Philadelphia Union fell on the road in their 2020 season opener at FC Dallas by a 2-0 scoreline Saturday evening. Here are our pressing points presented by UNIBET on Head Coach Jim Curtin’s postgame comments.
Just one match
While the Boys in Blue came out on the wrong end of the result, Curtin stressed that it was just a combination of little things that added up to the game-changing goal that Dallas scored in the 61st minute.
“In these week one games it’s often the teams that doesn’t make a mistake and if you reward our goal, little details become big things,” Curtin said. “We kicked a goal kick out of bounds, they throw it in and they do a through ball where Brenden is in a great place to intercept and it goes underneath his cleat and now all of a sudden instead of us going out on a transition the other way, it turns into their goal. We’ll learn from it and it’s small margins but there are some things to clean up.”
Creavalle impresses
When the Union announced their starting lineup a hour before kick off in Frisco, Texas, social media and pundits reacted to the inclusion of Warren Creavalle at the No. 6 role. While everyone was caught off guard, Curtin explained the situation following the match where Creavalle impressed.
“Warren was the one that earned it in the preseason and he missed time in the preseason with an injury but he came back strong and I thought tonight was one of our best players for sure.”
Creavalle not only was one of the stronger players on the pitch but he went the full 90 minutes, something that even Curtin didn’t expect when he spoke about the veteran during his midweek press conference before the team departed for Texas.
“He pushed and there were a couple moments where you think he’s done and he’s tired but he gets a second and third wind and continues to make plays and work for the team. I’m really happy with the way he played, he fought every hard and that’s the kind of performance we need from all our guys and we’re a team that’s going to need all 11 to have good performances. Everyone doesn’t have to be great but everyone has to been good.
Glesnes or Elliott
The other lineup change came in the back and while everyone knew that there would be a change with Kai Wagner injured, the starting XI saw newcomer Jakob Glesnes starting along side Mark McKenzie. While Glesnes got the start, Curtin made it quite clear that Elliott is still in the plans for the Boys in Blue in the near future.
“I had a good honest discussion with [Jack] and the reality is he went for his green card for 12 days missed a little bit of a rhythm after coming in and he’s one of our sharpest guys. It’s a tough process in terms of missing that many days of training but he’ll be up to speed and back in we have full confidence in him as a starter. We know that there are international competitions coming up so everyone needs to be ready to play and Jack will play a lot of minutes and not at striker.
