After a disappointing 2-1 loss against Orlando City, Philadelphia Union traveled straight from Florida to Ohio for their final road match of the regular season on Saturday against Columbus Crew. Before the all-important battle for points at Lower.com Field, Head Coach Jim Curtin met with the media, previewing the matchup ahead.
Up for the challenge
Columbus Crew is one of the league’s most competitive teams this season, and having faced them twice already in 2024, Curtin’s squad is aware of the challenge ahead. For both team’s Saturday’s matchup will be their third game in a week, with Columbus Crew coming off a 3-2 loss to Inter Miami. Curtin dove into the strengths of their opponent, regardless of the lineup Wilfred Nancy choses to send out.
“We learned that in the game at home in Philadelphia, they played a quote unquote second choice group, but it's still a very strong, deep team. In some ways, those guys are pushing to get into the starting lineup, so they put on good performances, and then you had the luxury of bringing in Cucho [Hernandez] and [Diego] Rossi to change the game,” Curtin said.
“Regardless of who starts, regardless of how they approach the game, you don't get many chances against them. They don't concede a lot of shots, you don't get a lot of shots on target against them. They're at the very top of the league in terms of a lot of the defensive metrics. Everyone thinks of them as how great they are offensively and with the ball, and they are incredible, but defensively, they don't concede a lot of chances.”
Preparing for battle
In his press conference, Curtin gave insight into his conversations with the team during their preparations, which included a regeneration session in Orlando on Thursday, and a Friday afternoon training in Ohio.
“We have to be ruthless when we do get looks. We have to finish them off, and that usually means scoring early and trying to continue to push, because you can't sit back on a lead against this team because they have so much attacking firepower and they come at you for the entirety of 90 minutes,” Curtin said.
“A very tough task, for sure, but our group is capable of winning two games together. We've done that a lot of times with this group, and that's kind of my message to them. Let's go on a little bit of a win streak here to end the season.”
