Philadelphia Union are still undefeated after a comeback draw on the road in Atlanta that finished with a 2-2 scoreline. With the result, the team traveled home with another point added to their total before heading into their bye weekend, where well-deserved rest awaits. Before the flight back to Philly, Head Coach Jim Curtin met with the media, recapping the hard-fought match.
Last men standing
Curtin’s squad has emerged from their first seven regular season matches without a loss, but that success hasn’t come easy. In four of those contests, they’ve had to overcome a deficit to claim a result.
“They showed a lot of heart,” Curtin said of his team in his postgame press conference.
That heart has made them one of the toughest teams to face in the league, and Curtin wasn’t shy to confirm that he believes that’s a sentiment shared across Major League Soccer.
“Whether people in the public think we're good, think we're bad, they will at least say we're tough to play against. I think that unequivocally across the board, there's not a coach or general manager or fan in this league that would say we're an easy team to deal with and play against,” Curtin said.
“Part of that is not losing, finding ways to turn losses into ties, ties into wins, and we'll look to try to continue to do that, and really protect our home field.”
Upon their return to Philadelphia, they’ll have a schedule of four home games and one bus trip to D.C. before they take flight again mid-May.
“We've been away for too long. We had a lot of travel in Champions League, we missed [our fans]. We obviously had the unique situation where a game gets rained out, so we lost the Seattle game at home, which we would at least have under our belt,” Curtin said.
"But five [away games] out of seven on the road is really really hard in this league, I like where we're at. Could some of the ties have been wins this year? Of course. But like we've said we've proven we're tough to play against and at home, I know we're going to create chances, I know we're going to score goals. I know we're going to get the fans into the game and we can't wait to be back home.”
Mikael’s Momentum
The team’s 29-year-old Danish striker found the team's first goal when they needed it most, putting them back in the game after conceding two goals to open the second half. The score marked his third regular season goal this season, and Curtin outlined the momentum it created for his squad, as Kai Wagner scored the tying goal four minutes later.
“It's a strikers goal and when another team makes a mistake, you have to punish them. You have to have that killer instinct to make them pay and Mikael did,” Curtin said of the play.
“He still had a lot of work to do from the angle — obviously an unexpected mistake and a pass back that he was alert to. He finished the play off and from that point on shifted the momentum of the game."
