Every word Head Coach Jim Curtin said after Union’s 2-2 draw on MLS’ opening night

Though it was a cold February night on the banks of the Delaware River, Union fans flocked down to Chester in numbers to kick off the new campaign in hopes of starting the new season on the front foot. It was a back-and-forth contest between Chicago Fire and Philadelphia Union down at Subaru Park on the opening night of the 2024 Major League Soccer season, but ultimately the two sides shared a point each after both failed to capitalize on chances to win late in stoppage time.

Two 2nd half-equalizers for Union, two goals disallowed by VAR, and a shot off the crossbar from inside the 6-yard box in stoppage meant this one was entertaining down to the wire, but Chicago will likely feel better about splitting the points than the hometown Union will.

Here’s every word Head Coach Jim Curtin had to say after Saturday night’s 2-2 draw against the Chicago Fire on the opening weekend of the 2024 MLS Season.

Union Postgame Presser Feb. 24, 2024

Jim Curtin: “Game one in the books, I would say, you know, a first half that was, you know, two teams that canceled each other out. A little bit of sloppy play, a cold night, not a ton of chance creation in the first half. Second half started, and I thought that we looked like ourselves again, and kept them pinned in and did a good job of creating chances.

You know, we showed a lot of character to get back in the game. Obviously, we’re never happy with a tie at home, but at the same time, early in the year, still things to build on. And again, the guys pushed till the end, you know, could have stole it there with Michele at the back post on a different night. Overall, a point, thanks to the fans for coming out on a freezing cold night. Some good things, some things we can clean up and certainly work on for sure. We have time to quickly regroup and go again on Tuesday night here.”

Thoughts on the first two matches

Question: “Do you see any commonality, both of the two games so far, and trailing 1-0 at the half, any commonalities in the starting the year with those?”

Curtin: “I would say one thing is I don’t want it to continue(going into halftime down 1-0), I think that we prefer to start the game on the front foot being the team that’s creating chances. I think if you look at the first half, it’s not like Chicago came at us a ton. I think we give them one shot on goal and paid for it. So sometimes soccer goes that way. Second half, too, we had them pinned in and, you know, they came down one time and punished us, so that can happen.

But I would say that they were two similar games in that you get behind the goal. You show character, which is good, to come back into the game and take control and dominate for long stretches down in Saprissa and then also tonight. But at the end of the day, we’re never happy with a point in this building. So the locker room, you know, is a little bit frustrated, but at least showed some character to come back, which is important. But again, a lot we can clean up and certainly work on.”

Mikael Uhre off the mark for 2024

Question: “For Mikael to score that goal, the equalizer, do you think it might help him and keep a little bit of the burden off his shoulders?”

Curtin: Yeah, look, the job of a striker is to score goals. You know, I haven’t spoken to Mikael yet, but I’m sure he’s mad he didn’t score the one at the end, you know, that should win the game, because he’s good enough to score that one.

So when we’re not at our best, you need your top players to be the ones that, you know, make the difference. And certainly, a lot of nights that happens, whether it’s Julian, whether it’s Danny, whether it’s Mikael, but at the same time, you know, look, he had a, I would say, a good game.

But the difference between a good game and a great game is finishing that one off and then we’re having a different discussion here. So the margins are tight. Like I said, I think Mikael had a good night, but any good striker would tell you he wants that one at the end that can win the game. So good, but we want great, you know, that’s kind of the way it is.

Again, this is week one, so we won’t overreact, but it is important for him to get a goal tonight. I think that was a big goal. And now, having the consistency, getting on the ball more in the run of play, being involved, and finishing plays off at the end of the game is now the next step.”

The homegrown right side of the Philadelphia Union

Question: “What have you seen with the right-sided combo between Nathan [Harriel] and Quinn [Sullivan]? And is it hard to not compare it to what Olivier and Bedoya did on that flank in the system last year, but I guess in two games, it looks like that connection is pretty strong.”

Curtin: “Yeah, back to Matt’s comment on the two games looking the same, and they really did. And actually, we wanted to bring Ale [Bedoya] into the game earlier and throw Quinn up top. But the right side was being dominated so much that you kind of, you didn’t want to tweak with it.

