Quote Sheet: Philadelphia Union vs. Inter Miami CF

Head Coach Jim Curtin
Opening Statement…
“First off to Miami. I thought they made it very difficult on us the entire night. It is a very good team that has had a run of bad luck, with injuries, with red cards but overall a very talented team that I believe will move up the table as the season goes along.

Not our best night in terms of how we want to play. Keeping the ball, playing forward, winning the transition game. In terms of the soccer not our best, not our sharpest. Maybe it is the late start. I am trying to put my finger on it, but we were not ourselves which was disappointing. The good news is we found a way to beat a good team not playing our best soccer.

Still a lot of things to work on and improve. Obviously, it is good to get two wins in a row for the league and now to advance in this competition. Overall, we need to be better, I need to be better as a coach. The team needs to be better as that was not a good representation of what we worked on all week.”

On the team’s performance against Inter Miami …
“Miami made it difficult on us all night. They did not allow us time and space and created a lot of problems and being honest probably deserved something from the game. We escape with the big win. For the grit, for the intensity, for the focus I give my guys an A+. For the soccer we all need to do better, and I think we all realize that in the locker room right now.”

On Brenden Aaronson’s performance …
“Overall we have challenged him for last season to this preseason, to his time with Greg Berhalter and the national team, to now in the quarantine period to get better at making the final ball, to get more goal dangerous and he has taken that next step. Everybody sees his work rate and his ability to run and cover ground and distance. If he is going to make it as a No. 10 at the highest level that is the ultimate goal for him.

He is going to do it by being a volume player. A player that is on the ball all the time. He might make a mistake three or four times, but he is coming again at full speed. That is something that he has worked hard on. His final pass, his through balls in and around the box, getting his shot off a little quicker, he has taken big strides, but as the Philadelphia Union we are going to be greedy and push for more from him because he can player even better than he did tonight.

Overall, the stats are nice, but we are going to continue to push Brenden because you can see how much talent he has.”

On team’s depth at center back …
“Both Jack Elliot and Jakob Glesnes are starting caliber center backs in our league. If you look at the three that have played so far, we are comfortable starting any of them. When Elliot missed a couple of weeks of preseason with visa issues, Glesnes stepped in and did a great job for us. Conversely this time Glesnes had to go overseas to sort out some visa issues with his family, so he lost a couple of weeks, he is gaining that fitness back.

I told Elliott he played a great game in the first game against NYCFC, a great shutout against a great team. We thought that with our strength at that position it was a good time to rotate, to get Glesnes a game. You can see Glesnes had some tired legs, but he ultimately made some big plays at the end of the game. It is a good problem for a coach to have. They are both great center backs and you saw again that Mark McKenzie was huge again tonight. It is nice to look around the league and see that we have a really strong stable of four center backs that can jump into a game and start at any time.”

Midfielder, Brenden Aaronson
On the team’s ability to find the match-winner in a tough match…
“At the end of the game its was huge for us. Like Jim Curtin said, it was not our best game and that was frustrating in some aspects. I think to just grind the game out and get the goal where calls were not going our way, for both teams, but to grind the results out and get the goal really shows the confidence of our team and that we are willing to anything to get the win.

Credit to Kacper Przybylko, because he had a hard time finishing in the beginning but stuck to it and I am super proud of him for scoring that goal.”

On getting prepared for Orlando …
“You see Orlando and that they beat NYCFC, so it is going to be a hard week of training, but I think we are all ready for it and that we need to improve in some aspects. We just need to play simple. There were times were Curtin said, just play the way you are facing, and we get out of trouble. Towards the end we were starting to play like that.

There are definitely things that we can work on during the week and we are just excited to play next and play against Orlando.”

Forward, Kacper Przybylko
On scoring his first goal of the season…
“It showed the quality of the team. I am very proud of them, fighting and working so hard. Scoring the goal as a striker means a lot, because playing for this team is so easy to get so many chances. Fortunately, I scored a goal today. On the offsides, I don’t think it was offsides, but we always get other chances in the game. You just see the quality. You see the movement of Jamiro Monteiro that he is leaving the ball between his legs for Brenden Aaronson. Aaronson take a good touch and you see again that Monteiro was so unselfish and left the ball for me so I could finish. It is just the quality of the whole team. I am so proud that we won our second game here.”