Union still seeking that killer instinct
Ten games into the season, the Philadelphia Union have reached their first choose-your-own-adventure junction.
In consecutive weeks, the club has drawn in Nashville and at Los Angeles FC, teams likely to be near the top of the Western Conference when all is said and done. They led in each game, twice in Los Angeles in Saturday night’s 2-2 draw.
So the one point they returned from each game — is that just reward for their labors away from home? Or a disappointment for the two points left on the table each time?
“I was really proud of the effort the guys put in,” manager Jim Curtin said via Zoom in the wee hours of Sunday morning. “They worked so hard over these last couple games in two of the toughest places to play. It feels like we deserved more from the games. They have a feeling of a loss, almost. But when you step back and look at it, it’s still a really good result when you come to LA and play against a top team, with all the weapons that they have and assets they have on the field.”
There are less subjective aspects to this Rorschach test. As the season hits the third-pole, the Union (5-1-4, 19 points) lead the Eastern Conference. They’re in a daunting May stretch that included last Sunday’s opener at Geodis Park, Saturday night at Western Conference leader LAFC (7-1-2, 23 points), then hosting the East’s second-place team New York Red Bulls next Saturday.
The Union have only one loss in 10 but no wins in their last four (0-1-3). The Union have scored in all 10 games and scored first eight times. But they’ve only won half of those games (4-1-3).
Look at it one way, and an early goal away from home puts pressure on the opponent and means you have one hand on a result. Look another, and it’s a win turned into a draw. It doesn’t help that the last two draws have featured late concessions — Randall Leal’s 85thminute penalty in Nashville; a goal by outside back Franco Escobar off a corner-kick scramble in the 82nd Saturday — that feel regrettable.
“At the end of the day, as a team, it’s frustrating not to come away with three points after taking the lead in both of these away games and then holding on to the last minutes and giving away a soft goal,” said right back Nathan Harriel, who shone in LA in what was arguably his stiffest test yet. “But at the end of the day, we took away two points in two really hard locations to play, and we’re still
top of the East, so we just need to figure out ways to close games out and get that second and third goal to give us a little cushion.”
“I think we are frustrated for the final result,” added Julian Carranza, whose wonder goal in the 67th put the Union up for a second time. “We’re doing so much, we’re doing our best and being left with just one point is frustrating for us. Sometimes, we have to close the game when we are up. I think that we have to keep doing efforts to get the three points.”
Curtin pointed to little details that make the crucial difference. Saturday it was defending on the corner, allowing a ball to ping several times in the box and for Escobar to slip his marker, Carranza, at the far post. They also had a chance to make it 3-1 when Sergio Santos and Carranza galloped forward on a 2-on-1, but Santos held onto the ball too long instead of finding Carranza in alone. (On the flip side, Jakob Glesnes made a sensational goal-line clearance of a bicycle kick attempt by Mamadou Fall in stoppage time, preserving the point.)
On the order of problems to have, let’s be clear: Choosing between one point or three in Nashville and LA is a great one. But finishing stronger is a conundrum nonetheless, and one that Curtin is working into his growth plan for a team with a long way to go in 2022.
“We don’t hide from it,” Curtin said. “It’s literally what I said at halftime. I said, ‘guys, we’ve worked our butts off’ — I used different language — ‘we worked our butts off to get leads in the last three games and we haven’t taken the full three points. This is a moment now where we have to be killers.’ And I thought we still played a great game, we played a great second half.”
The schedule may prove advantageous. The Union get to work out the kinks against Western opposition before the in-conference six-pointers ratchet up. They’ve consistently turned it late in recent seasons, assembling the positive pieces from the spring and summer into a coherent whole by fall. The early signs point to a repeat of that, and from a position of power atop the table.
That’s why Curtin is so far looking on the bright side of the draws.
“Overall guys, I’m still really proud of this group,” Curtin said. “They’re showing tremendous effort, making the fans proud in a really hostile environment. I’m going to look at it as a positive. I know we could’ve taken three points in the last two, but at the same time, I’d sign up for one in each game before they started.”