After his squad knocked off FC Dallas with two goals in the final ten minutes of the match, Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin praised their character and determination to rally for a win. But first, he thanked the fans.
“An exciting night. I thought the fans deserved a lot of credit,” Curtin began. “You’re starting to see pieces of the system Ernst has installed. You’re starting to see the depth, with our ability to bring players off the bench.”
The captain comes through
The head coach moved on to his captain, who put the team on his shoulders with a spectacular extra time winner. “It’s a bad night to use the “he does the all the things that don’t show up on the stat sheet” because it showed up tonight with the goal,” Curtin joked. “But he’s our captain, he’s a leader for us, he does whatever is asked of him.
“He played a couple different spots for us tonight and did it selflessly and will do whatever the team needs to do to win and did a really good job of feeding Ilsinho early and letting him do his thing, and getting out of the way.”
Changes in personnel and tactics
Curtin was also asked about his team shape, which morphed as the club chased goals late. He credited Sporting Director Ernst Tanner for providing a philosophy that opened the door to the tweaks that have helped Philly use their deep bench as an advantage early in the season.
“It was desperate times,” the head coach admitted. “We made some adjustments to get our strongest group on the field. There were 5-6 discussions — what were the moves?
“You couldn’t take Aaronson off the way he was playing so we were creative in a way to keep him on the left side. We needed Jamiro’s ball-winning as the game started to get stretched and open, and his quickness in the middle of the field. We needed a goal, so we took Ray off, who did a great job defensively, but obviously Ale and Ilsinho really impacted the game on attack.
“Our data crew just told me 47 penalty area entries to about 13 for them, which is a tale of the game,” Curtin continued.
“I think we had control of it but it took a while for us to push through and get the first goal. Then, obviously, Ale makes a great play to get the second one. These are the kinds of wins that can build real character and strength within a group. A real team victory, and shows that we have a very improved group from last year.”
Significant subs
“Cory’s been sharp for us,” Curtin stated, pointing to his big striker’s willingness to play any role he’s offered. The Jamaican made a huge impact in the second half with his bullish run into the box following Jamiro Monteiro’s screwball of a shot in the 83rd minute. Burke earned a penalty on that play, and followed up Marco Fabian’s spot kick to score before creating a few more chances as the match wound down.
“Every forward brings a different skill set,” the head man explained. “Cory likes contact so it was a change of pace.
“All three of the subs that came in for us are three guys that I can tell you from experience defenders don’t like to see coming in. No one wants to defend for 60 minutes and then see Ilsinho come on. No one wants to see a Jamiro Monteiro come in because he can impact a game in so many different ways.”
Indeed, all three players that arrived off the bench for the Union had far bigger impacts than anybody Luchi Gonzalez called on for his visitors. That kind of depth will be essential as the Union move on to a pair of west coast trips bookending a matchup with Montreal Impact on April 20. Then May arrives packed with six matches in quick succession.
Philly’s next big test comes this Saturday when they match up against Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the Los Angeles Galaxy at 10:30 p.m. ET on PHL17.
