Philadelphia Union Head Coach Jim Curtin
Opening Statement...
Overall, not our best. First want to thank the fans; I thought they really pushed us in a big way when we needed them. I think our roster and our talent level is too good for a performance like tonight. Having said that, we did get an important three points. A lot we need to work on, but if we want to be now mentioned in the elite teams in this league, a performance like tonight is nowhere near good enough. The LAFCs, Atlanta [United FCs], the New York City [FCs], if we want to talk about them, the performance overall tonight just wasn't good enough. We weren’t sharp on the ball, we seemed a bit sluggish, so as good as we were against D.C. [United] we took a big step back and the first half was one of our worst halves. So, a lot we can improve. I'll take responsibility as a coach that they weren't ready to go. I give them a ton of credit for the work they put in, but I think everyone knows it was not good enough tonight.
On what he wasn't happy about tonight...
You can insert any line you want, any cliché line you want. We weren't good enough with the ball, we turned it over in bad spots, guys weren’t sharp, the field is bad, it’s bumpy, it’s difficult, but at the same time it's the same for both teams. We weren’t clean with our passing. It’s disappointing because we had, I thought, a really sharp week of training. I thought the players looked excellent, seemed ready to go. Then we let ourselves down. We had to kind of fight and scrap to get out of here with a win. Overall, everybody can do better.
On coming off an emotional win last week...
I don't want it to be a situation where we need to have a bad game in order to show a response and be ourselves again. We want more consistency to be playing at our maximum all the way now as we have eight games left going into the playoffs. It's not one thing, you can't just say it's how were attacking, how were defending, how were doing on set pieces, it’s collectively as a group. I say this because I don’t want us to be a middle of the road, average team. I want us to take a step up and actually get some respect in this league because the players deserve that. They've had a great season, but performances like tonight are dangerous. It could have been a tie or a loss in a lot of ways. Overall, our players are too good, they've put too much work into this year to let things get away from us. Again, I’m saying this off a win and a two game, good, winning streak we’ve got going, but again we want to push into the upper echelon of teams.
On the comfort level of defending against a team with a large amount of possession...
We all hold ourselves to a high standard. I say this because I’ve watched this team at their best, and tonight we just didn’t look like ourselves. You can put your finger on a lot of different things, but it's still collectively now as a group, why does it take some adversity for us to respond. Even giving up the goal before halftime, it woke us up a little bit; I thought the second half was better, but still if we want to be a top tier team, we have to play better.
On Aurelien Collin’s performance and the competition between center backs...
It's a deep roster too, and having said all the negative things I just said, we have real fights to get into our eleven, we have real fights to get into our eighteen now and we have a deep team. I can remember as recently as last week when we’re walking out of the tunnel and Ben Olsen says to me, ‘Look at your bench, you have Ilsinho and Jamiro [Monteiro],’ and he goes through the names, [Auston] Trusty has a ton of games. It's very good and competitive right now, so I don't want to act like it’s the end of the world or anything, but I still want to challenge my players to do better. Challenge my coaching staff to do better, myself to do better. Yes we have 45 points, but you see how tight the Eastern Conference is and you can see how quickly things can change in this league. It's your job as a coach, you're basically coaching to not have let downs and we have had good responses after let downs, but I’m now trying to eliminate the let downs. I don’t think that’s what we need to have for a response.
On Marco Fabian’s recent form...
Obviously, D.C. [United] was a special night for him, he really raised his level. We got him on the ball a lot in some dangerous spots. Listen, Houston [Dynamo] came out and almost played a 4-2-4, caught us a little off guard and it took some time for us to figure it out. I thought tonight Marco kind of drifted too far wide, the first half in particular. We weren't able to really put him on the ball in any dangerous spots. It was kind of the decision to put him out on the wing because he was playing there anyway and he could come inside and get on the ball. He is going to make us go, one way or the other down the stretch in these last eight games. He's a great player, a key guy for us and you can't tell the more volume we give him, the more times we put him on the ball, the harder it is for a defense. If you think about D.C. versus tonight, how many times he had time to pick his head up and shoot from distance, to slip a ball through, it was exponentially higher in the D.C. game than it was tonight and we have to fix that.
