Philadelphia Union picked up their third regular season draw of the year, heading home from their first-ever trip to Q2 stadium with a 2-2 result. After the match, Head Coach Jim Curtin met with the media, recapping the action.
Sharing the point
As of the official’s final whistle, neither Austin FC nor Philadelphia have picked up a decided win so far in the Major League Soccer regular season; they each left Saturday’s contest with a point to show for the matchup. Although it wasn’t the final score they had hoped for, Curtin spoke to the positives he saw from his team in their inaugural league match against Austin, which came after an unfavorable exit from Concacaf Champions Cup against Pachuca.
“Overall, after the disappointing night on Tuesday, as an entire group, we challenged ourselves to stick together and have a good response. I thought we got that in the first half. I thought we looked like us,” Curtin said.
“When you go on the road, it's always hard to create chances. You talk about transitions that lead to attempts at goal, that was very high in this game. Shots on the road are hard to come by, we outshot our opponent which is not easy, and had a lot of good chances. Played a really, really strong first half, but a good lesson not getting that second goal. You let good teams hang around and they can make a play.”
A team effort
Saturday’s lineup was the strongest Jim Curtin’s had available since the start of league play, but it won’t be that way in the near future with National Team call-ups looming. Before the match, Curtin spoke with his team about the impending lineup changes, encouraging them to use that incoming reality as motivation for the night.
“I said it in the pregame talk. I said before we go away, let's have a real union performance where we look like ourselves,” Curtin said.
“I'm not concerned if there's mistakes on the field. I know we didn't play the perfect game, but let's do it where we're not afraid. I know six yellow cards is probably too many but that tells you we were up for the game, you know what I mean? We were in their face on the road. This is a hostile environment, it's a tough place to play. Driussi gets thrown in at the end and it can get scary, but I think we bended and didn’t break."
