If there’s a positive following any tough loss, it’s this: another game is looming.
For the Philadelphia Union, it means they can forget about last Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to the Columbus Crew with a strong showing Saturday night against the New England Revolution (7:30 p.m. ET) at Gillette Stadium.
The Union finished August with a winless mark – 0-3-2. This is a perfect way to start September fresh three days after the heartbreak against the Crew.
“You want to get back out there and redeem yourself and your efforts and everything you did,” said John Hackworth, who was given the team manager job on a permanent basis Thursday. “That’s the good news. The hard part about that is that it’s the third game in a week and it’s very tough to recover from. We’re going up to New England, on turf, and it’s going to be difficult, so we might have to work on some things.
“But if I had a two week break right now, I’d be pretty miserable. Hopefully, we can go up to New England and redeem ourselves.”
The last time Philadelphia (7-13-4) won a match was, ironically, against New England (6-14-6) in a 2-1 victory July 29 at PPL Park.
It’s unclear whether Union captain and defender Carlos Valdes will be available for the rematch.
Valdes tweaked his hamstring 10 minutes into the second half against Columbus.
“Up in the air,” Hackworth said of Valdes’ status following the match against the Crew. “I don’t think he did it to the point where, it was more preventative for him to come out, we’ll get our staff on top of it right away, I know they already are, and we’ll evaluate.”
Valdes was hoping to be ready.
“It’s a little sore, and we’ll see how it goes,” he said. “I always want to play. I never want to come out. I’ll work with the trainers and I’m sure they’ll do everything they can.”
The Union were discouraged after the loss to Columbus, and the players were happy to see another match so soon on the schedule.
“I think the best thing we can do is come back, play well and come up with three points,” said forward Jack McInerney. “It can wipe away this feeling in the short term. Our goal from here on out is to play well, keep getting better and come up with as many points as possible. I’m ready to redeem ourselves because we feel like we deserved better.”