On Haris Medunjanin and his positioning on the field...
With [Houston] almost playing a four man front line it really kept our full backs pinned back. What was happening was Haris was dropping a little bit too deep I thought in the first half he was in between the center backs a lot. Rather than creating another level for us to play through and being higher than that front four. So now, once balls go through the lines to him, he can turn and he can now really play forward and do what he does best which is pass. Just a matter of where we found him on the field. It's a combination of a lot of things, when they sacrifice four guys high like that, and you play a good forward ball on the ground, you're eliminating four guys right off the bat. We didn’t do that enough with quality tonight and it took us a little while to figure some things out. Eventually in the second half we got Haris on the ball a little higher up the field, we got [Jamiro] Monteiro involved, good to have him back, but it was a little shift at halftime to keep him a little bit more higher, and Marco more central if we could.
On the three man midfield of Marco Fabian, Jamiro Monteiro, and Ilsinho...
Good soccer players recognize good soccer players. You could see as soon as Ilsinho and Jamiro come into the game, all of the sudden, it changes things because Houston has to respect how good they are on the ball, how they will always look forward first. They make the defense drop and that gives more space for everybody. I thought it changed the game a little bit, and it made Houston drop a lot deeper and they weren’t able to even get guys forward on the counter, because now you have to accommodate. You have to double team Ilsinho or you have to double team Jamiro and that opens up little 2v1s for us. Those guys have quality, Marco as well, and when they get combining it’s fun to watch. We were just a little off tonight in all areas though.
Defender Jack Elliott
On his goal tonight...
Yeah, I didn’t really know too much about the first play. I was just in the area, I guess that’s what counted and I saw it going over the goalkeeper and then I was just waiting to see what happened.
On scoring after being called offside on a previous attempt...
I think it does. You could see straight away I was looking over to the assistant to see if he was going to put his flag up, but thankfully it didn’t get two in one game. It was good to get one off after having one taken away.
On getting the win...
It was a fight from everyone and I think everyone showed up to fight. We didn’t play our best football and there are reasons for that, but I think everyone fought for the full 90 minutes and that’s what made the difference in the end.
On coming off the win at D.C. United and what could change...
It’s one of those things this time of year, it sort of happens. The most important thing I think this time of the year is winning and sometimes you have to win every game. That’s exactly what today was and we showed that we could do that, which is important to us and is important going forward.
Forward Kacper Przybylko
On what he was trying to do on the first goal...
It was like a good double pass with Haris [Medunjanin], he gave me the ball and I just finished. I also don’t care how it went in, but it went and and yeah had a good look at the goal.
On his celebration...
No, it was also a surprise for Ale [Bedoya] because he did a great job with the statement and you know I support him. The whole team supports him with all he is doing and he’s totally right with that, so I was like you know, for me it was a feeling I had that was good.
On what it’s like having teammates back from injury and what it means moving forward...
It’s great for the team, but also it’s fantastic also for [Jim Curtin]. He has the choice right now on that, we have to fight you know every practice for the place you know on the team and it’s like some players fight for the number ten, players you know fight for also the forward position, so I have to keep my quality to stay there where I am right now. I just want to help the team and it’s also great that we have the opportunity to do that. I mean we also had a lot of chances today, we were sloppy and I should just speak also for myself. I was sloppy also today with all these balls that I get, saving the ball, with just passing the ball with one contact. I know I can do it better, but in the end who cares. We won, three points and this is the most important to me.
On how they were able to still win despite not having the best performance...
This is how it is. If you stay on the top, you win games like this. If you stay like more down in the table then, probably you lose this game. So who cares, who cares three points, and very important.
