Philadelphia Union defeated New York Red Bulls in a rivalry match on Saturday night, adding three points to their total in their last fixture before an international break. Following the match, Head Coach Jim Curtin met with the media, recapping the dominant 2-0 win.
The rivalry renews
The match was intense from the start, as is typical for meetups with New York Red Bulls, and the atmosphere was amplified with loud support from both New York fans and traveling Philly faithful in the stands. The Union used that energy to create two goals in the first 20 minutes, holding that lead through the final whistle.
“This rivalry tends to bring out the best in our group, and it was a big three points. I think we're all disappointed with losing to a very strong Columbus team at home, but I had a good response and got an important three points tonight,” Curtin said.
“I think big picture wise, if you look at the first 15 minutes of our Columbus game and the first 15 minutes of this game, that's us at our best. We have it in us, and now the challenge is to sustain it for for all 90.”
Danley gets his second start
Philadelphia Union’s newly signed midfielder Danley Jean Jaques earned his second Union start on Saturday, this time playing his first full 90 minutes in Blue and Gold. Curtin was impressed with the 24-year-old Haitain’s performance, and after the match, he detailed his staff’s idea behind their Starting XI.
“That was a great performance from Danley. Really proud of him. Not easy to come into a new team with a language barrier, and the thinking was to start [Alejandro Bedoya] with him just for communication, and Ale knowing the intensity of what a Red Bull game needs. I think they did a great job in the first half and we held on in the second half of us being up,” Curtin said.
“Danley had, I thought, a really quiet, great game tonight, which is what you want out of the six. You don't want to notice them. It's like an offensive lineman. When you don't talk about them, they're having a great game.”
McGlynn magic
Another players’ performance that Curtin singled out in his postgame press conference was that of Homegrown Jack McGlynn, who’s pace and style of play balanced out an otherwise intense game.
“It sounds counterintuitive, but Jack McGlynn is the perfect player for a Red Bull game, because when everybody else is going 1000 miles an hour, he can have that calm and say, 'I got this,' and and when someone's sprinting at them, maybe make a deceptive move to get out of pressure, and then play a through ball,” Curtin said.
It was McGlynn who set up Mikael’s opening goal, finding him with a pass up the left sideline that allowed the Dane to speed past his defender for a shot from distance.
“You need a brain. You need a guy that can make a pass that unlocks an aggressive team, and that's still a very good Red Bull team, but we have a way of little things that we do against them that I think give them problems too,” Curtin said.
“One of the big pieces is Jack being calm on the ball when everyone else is going 1000 miles per hour. I think you saw some really good combinations, even on the plays we didn't score. I liked a lot of those even more. The two goals from outside the box, that's great, but we could have had three or four tap-ins too. They could have scored. It could have been a four to four game, don't get me wrong, they had chances as well, but we'll take the points. And I thought Jack did a great job.”
