With his team riding a three match winning streak — US Open Cup semifinal included — Jim Curtin spoke to the media about facing down New York City FC, preparing for a hungry New England side, the fine lines between success and failure in Major League Soccer, and how Ale Bedoya has helped his team off the pitch.
Humble and hungry
Curtin said last weekend’s match against NYCFC was “our most complete performance of the season, mainly because it comes against a very good opponent.” The Union head coach highlighted his team’s defensive effort and the crowd’s noise level that pushed the players on.
“Now keeping the guys humble and hungry because we know we have a big week ahead,” Curtin added. “We’ve set ourselves up nicely where we control our own destiny.”
Revved up and ready
Stepping back to look at the situation at hand, Curtin said he knows New England will come out with energy on Saturday. “Obviously, they're coming off a difficult loss to DC, we're coming off very confident,” he said. “But at the same time, in this league, if you're not prepared, if you're not treating every game with the right mentality, you get punched in the teeth in this league. That's the reality. There's no easy games. Just because we're at home it doesn't make it any easier. We have to execute.
Having only played a fortnight ago, Curtin knows that the Revs will be ready to adjust and respond to the wrinkles that caught them off guard in the last matchup. Scott Caldwell will be suspended for New England after picking up a red card, but Brad Friedel will still have plenty of options at his disposal. “We're familiar with each other, having just played,” Curtin admitted. “The scouting report is very similar. There could be a couple tweaks here and there to their group because they have a busy stretch as well, so we'll see how it goes, and prepare the group as best we can.”
That winning feeling
“You can feel it,” Curtin said of the team’s confidence. “You can feel it in training today. We did an exercise that we probably do once every two weeks, and it's an exercise that creates little 3v2s in certain parts of the field, and it's one that maybe we'd get two goals maximum. Maybe we'd fight to get one and some days we hadn't scored any. And today I think we scored seven times. The players feel it. They talk about it. So confidence is powerful.”
Still, the Union head man knows that feeling can evaporate in a hurry. “We are in a good run of form, but we know that fine line and how quickly it can change,” Curtin said. “You don't have to look far, look at even DC United. If Orlando scores that goal like they probably deserved at that stage, and Wayne Rooney doesn't make the play he does, the fine lines between now turning into a 3-4 game win streak can be taken away quickly. Orlando could've been the team that was hot right now. Everybody's fighting for every inch, every point. But the margins in this league are very fine.”
Allez Allez Ale
Ale Bedoya’s fine play on the pitch continues to impress fans and coaches alike. But for Curtin’s money, it’s what Bedoya, as the team captain, brings to the squad when they are off the pitch. “On the field, it's been great, I think it's best eleven level,” Curtin asserted. “A lot of weight goes into being a captain. It's not an easy role to handle and I think he's really grown into that — he's always been a great player, and his performance on the field speaks for itself — but he's playing at an incredibly high level on the field, but perhaps I'm most proud of what he's doing in the locker room and all the off the field stuff that helps everybody out.
“So that now, if guys start to go off into corners, or different tangents, he's there to pull them back and put his arm around them. He knows what a young player needs. He knows how to talk to the experienced guys, he knows how to talk to a guy that's maybe not happy with the minutes he's getting. He knows how to keep guys humble that are maybe playing really well for the first time in their lives and recognize that it's not a full season yet. He's been excellent in that regard.”
Bedoya will lead the Union onto the pitch against New England Revolution this Saturday at 7PM EST at Talen Energy Stadium.
