, in any history of any club, there is one enduring truth about soccer: The chances, when they arrive, are priceless.
There will be shots available, yet usually only after half a day of struggle.
There will be goals scored, but usually only after cleanly struck kicks.
There will be championships won, but those could take years to develop.
That’s why what happened Sunday at Subaru Park will not easily be forgotten by the Union, which fell, in order, to health protocols and New York City FC, 2-1, in the semifinals of the MLS tournament.
Having used penalty kicks a week earlier to dismiss Nashville, the Union watched NYCFC triumph in New England to set up the most meaningful match in the 12-year history of an organization: A home game, before rambunctious fans, in splendid soccer weather for the right to play for it all.
That’s when everything started to crack, and in a manner that no one, especially not Jim Curtin, could have anticipated. By kickoff Sunday, the Union were down 11 players, all critical ones, including their franchise-boosting goalkeeper Andre Blake and six-ish other regular starters. The reason: Failed virus tests.
At that point, the situation for the Union ceased to be perfect.
At that point, it was reason to wonder how the remaining players would manage it all.
“In this instance, I am proud of every guy that wore that jersey tonight that stepped on the field,” Curtin said. “I think they made our fans proud.”
The Union, which has accumulated the most regular-season MLS standings points over the past three years, has made proud, recent strides. Last year, it won the Supporters’ Shield for sculpting the best regular-season record. This season, they did well in the CONCACAF Champions League. Sunday, they were at home in the Final Four.
Yet for multiple reasons — most their own, but Sunday due largely to an outside force of nature and rules fine-print — that league championship and resulting parade continues to be evasive.
“After a night like tonight, you never know what would have happened if we were at full strength,” Curtin said. “So that’s what’s going to haunt me and what is going to haunt the players in that locker room, right? We’ll never know what we could have done tonight with a full group.
“This is life. This is something we have to deal with and move on.”
Long after the game, the Sons of Ben, who have spent a dozen proud years refining the term “loyalists,” kept singing and chanting and abusing drums. It was so long after the match that it was enough to wonder what kind of carry-on might have erupted had New York not scored twice within the final 25 minutes of regulation.
Eventually, though, those echoes would fade and Subaru Park would go dark, as it had every year since 2010.
“We’ve had some real memories here for our fan base,” Curtin said. “I like the direction it’s going. Soccer continues to grow in this country and the city of Philadelphia. And again, this is a team and a group that, down 11 men, we can still be proud for the effort they gave.”
Sometime before next season, there will be sparks of hope and reminders of just how close the Union came to playing for a championship. Chances are, for as long as pro soccer is discussed in the region, there will be conversation about the year the Union went to the semifinals and almost won with their JV team.
To some, that will resonate. To others, it will be just another wail of strained optimism.
If ever there were an excuse for a team to drop a critical home game, it was Sunday. But that itself was a chilling reminder why failing to capitalize on the Supporters’ Shield effort of 2020 should not have been easily dismissed. There will always be “next year,” but there is likewise always a chance that, even with everything seeming ideal, the most cruel of impediments to success might arrive.
“You want to see your older players, especially guys like (Alejandro) Bedoya who worked so hard to get this game here have that opportunity and (they) didn’t,” Curtin said. “You don’t know how many conference finals and MLS Cups you are going to have an opportunity to look at in your career. Guys like Andre and Jack Elliott and (Jakob) Glesnes. You could go through a list of guys that gave so much this season. Kai Wagner. And on and on. “That hurts.”
For the Union, it had to hurt, just as it hurt a year earlier. That’s because it had two chances; two priceless chances. And they play a sport where those things cannot be wasted.