“Look,” Jim Curtin said in his postgame press conference. “If we’re not creating chances I would sit up here and be a little bit nervous, but we had 18 shots.”
Of those 18 shots, half came from inside the box, and only the post denied Kacper Przybylko a second half equalizer.
“You look at the look Kacper [Przybylko] had at 2-1 and the look Jamiro [Monteiro] has right after,” Curtin shrugged, “And again some nights it doesn’t go in; it bounces a little bit against you.”
The Union controlled the entire match but fell prey to wonderful counterattacks that Curtin knows his team can do better on in the future.
“Won’t allow things to get negative at this point,” the coach insisted. “We’ve done a lot of good, hard work, the players emptied their tank.
“It’s our first loss in 7 games, it’s hard, we’ll learn from it, but we have a quick turnaround which is a good thing, and we have Colorado (Rapids) at home on Wednesday.
“This feels tough, and we’re disappointed, but some nights when there is quality in the final third, you get punished, and tonight was one of those nights.”
Curtin pointed to Brenden Aaronson’s toughness as something he was proud of, and he said that the young midfielder’s play on the field wasn’t the reason he was pulled at halftime. “Brenden played against one of the top No. 6s in the league and I thought he still found really good pockets of space, did a good job turning, and made the defense uncomfortable,” Curtin argued.
“It is another night where he learns a little bit more and again this is a hard result for us, but I still think we will be better and learn from it.”
Curtin’s conclusion was that his team remains strong and exciting, and that they need to be able to overcome these difficult moments to make an impact at the end of the season.
The next chance to earn points comes on Wednesday, May 29 when Colorado Rapids and Conor Casey come to Talen Energy Stadium. Tickets are available here.
