As his team ramps up for Montreal Impact on Saturday, Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin spoke to the media about facing Los Angeles Galaxy and bouncing back this weekend.
Curtin focused on how his team responded after going down against Galaxy, pointing to good second half chance creation and pressure on the ball. Still, he said, you can't get around the fact that Zlatan punishes you every chance he gets.
"Got punished by Zlatan in the box," he said. "Overall, didn’t concede a ton of chances in the run of play but still in the critical moments marking him in the box was a problem for us."
A setback on the road is less than ideal, but Curtin noted that with six of the next eight matches at home, his team is in a good position to make a run. The Impact, however, will not be an easy test to pass.
"Obviously have a very organized, tough opponent in Montreal coming in who handled their away games very well early on in the season and are coming off a first home game victory," the coach said. "They have a lot of experience on their roster and they are comfortable breaking on the counter. We’ve talked about it that we are team that plays better when we have the lead, getting the first goal will be critical because that makes teams change and adjust. We have to do a good job of staying organized, not letting them have an opportunity which is something that I’ve been stressing to the group and we’ve been good at it this year. For some reason, it is a strange match up for us.”
Big time injuries on both sides
Ignacio Piatti has been one of the most dangerous wingers in the league over the past few seasons and the Union have felt his wrath before. The Argentinian is fighting through an injury right now and it's unclear whether he'll be available on Saturday or not. Similarly, the Union seem doubtful that their creative hub, Marco Fabian, will make the pitch on Saturday.
Curtin spoke about how Piatti's absence affects preparation for Montreal and the current status of Fabian, noting that "Piatti is a real game changer for them and someone they’ve missed but have done a great job without him."
"It is a lot less swollen and hopefully he will be back involved in training at the start of next week," Curtin said of Fabian's ankle. "There is an outside shot that maybe he could be available off the bench this week but that is still to be determined and we are taking it day by day."
Balance in the back
A major question for the Union is how they cover for the suspended Auston Trusty. Mark McKenzie looks set to join a back four that hadn't seen any changes throughout the opening matches of the season. Last year, McKenzie played as a right center back, but with Jack Elliott's strong form, Curtin said the club is still working out final arrangements for the back line.
"The question we have is do you want to take the comfort that Jack has?" he began. "I would say that Mark is more comfortable on the right also so they are both more comfortable on the right hand side. Do you want to negate Jack’s good right foot and move him to the left?
"If Piatti is healthy then that’s a factor in this whole thing," Curtin continued. "Mark, just like Auston, allows you to keep a very high back line because of his speed and he has that real recovery speed and a physical presence and is cerebral with the ball too. He has a good left foot to play balls to Kai as well. We’ve worked with them in training and haven’t made the final decision in terms of what side but it’s an ongoing discussion. I’m a believer and maybe it’s the old school center back in me that if you are a good center back you can play on the right or left.”
Balance up front as well
If we see a weakness perhaps at a left center back or left back then maybe you can go with speed to try and get behind," Curtin said when asked about his choices at striker.
"If you see that we need a target to hold the ball up as was way we approached the Galaxy game, that changed when Marco got injured, but you wanted Cory up there to occupy the center backs for the first pass. Things can change quickly but you want a lot of different options to choose from and we have that now with David in the way he’s won games for his with his goals, Fafa with his workrate and still waiting to break out with goals... and now Kacper getting into the fold as well after doing really well with the Bethlehem Steel, in training and likely to be rewarded with being in the 18 and an option off the bench.”
Eyes are always on you
A long-term point Curtin made at his press conference was that every player is always in contention for the matchday squad. He said that the coaches consider playing for Bethlehem Steel FC to be a big way players can make an impression and work their way into the Union's first eleven.
“I was just speaking with Brendan Burke about it and we weren’t happy with a lot of the performances to be honest," Curtin said of Steel's loss to Charlotte Tuesday night. "These are windows for guys to show, and we had five Union players down there, that they want to be in the 18 for the first team, they want to be in the 11 for the first team.
"Last night wasn’t good enough, some of our younger players did a good job but collectively as a group wasn’t sharp enough and I think the performances could have been better for our guys that were down there.
"All these games we judge players, we judge them every training session and every game that they get. You can’t have letdowns because you have to travel to a smaller city and not have the nice amenities that you have with the first team but in order to get those, you have to earn them and that’s where we are at."
Curtin leads the Union out against Montreal Impact for a Kids Day showdown at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 20. Tickets are available here.