So we put Ale in on the left, which is a little different, and a little later than we wanted to get him in the game, but it was because of that right side was between Nathan and Quinn, they made themselves pretty quick, you know. They went through two people, obviously. It’s tough, [Andrew] Gutman takes the injury early. But we went at [Chase] Gasper, pretty good in the second half, they made a change, and it slowed it down a little bit.

But I thought Quinn and Nathan, understanding between the two, the chance creation on that side, was really, really, really dangerous. I would still say, with Quinn, he is still a teenager. So created a ton, I thought he was probably one of our best players tonight. Now in those certain moments, too, the difference between slowing down at the end to make the final pass or hit the final shot and getting when to dribble versus when to pass, and when to pass versus when to dribble, you know, getting those little things right. He’s still going to work on it and improve.

But overall, he was excellent tonight, and Nathan as well. So that’s a good little partnership that you have. And we didn’t want to mess with it, so we didn’t make a change on that side. So yeah, good performance from them.”

The newest Union goalkeeper

Question: Can you comment on [Oliver] Semmle‘s performance tonight? Maybe your thoughts there? And is Andre back for Tuesday, or how’s he doing?

Curtin: “Yeah, Oliver wasn’t involved a ton. You know, sometimes they’re the hardest nights for goalkeepers, because all of a sudden now, you know, there’s only, I think, a chance or two in the second half. He did make the big save on [Tom] Barlow on the mini breakaway, which was great to keep it at 2-2. So I thought he did a good job. But it wasn’t a night where, you know, he had to face 15-20 shots, you know, and make saves. So he was solid. I think it’ll get confidence now from the game. I think the first goal kind of, you know, we retreat a little bit too much into the box.

And if somebody shoots from that distance at this level, you know, you’re going to get punished and you’re going to pay for it. So I haven’t seen the back, you know, where it went in and that kind of thing. But he’d probably say he could do better on the first one. Second one’s a bit of a scramble. Maybe he could parry it a little further. But I thought he had a good night overall. And, you know, now he has that confidence that he’s got that first game out of under his belt. And they can only get better from here. But good performance.

He wasn’t involved a ton. And those sometimes are the hardest ones for goalkeepers because it’s a ruthless job in that, you know, he can not be involved a ton for, you know, 80 minutes, and then all of a sudden, you know, one plays is what people remember. I thought he did good.”

Update on Andre Blake

Question: “Is Tuesday a game-time decision(for Andre Blake)?”

Curtin: “We’ll see. Yeah, we’ll see with Andre. You know, I’m hopeful, but we’ll see. It’ll be up to Andre, he knows his body best”

Game one for the replacement referees

Question: “Hey, Jim, how would you assess how your players handled the first game with the replacement referees? And how do you go from MLS played back to the Champions Cup?

Curtin: “Yeah, look, refereeing was, I thought, was fine. You know, you’ll always, regardless of whether whatever refs are out there, you know, you’re always going to be controversial and close plays that could go either way. That’s normal, right? So, you know, I think on the one that Danny scores, where it’s called a goal live, you know, unless there’s a 100% angle – and I haven’t seen it yet where you can tell clear and it’s in line with, you know, you can’t really tell 100%.

I think by rule, that should stay as a goal because you can’t really tell. But, you know, I think the other ones, the big ones, I think they got right. There’s a questionable, maybe, Gimenez has a handball on the one, but these are the same discussions we have every after every game. So, the referees were fine. That’s a non-issue, I thought. Two teams that kind of, you know, cancel each other out. I thought in the first half and the second half, I thought we looked like ourselves and went at them, you know.

In terms of now balancing the competitions. We have a job to do on Tuesday, so we’ll recover quickly. We’ll probably have a few changes to keep guys fresh in this game. We wanted to keep a confident group going after the performance in Saprissa.

We kept our best players on the field, attacking-wise, as long as we could, and created enough chances to get a third goal tonight, a winner. Didn’t get it done. Now we have to move on to Saprissa and survive and advance in that competition.”

