Ten shots allowed over two matches. That’s just stingy.
And while Jim Curtin was thrilled with the result, he took a longer view of his team’s performance and pointed to all the little things they did well on the night.
Work hard, adjust well
“We made some really good runs into corners,” Curtin pointed out. “I didn’t like our movement in the first half but I think the guys up top adjusted in the second half and ran into some deeper spots and broke up that triangle between Fafa [Picault], David [Accam], and Marco [Fabian].”
It wasn’t just the runs that Curtin liked in the second half, it was also the mental fortitude his team showed as they chased a road win in extremely uncomfortable conditions. “We still could’ve finished a few more,” the coach admitted. “But any time you can get a shutout in a tough environment on a tough day, with the elements and turf and all these variables, to win 2-0 on the road is always something special.”
The hits keep Accam-ing
“I thought the play he makes on the goal is special,” Curtin enthused when asked about David Accam’s second straight strong performance. The Ghanaian was wearing his (and his father’s) nickname on the back of his jersey for the first time when he scored his third goal of the season — one more than he scored across all competitions for Philadelphia last year — and provided an assist in the second straight game.
“The composure he shows to fake a shot to get the defenders to dive in, and then to calm down in front of goal and just finish and just slot it in was excellent,” the coach said. “He’s hot right now.”
Accam was replaced by Cory Burke and looked as though he was carrying an injury when he departed. Curtin described the issue as “a little tightness he started to feel” and said that, given that the team was on turf, pulling Accam was the sensible move. He gave Accam credit for being willing to step off rather than trying to push through something that could have easily gotten worse in a hurry.
For his part, Accam said he feels as though he’s “trying to get fitter and fitter” as he recovers from last year’s hernia surgery. “We needed to do a lot of runs to create more space for ourselves and I think that is what we did,” the attacker explained.
Curtin, Accam, and the Union will look to make it three wins in a row next weekend when FC Dallas comes to Philadelphia on Saturday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
