Union are fully healthy ahead of tonight’s clash at Chicago, can they extend their win streak?

Philadelphia Union Head Coach Jim Curtin mentioned his group is fully healthy, competition is on the rise in training, and his team remains hungry to stay atop the Eastern Conference table during his midweek press conference with the media. Tonight, Philadelphia takes on 10th place Chicago Fire at SeatGeek Stadium.

Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Take a quick look at Philadelphia’s remaining slate of games. What stands out?

For me, it’s the three-match homestand following tonight’s road clash with Chicago. For me, I’m focused on figuring out how many points Philadelphia could earn over the next month when DC United, Atlanta United FC, and LAFC travel to Chester in what could be considered the most important home stretch in franchise history. For me, tonight’s game isn’t weighing too heavily on my mind.

But for Curtin and his group, a mentality like mine is extremely dangerous. Which is why tonight’s contest is a sure-fire ‘trap’ game.

With so much hype being placed on the fixtures yet to come, it’s easy for some players to potentially fail to place enough focus on the current opposition. It happens. But Philadelphia will hope it doesn’t tonight.

“They have a deep roster. We’re very familiar with them, we recently played them,” said Curtin Wednesday. “But we recognize now, everybody has a tough schedule ahead and everybody is going to be taking points off of everybody. We’ll prepare for a Chicago team that’s playing some good soccer. We have a lot of work to do to prepare for Chicago, especially on the road.”

With a 5-5-3 road record – only three Eastern Conference teams with less than five road losses – 110% confidence in a Union victory on the road against a lesser opponent isn’t necessarily a realistic mindset at this point in the season.

For Curtin though, he remained focused on improving from last week despite a 2-1 home win over Houston.

“We had a good film session about things we could’ve done better. We had too many unforced errors, turned balls over in bad spots, and left ourselves stretched and we lost our shapes adjusting to them rather than us dictating the tempo in our home stadium,” said Curtin.

Chicago is hot right now despite winning just once in July. CJ Sapong and the Fire are winners of two-straight (just like Philadelphia). With 30 points and sitting three points shy of the playoff line, it’s safe to assume that Chicago will scrap and claw all night to find a way to a W.

Luckily for Philadelphia, the most dynamic and effective player on the team in 2019 is back and fully available. Jamiro Monteiro is set to play without any limitations following two second-half substitute appearances over the last two weeks.

“[Monteiro] wanted to be in as a starter and maybe I held him back,” said Curtin of the decision to hold Monteiro out of the starting XI last week. “But now he’s fully ready to go and we’ll take the training wheels off now.”

The reemergence of a fully healthy Monteiro could propel Philadelphia to even greater heights considering the outstanding run of form Kacper Przybylko continues to enjoy.

“Kacper is special in that regard when you see the dirty running that he does,” said Curtin. “He’s most happy when we do get three points and that’s the type of guy I want on my team and the guy I want to go into battle with… He’s had a special year so far and I think there’s still a lot more he can give.”

Currently, Kacper leads the team with 11 regular-season goals and seems poised to crack the top ten all-time Union goal scorers list – one more goal would make a three-way tie with Cory Burke and Danny Mwanga at that spot.

Kacper is also on pace to break Sapong’s franchise record of 16 goals in a single season (2017). The two forwards will share the same pitch tonight as well.

“It’s going to be a fight,” said Curtin of tonight’s match-up. “The real games start now.”