Philadelphia Union Head Coach Jim Curtin spoke on Thursday about how he’s navigating the club’s busy slate that sees the squad bouncing back and forth between MLS contests and the Concacaf Champions League.
Cincinnati On The Mind
After picking up the victory against Atlas FC at Subaru Park on Tuesday night, Curtin said that the focus has completed turned to preparing for FC Cincinnati who currently occupy the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
“Pat Noonan has done a great job with them, starting the season very, very strongly, improved team on the defensive side of the ball. I think everybody knows, the firepower they have in attack. But Pat's done a great job getting that, defense really stable and organized. and I actually loved seeing him, even after a good 1-0 win, demanding more from his group and not being satisfied.”
Options at Left Back
A pair of homegrowns turned in memorable performances in the Union’s win over the Liga MX side. While they didn’t show up on the scoresheet, their play was noticeable for their contributions in areas they haven’t thrived in before.
Starting Nathan Harriel wouldn’t be much of a surprise for Union fans but when the Starting XI was announced, they were doing a double take with the right back starting on the opposite side. Curtin was quick to point out it wasn’t due to the performance of Matt Real in the prior match but just a rotation for fitness reasons saying “it made sense to rather have him, get a little bit of a break, and not play on the two days quick rest, bought him a little bit of time now. and I think you'll see him play a big role in our next game. Having said that to Nathan stepped in and did left back before in the past for us in big games, and he's a real 1V1 defender and he did a great job against Atlas and it shows. If something did happen to Matt, we can kind of do that at any moment. So good news there.”
Impressive McGlynn
Jack McGlynn was huge on both sides of the ball. Already known as an elite playmaker with a rocket of a left boot, the midfielder was huge on the other end of the pitch against a physical opponent.
“His ability to get on the ball to help us build up to play forward to break lines, and actually defensively do a really good job too against some pretty dynamic attackers,” Curtin said. “I think he's adding more layers and quality on both sides of the ball. Offensively we all see his tools, but defensively he's worked really hard to improve them, he gets isolated in space a couple of times and not only pokes balls away, but actually wins them clean and starts an attack.
So, really happy for Jack, that's a big performance and I will tell you not an easy game to play in because Atlas has real talent and you can look at transfermarkt, right? We're pretty even with them in terms of the quality on the field, you can use that website how you, how you like, but you know, overall it is apples to apples with their evaluations of players and the Union and Atlas are pretty highly valued teams and similar. So that's a real high-pressure, high-profile game that Jack played in and he did a really good job.
Of course, and look when you talk about Jack and Leon, it's not to compare and contrast the two of them, but the biggest thing that you forget about both of them is how young they both are. They're in our national team program already. Guys that have big, big futures and they're gonna get better and better as they get more minutes."
