Philadelphia Union closed out their regular season home schedule with a scoreless draw at Subaru Park against Nashville SC on Saturday night. After the final whistle, Head Coach Jim Curtin met with the media, recapping the match.
One point result
Neither team found the back of the net through 90 minutes on Saturday, with the Union limiting Nashville to just one shot on goal all night but only finding five of their own.
“A night where two teams need the points for seeding kind of cancel each other out, but defensively as a team we didn't give Andre [Blake] much to do. We were organized, hard to play against,” Curtin said.
“We need to be a little sharper in the final third of the field obviously. passing when I thought we should shoot and shooting when we should maybe pass, getting those plays right, they were a little bit off tonight.”
The team sits in third place now with one game left before the postseason with the Columbus Crew one point behind in fourth and the New England Revolution three points behind with a game in hand.
"Overall again, it's a point obviously. Now, need Nashville maybe to do us a favor and beat New England. But again, we’ll go into the final week on Decision Day and we'll look to try to take three points and get as high as we can in the Eastern Conference.
Dominant Damion
Curtin opted to start Damion Lowe in place on Jack Elliot tonight, shaking up his typical center backs duo. The decision served the team well, as Lowe had a standout night, helping to limit any Nashville offensive chances and extend Hany Mukhtar’s recent scoring drought.
“Damian was excellent tonight. He has the speed, the physicality to deal with a player like Mukhtar, who's an MVP in space, a lot of one-on-one, he did an incredible job and kept him fairly quiet on the day, which is not easy to do,” Curtin said.
“Really happy for Damion. He's been excellent for us all season long. He's one of the few guys that can kind of raise his level.”
Jesus Bueno injury update
Jesus Bueno was the only player unavailable for selection on Saturday night, and after the game, Curtin gave a brief update on his status.
“He tried to train yesterday, the ankle blew up too much. He's close to trying to train, it'll be kind of day by day. He obviously wants to get healthy and time to go to those [Venezuelan National Team] games. But if he's injured, you know, you have to do what makes sense.”
