Philadelphia Union returns to play on Saturday, October 19th for a must-win Decision Day matchup against FC Cincinnati at Subaru Park. The day before the action, Head Coach Jim Curtin met with the media, previewing the all-importnat regular season finale ahead.
Everyone is available
Head Coach Jim Curtin kicked off his final regular season pregame presser with some postitive news, sharing that he will have his entire group healthy and available for the team's final regular season match of the year.
"There's the normal bumps and bruises that every team has at this stage of the season, but it's good to be at full strength," Curtin said. "We've had a good couple weeks of training,
and we look forward to a very difficult match to end the season."
That group includes Andre Blake, who's been on the mend amidst injury challenges throughout the season.
"He was able to kick with with Jamaica, which was encouraging. As of right now, barring any setbacks in warm ups tomorrow, he should be good to take goal kicks which helps organizationally and with back line, and the stepping, the dropping together and keeping things compact. It's a little thing, but it can cause some problems," Curtin said.
We know the stakes
Philadelphia Union has a tall task ahead of them. In order to advance to the postseason, the team needs to win AND either D.C. United or C.F. Montreal need to lose their respective Decision Day match. While their destiny is not fully in their hands, Curtin ensured his group is up to the challenge.
"I think we know the stakes. We know that we have to have a great performance against Cincinnati, a team that we obviously have a real history with in the last several years, in the playoffs, some really good regular season games -- it's always a high intensity game where both teams are very familiar with each other, and there's a lot on the line for both teams," Curtin said.
"So in our building now, we need to put on a good performance for our fans and end the season the right way, and then hope for a little bit of help."
Scouting the opponent
Like Curtin said, Philadelphia Union has a competitive recent history with FC Cincinnati. It includes two 6+ goal games in 2024 and an intense Eastern Conference Semifinal last year. Even though the visitors aren't battling for positioning in the standings, there's still a lot on the line for both sides in their regular season finale.
"It does mean different things for each team. There still is a possibility of a Concacaf Champions Cup spot on the line for them because of the uniqueness of the changes in the rules, but we'll have to be at our max to beat Cincinnati. We know the one thing we control is how we play and if we can get a result and that's our priority. We have to win the game, otherwise our season is 100% over. That part is clear. So control what you can control, which is how we perform tomorrow," Curtin said.
"We want to give max effort, max intensity for our fans. We know the building will be sold out and loud, and they'll be behind us, and we're going to need them from minute one all the way till the final whistle. Like I said, if we do our part maybe one of the other matchups falls our way and we get ourselves into the playoffs."
