With his team streaking but staring down a difficult matchup in Washington, DC this Wednesday, Jim Curtin spoke with the media about player confidence and that inseparable duo: Wayne Rooney and Eric Ayuk.
Four on the trot
The Union have now won three straight in MLS and four overall. They’ve catapulted up the Eastern Conference standings, with last Saturday night’s win over New England the latest hard-fought three points.
“Not our best performance soccer-wise,” Jim Curtin admitted Tuesday, “But we really raised our level in the intangibles.
“We got a big game out of Andre Blake, the back four was pretty tight in limiting the opposition chances, so overall a big three points. It seems like the last four games that we've played in have kind of the "big game" quotations around them, and I think that our guys have really raised the level of play both offensively and defensively.”
But the Union head coach cautioned that one purple patch means little over the course of the full season. MLS is a volatile league with small margins, and Curtin wants to lead a team that tries to take destiny into its own hands. “We've encouraged our guys to be brave,” Curtin said. “You have to chase points on the road. We've improved that — we're still not great, we can be better, but we've been a little more bold and maybe it's better to chase three than get one in a lot of these instances. And I do think you're rewarded when you do go for it in certain instances. And our guys and players have responded well to that.”
“There's no real time to shut off or think that you've accomplished anything in this league,” Curtin continued. “Because the second you feel that you get punched in the teeth and you get knocked out. We have to continue to push, continue to get better each and every day in training. I love my group, I love where my team is at, I love how they're playing right now, it's a joy to watch them in training, there's confidence, but I also recognize how quickly that can be lost, so we need to keep going.”
Rooney Tunes
DC United’s recent surge in performance has been driven by the arrival of English soccer legend Wayne Rooney, a squat but ever-successful Everton product that spent his best years at Manchester United. Rooney can do a lot up top, and the Union need to be ready for everything in his bag of tricks.
“You'll hear people say 'Oh, how's he going to manage the travel, or the turf fields?” Curtin said. “The guy's a world class striker, I think he'll be just fine.
“You see now what he brings to their offense and their hold-up play. His ability to lay balls off, spin, and get them back. You can tell him and [Luciano] Acosta really enjoy playing off of each other. They look for each other during the course of the 90 minutes. It's kind of comical when people paint a picture, whether about Zlatan or Rooney, and then they come up with reasons why they're going to struggle. I think people sometimes don't recognize that world class is world class.”
Curtin continued his praise, but noted that Rooney’s class is no reason for the Union to back off or give him any space. “The thing you notice with Wayne is his movement is so intelligent,” the head coach explained, “There's no wasted motion. Sometimes you see young strikers that are moving 100mph all over the place, but they're not running smart. His movement is exactly when he needs to show for somebody, entry balls are laid into him and he lays them off so simply. The one thing you can't do with him when he does drop deep into midfield is allow him to turn and face because he can hit those 50-60 yard throughballs. We'll encourage our guys to be brave, as they have all year, to step and be tight to Wayne when he's on the field.”
Ayuk moves on
“I think it's a good move for Eric, he gave a ton to the club,” Curtin responded when asked about Eric Ayuk’s recently announced move to the Turkish second division. “Did really well with the minutes that he got, played a lot of games for us, so we're really grateful for his service. It's just a position now that we're very crowded at.”
Indeed, the Union have David Accam, Fafa Picault, Ilsinho, Fabian Herbers, CJ Sapong, and Marcus Epps as regular options on the wings,
“We're happy with a lot of guys. We have starting quality on the bench, we have starting quality in that's not even getting in our 18. And Eric was in a position where it was difficult to get him minutes. It took a little while to get things done. I think it's good for him, I think it's good for the Union.”
Curtin and the Union face DC United Wednesday night at 8PM EST at Audi Field.
