Philadelphia Union Head Coach Jim Curtin
Opening statement
Overall some nights in soccer you can play a good game and still lose. I thought the first half we created some good chances. Red Bull put a lot into the game, as well, missed a few opportunities to get the early lead, and we made a mistake on the goal, obviously, had plenty of bodies in the box to cover, but Dre just kind of spilled it. So it happens. We'll pick ourselves up, we have to regroup quickly, go to San Jose. But overall I'm still happy with the team's performance. It's not often you come to Red Bull and have that much of the ball and are able to create chances. We just didn't finish them off tonight, and again, we'll go back, we'll look at the tape, we'll get better from it and move on to the next two games.
This is two weeks in a row that Andre has had a similar type low, hard cross that he’s spilled. Is that a worry or is it just stuff that happens?
Look, he's a goalkeeper that's won us a lot of points, as well. So again, sometimes guys make mistakes on the field and we have to pick them up, and it's a team; we win as a team, we lose as a team, as you guys always hear me say, so it's not something we're concerned with. But it obviously changed the game and made us have to chase a little bit. Didn't really give up a lot of chances tonight until after the injury to Mark.
In 60 percent of the possessions you were out-shot 17-8. How does that happen?
We didn't hit the target. A lot of the looks that we had -- we had a lot of possession, but it wasn't possession with a purpose. We were kind of going around them and never really through the middle parts of the field, which is what we've been pretty good at. Kacper worked very hard but a lot of times he touched the ball was out wider than the goal post, which is not where we want him on the ball. Again, we had a lot of the ball, but Red Bull was comfortable defending us, so we didn't really challenge them enough. During the course of the 90 minutes there weren't a ton of clear-cut chances. Having said that, the one where we do get the one to Fafa, we have to score that. Ale has a good look, Kacper has a good look at the top of the box, so you know, in the real games, which is this is a real game against a team we could see very soon in the playoffs, the team that scores their chances is the team that comes out on top. Whoever defends the best in the box and whoever attacks the best in the box comes away as the winner.
Do you worry about your central midfielders not shooting enough when they have chances, 15 to 20 yards or so?
Yeah, look, we talked at halftime about getting Jamiro a little higher up the field. He was coming back to get on the ball, trying to find him between the lines more. So it was a night where I'm proud of the effort, I'm proud of the soccer we played, but at the same time, we can be a little better in that attacking third of the field. That's something we can improve this week for sure.
Were you always planning to get Marco on?
Yeah, you know, ideally we would have put him on. Then the injury happens to Mark and rather than just go centerback for centerback, we thought we were going to decide to be aggressive there and go for the game, go to get a goal, obviously down. So it hurts to lose Mark. He's been playing great, but again, we'll have our next guy step up and do a good job. But yeah, certainly the next level was Marco, just not the way that we wound up having to do it and adjusted to the 3-5-2.
We saw Sergio walk off?
Yeah, Sergio hurt his hamstring. I think it's both hamstrings for each guy, so I just told Sergio, once it went to 2-0, I told him to get off the field because he pulled it, so you don't want him to damage it worse when there's literally 10 seconds left. He came off. Mark looks like a hamstring, too. Doesn't take a genius to realize hamstrings take time. So that's not a good thing, but again, we have a deep squad, we'll have to use it. We went into the game fully healthy and we suffered two injuries.
Does that change any rotation plans for Wednesday?
I think a lot of things change. That's why it's always tough to put your lineup on paper before you go into these three games in a week stretches. Variables like San Jose, also, having a couple red cards will have to juggle their lineup, as well. We'll be missing a few guys with injuries. We'll certainly have some fresh legs out there for sure. We're going to have to go after points now on the road. We dropped some tonight, and we could have got a tie out of tonight if we were a little sharper, but now we move on to San Jose and Columbus. We need points, so we're chasing some points now. It's great to clinch a playoff game at home, which is important, so I will step back and be proud of the club for that, but we're going to chase every point. We're not just going to throw out a second team and sacrifice anything.
How does this team get second place back do you think?
Get more points than Atlanta. How do we get second place you're saying? We were pushing for first place. It's still possible. New York City has a tough schedule and we play them on the last day. We're still going to fight for first place. Obviously one and two are the key seeds because then you get the next home game. We have a lot to play for now. You can see how tight it is in the West, how tight it is in the East. Teams are picking up injuries at tough times, Josef Martinez, whatever -- a lot of things are changing by the hour and by the minute, so we're still a team that can jump up to that two or one seed, we believe that, but it got a little bit tougher tonight, and Red Bull deserves credit for the three points. They put a lot into the game and defended really well as a team.
Midfielder Haris Medunjanin
On the New York Red Bulls...
Nothing, they scored two goals and we scored zero. There's the clear summary of the game today. We had our chances, we don't score. We make a mistake with the first goal and then you trailing back again. There was no reason for that at all because I think we controlled the tempo and we controlled the game. When you play our way, you need to take your chances and you need to score goals. If you don't score goals, it will keep the other team in the game and they came two times and scored one goal. Then in the second half, you want to score. Still, we have a lot of good chances, you know, but then it's like an open game, it can go either way. They did what they always do. They play long balls, second balls and we already knew what we need to do against them, but today they wanted it. Congratulations to Red Bull.
On looking forward to the next game… You need to play right now. You need to win a game in this last three to be the third place team. We also did a good job. We were going to play the home game. That was a goal of us, this season, to be hosting the home game, and that's what we did, but we need to understand that when we play away, you need to finish your chances. We're going to get now San Jose also who is like desperate for points. They need to win to stay in the playoffs. So it's going to be a hard game, they play very good soccer. And it's going to be a tough game for us and in three days, another game to show that you are good team on the road.
Goalkeeper Andre Blake
On the Tom Barlow goal...
I mean what can I say, it is just one of those things, it happened. I made a big mistake and it cost us the game tonight.
On Mark McKenzie...
Yeah for sure, he is a big-time player for us, and we definitely need every player down the stretch. We are definitely going to need him.
On the play tonight...
Yeah, the ball is slick. Yeah, I figured it out in the warm-ups, but I am not going to stand here and make any excuses. I try to make a safe play, you know, on the ball, but it is wet, and the ball kept going away from me. I probably should just change my technique. I did not do that in time and as the goalkeeper, I know that is my job. You make one mistake sometimes, it is the nature of my job. I know it is and as I said before, it is a big mistake that cost us the game tonight. I will take full responsibility for that and I will be ready for the next game.
On the energy going into the next match...
Yeah for sure. You know, as I said before, it is not my first mistake and it will not be the last, so we just got to move on. In this sport, you got to have a short-term memory. It is not about your mistakes, but how you react and as a team, I think unfortunately, we were unable to get a goal tonight, but it is a part of the game again, and as you said, it is a quick turnaround. We get a chance to step on the field again and make things right.
