Dániel Gazdag wants to be one of the Union’s iron men again this year

Dániel Gazdag will tell you that he doesn’t mind being one of the Union’s iron men.

He was happy to play 3,303 minutes over 38 games in 2022, then up the ante to 4,045 minutes over 48 games last year. That means he missed just three contests in 2023 — and two of them were because he was away with Hungary’s national team.

Whatever Gazdag’s body thinks about that, his mind is ready to do it again — and perhaps more. On top of the Union playing in four competitions again, from next week into December, Gazdag hopes to play at the European Championships for Hungary this summer. That would be a big honor, especially since he missed the last Euros because of an injury.

“Obviously, it’s going to be a busy year, for the national team too, so I’m going to miss some games here,” he said. “Other than that, I wouldn’t like to be sitting out games when I’m here, so I would like to play as many games as I can with the Union.”

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Most of the talk about the Union relying too much on their veteran core centers around Alejandro Bedoya and Jakob Glesnes. Gazdag, who turns 28 next month, probably ought to be in that conversation too. Joaquín Torres and Quinn Sullivan are capable backups as attacking midfielders, and academy prospect David Vázquez could join them this year.

Manager Jim Curtin has also become more willing to change his tactics to account for notable absences, which helps a lot. But he’s been notably reluctant to sub Gazdag out, doing so just twice before the 80th minute in last year’s regular season.

Granted, it’s easier to not question if a player’s playing too much when he’s a team’s leading scorer. Gazdag is the Union’s, with 46 goals over the last two seasons.

Though a pile of penalty kicks inflates the total, Gazdag is nonetheless in the company of some of the highest-scoring midfielders in the world. A questioner on a news conference hosted by Major League Soccer on Tuesday noted that Gazdag can claim he’s running with Manchester City superstar Kevin De Bruyne on the stat sheet.

“My agent sent me that list,” Gazdag said. “I scored more goals than Kevin De Bruyne, but I’m not even close to him. It’s not only about goals. Obviously, I try to score as much as I can, and give as [many] assists as I can, but there are other stats in soccer too.”

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One of those stats is trophies won, and on that count, De Bruyne beats not just Gazdag but most of the world.

“I would be more than happy if we can win the league but I just score, like, 10 goals this year,” Gazdag said. “So it’s good statistics, but that’s not everything.”

Surely De Bruyne would say the same thing, and not just because he’s got all-world striker Erling Haaland running in front of him. Though the Belgian playmaker has won five Premier Leagues, last season’s Champions League title, and eight other major cups at Man City, Belgium has been a notorious flop in national team tournaments.

Maybe he and Gazdag can talk it over if they meet at the Euros this summer.

A few hours after Phillies pitchers and catchers start their first workouts in Clearwater, Fla., the Union will play their last preseason game at the soccer facility they use down the street from BayCare Ballpark. They’ll host the New England Revolution in a 1 p.m. kickoff. The game is closed to the public but free to watch online on the Union’s website.

It will be a 90-minute game, not the 120-minute format often used in the preseason to give more players some run. Curtin said Tuesday that he won’t quite treat it as a dress rehearsal for next Tuesday’s season-opening Concacaf Champions Cup game at Costa Rica’s Saprissa, but he also won’t take the contest lightly.

“We have, I would say, a group of five or six guys that I think are already 90-minutes fit and are ready to go,” Curtin said. “We’ll mix some tomorrow [for] 45 minutes, some will play 60, some will push 90, and that’s all based on where they’re at physically.”

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