Philadelphia Union (0-2-3, 2 points) at New York City FC (1-1-2, 5 points)
What: Major League Soccer regular season match; When: Saturday, 4 p.m.
Where: PPL Park, Chester, Pa.; Tickets: Click here.
TV: 6abc with play-by-play announcer JP Dellacamera and analyst Peter Pappas
Radio: WFAN660 (New York City); Social: Follow the action via Twitter: @theUMatchDay
Parking: $20 at all PPL Park approved lots; Mass transit: Shuttle service to and from Chester Transportation Center
Home sweet home. After back-to-back nationally televised games on the road, the Union will finally return home to PPL Park Saturday, where they’ll take on expansion team New York City FC (1-1-2) for the first time.
Of course, it will be a special homecoming for one Union player in particular as goalkeeper John McCarthy is slated to make his MLS debut.
“John’s been excellent in the preseason – he’s earned this right to be a starter,” Union head coach Jim Curtin said. “I’ve been very impressed with him, he’s a kid that I have faith in, and I know our players have faith in, too. You know, anytime you play a new goalkeeper, everyone has to raise the bar a little bit higher: our defenders need to do a little bit more, our midfielders need to do a little bit more, because, again, he’s a young goalkeeper.”
McCarthy, 22, starred at North Catholic High School before moving on to La Salle University. After playing one year professionally for Rochester Rhinos of USL, McCarthy signed with the Union prior to the 2015 season. He’ll make his debut on Saturday.
He’ll be doing it against the league’s newest team, and perhaps the Union’s newest enemy. Add World Cup participants David Villa and Mix Diskerud into the equation, and Saturday’s contest is must-see TV, if not must-win for the winless Union.
“I mean, it’s New York, so it’s a rival, but you can’t really call it too big of a rival yet because we haven’t played,” Curtin said. “[They’re] a team I respect a great deal, Jason Kreis is great coach, he’ll have them organized, he does a good job. Obviously, key guys would be Mix and Villa. We’ve already started talking about them and how we want to limit their touches on the ball.”
While Curtin spoke highly of those two well-known stars, he was keen to point out NYCFC’s stellar surrounding cast, noting how the club hardly has the feel of an expansion team.
“They’ve collected – because Jason knows the league so well – a great mix of foreign players and then guys that you’d call MLS effective,” Curtin said. “Guys that are winners, you know, the Ned Grabavoy’s, the [Chris] Wingert’s, the Jason Hernandez’s, the guys that, you know, maybe aren’t the sexy names in our league, but they give you 30, 34 games every year, and they’re winners. For me, those are the guys that are most important.”
For the Union, they’ll try to break a five-game winless streak to start the season that has been accompanied by quite a few frustrating results. Twice the team has blown leads in the final 10 minutes. Two other times they’ve been reduced to 10 men within the game’s first hour. While they are winless in the standings, it’s a team that clearly knows they’ve been better than what their record indicates.
In particular, the team has played much better on the road than at home. Including closing out games, midfielder Brian Carroll is focused on moving forward and bringing out their best game in front of the hometown fans.
“I don’t know how to explain why we’ve had some of our better performances on the road but the fact is that that’s happened and we need to take what we’ve done well in those games and try to translate them into our home performances,” Carroll said. “Maybe the counterattack plays more into the road than it does at home, that might be one explanation, but we need to be able to do the counterattack and build-up at home.”
For a team that’s had to endure many changes throughout the first five games, due to injury or performance, Carroll says the team has stayed together. And the 33-year-old veteran could certainly speak to it. He was a late addition to the starting lineup against Sporting Kansas City for Vincent Nogueira, and despite it being his first action of the year, Carroll was his usual self, putting in one of his better performances since joining the club.
“We’ve had a lot of changes,” Carroll said. “Whether it be from performance or injury, so I expect the person who’s called upon to stand up, play great, and help us win.”
One area the team will certainly need to improve upon regardless of who is the lineup has been their defense on set pieces. As Curtin has alluded to all year, it simply hasn’t been good enough. No team has allowed more goals from restarts than the Union and it’s particularly hurt them late in games.
One hope for that fix will be McCarthy, a confident young goalkeeper who has demonstrated a key ability to come off his line. For Carroll, the other is about mental toughness.
“At this point I think it’s a lot of mental work – looking at yourself in the mirror, and trying to stay strong mentally and physically,” Carroll said. “It’s not only the first corner kick or free kick or a throw in, it’s the second and third chances that are coming in that we have to continue to deal with. It’s something that we have to just go out and do. We can sit here and talk about it or train it all we want in practice but we have to just go and do it in the game.”
What do you think is a gameplan for success against Sporting Kansas City? Leave your comment below.
Contact Union press officer Chris Winkler at cwinkler@philadelphiaunion.com.