The Union’s fitness levels

Question: “Jim, how surprised are you with the fitness levels of your group? I mean early on in the season, only one substitution tonight with Ale. Can you speak on that?”

Curtin: “Yeah, the guys are fit. I thought Bueno and Ale came into the last game, a couple other guys came in really late and did a good job. You know, we know the guys that are ready to play in the last minutes and we’re going to use those guys. Obviously, like I said, we have a third game now on short rest that we’ll probably tweak and adjust things for sure. But yeah, the group is fit.

Our sports performance department has done a great job. I like where the guys are at. You can see them pushing even at the end of the game tonight to try to get a third goal. Just didn’t go in for us, but again, that’s how soccer is sometimes. You get the bounce of some nights, some nights you play really well like we did in the second half and you walk away with a point, some nights you play terrible and you win. That can happen. So we have to take the point, move on, and take pride in not getting beat, especially on this field.”

Centerback talk from the former centerback

Question: Jim, earlier today you spoke about budding partnerships that are developing, especially with Quinn and some other players. But the one I want to ask you about is in terms of Jakob Glesnes and Damion Lowe, especially tonight containing a huge striker, which just joined – a $12 million player – I would love to hear your thoughts on that partnership.”

Curtin: “Yeah, I think that they complement each other well. Damion can run and put out fires and have incredible emergency defending better than any player I’ve ever really seen on his recovery. He almost took a red card tonight, so that’s a bad example. But I thought he had a really solid game with his speed. He can chase down really fast attackers. Jakob did a really good job because his [Cuypers] movement in the box is very good. It’s very dangerous and Jakob did a really good job of getting a body on him in certain moments.

Being tight to him when he checked off the line, I thought that overall they did a really good job on, like you said, a 1$2 million-plus dollar striker who’s just still new to his team and going to get better and better. I think if you get him service, he’s going to score a lot of goals in this league. But we did a good job limiting his touches, but you can see his quality.

The partnership between those two is a strong one. Obviously, Jack Elliott’s coming off an injury, too, and we’re really, really lucky to have the luxury of three great centerbacks. So whoever we partner together or if all three play, they really complement each other and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and tendencies, and that’s a real positive moving forward when we get into the busy part of the schedule.”

The Physicality of the Match

Question: “Jim, it looked like Chicago played a little bit physical with you guys in that first half, and you guys came right out-the-shoot bringing tons and tons of offensive pressure. Can you walk us through that?”

Curtin: “Yeah, I think, you know, look, in the early games of the year, and you saw it already by some of the score lines tonight, there’s always some boring 0-0’s. There’s not a lot of chances. It becomes a fight. It becomes about fitness like we talked about. And you’re right, they were a little bit better.

I thought in the first half to get into second balls, the physicality of things, things were dropping to them. As the second half went, I think you create your own luck by how hard you work, and I think we came out, scored the goal really early in the second half that gets disallowed, but we still showed that we were going to play on the front foot and be proactive, and I think that’s when we’re at our best.

If we’re reactive and tentative, that’s when we get ourselves in trouble, and in the second half, there’s still mistakes like crazy for us, but we did it our way, which was going forward, being physical with them, winning tackles, winning duels. And, you know, I thought I created a ton of chances in the second half and just didn’t do quite enough to get that third goal.”

Final thoughts on the presser

All-in-all, Curtin knows there are some positives to take away from Saturday night’s draw against Chicago, but he also knows there are things to tighten and clean up. Curtin and Crew don’t have much time to rest or recoup, as Deportivo Saprissa visits Subaru Park on Tuesday night for the return leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Union go into the 2nd leg with a 3-2 advantage meaning Saprissa would need to win by multiple goals in Chester in order to advance – something that only Lionel Messi and Inter Miami have done dating back to September of 2021, when Club América beat Union 2-0 at Subaru Park in the Champions League.

It’s a midweek match, but it’s a big one for Union and the weather looks like it’ll be much nicer than it was on Saturday night. Hope to see you all down at Subaru Park on Tuesday night, and I hope it comes with Union punching their ticket to the net round of the CONCACAF Champions Cup.