Philadelphia Union lost 2-1 against New York City on Wednesday night, extending their home losing streak to four. After the disappointing result, Head Coach Jim Curtin met with the media, discussing the midweek match.
Uncharacteristic Union
The Union's home fortress has been long-regarded as an impenetrable one, but that hasn’t been the case as of late. The team is undefeated on the road, but they haven’t won at Subaru Park since March.
“I’m stating the obvious here, but we've become uncharacteristically fragile at home. It hurts our fans, it hurts our coaches and hurts our players,” Curtin said to start his postgame press conference.
His following message was clear -- the team must look inward to in order to escape their current troublesome stretch.
“No excuses for losing at home, we should never lose at home in this fashion. But again, the guys fight until the end, and we have to find a way to get out of this. We're the only people that are going to get us out of it. The people in that locker room, the coaches, the players, they recognize that,” Curtin said.
“Like we've said before, it's the same group. That's what we said at halftime. They’ve shown they can beat anybody, and we're the only ones that can dig us out of this now.”
Creating the comeback
The Union nearly made a second half comeback with aggressive attack led by Julian Carranza, decreasing their deficit to just one goal within the first two minutes of play. On the pitch, the Argentine scored a golazo tee’d up by Jack McGlynn on a free kick. Off the pitch, Curtin shared that the 23-year-old was the most vocal presence in the locker room during halftime, emerging as a leader among his frustrated teammates in the moments before they stepped back on the pitch at Subaru Park.
“Surprisingly, Julian spoke the most, which was great. I was really impressed by what he had to say because it was all actually right, accurate, truth. And it was long,” Curtin said.
“It was good to see from a young striker. He's a kid that plays with passion, that wants to win everything, wants to win every tackle, so I'm proud of him for speaking in the way he did and that helps. Having said that, again, we lost, so everyone in there was still pissed.”
The second half rally came up short, but Philadelphia Union has another chance to claim points on Saturday, as they'll make the trip to Gilette Stadium to take on a New England team that's only won two league matches so far in 2024.
