After another scoring explosion, now the Union have to keep momentum going

One doesn’t have to be a lifelong Philadelphian to wonder if things are going almost too well for the Union at the moment.

The team that won the Supporters’ Shield in 2020 and crashed in the first round of the playoffs is just one of many regular season high-flyers to fall flat in the biggest games of all. No conference first-place finisher has reached Major League Soccer’s title game since 2017, and that year’s Toronto FC team was the first No. 1 seed to get there since the David Beckham-era Los Angeles Galaxy in 2011.

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And there is no question that this Union squad has reached some of the highest heights in club history. Saturday’s 6-0 demolition of the Colorado Rapids — aided though it was by the visitors playing down a man for the last 55 minutes — was the second straight game where the Union have scored that many goals and the fourth in the last 10. MLS has rarely seen such a prolific scoring run.

“I want to save some, to be honest, for the playoffs,” Union manager Jim Curtin said, offering the quiet part out loud.

But really, there was no reason to keep it quiet. Curtin knows his team won’t need to score piles of goals to win games as long as the defense keeps holding firm.

Curtin also can point his players back to the early stages of this year, when goals were hard to come by. Before the 7-0 home win over D.C. United on July 8 that started the current hot streak, the Union had won just two of their prior 13 contests.

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Now, though, they can reap the benefits of all those frustrating late-spring ties. With six games to go in the season, the Union (15-4-9, 54 points) have a strong hold on the top of the Eastern Conference, even with more games played than second-place Montreal (15-8-4, 49 points) and third-place New York City FC (13-8-6, 45 points).

“It starts with team defending, and that is the thing that I’m most proud of,” Curtin said. “The goals-against [20 in 28 games] is incredible this year, the amount of shutouts, the leadership of the group to really buy into not conceding, even in these routs. Because it’s really easy to start taking plays off when you’re up 3- and 4-0, but the sign of the best teams are the ones that do it for the entirety of the 90 minutes, and our players deserve all the credit for that.”

Centerback Jakob Glesnes vouched for the players carrying the same ethos.

“We have a good team, from the top to the back with ‘Dre [Blake] in the goal,” he said. “We are seeing now every game that we are defending for each other. … It’s not just us defenders. It starts up top with Mikael [Uhre] and Julián [Carranza] and Cory [Burke] — everyone at the top, and then it’s going all the way down.”

Now the Union face a quick turnaround to a nationally televised home game against an Atlanta United squad that is far short of its usual star-studded standard. The Five Stripes are languishing in next-to-last place in the Eastern Conference (7-10-10, 31 points), but the Eastern Conference standings are so tight that Josef Martínez and company are only six points back of the final playoff spot.

“As the head coach, you’re always guarding against the letdown,” Curtin said. “That’s my job. I don’t want to see it. I think we’ve had maybe one this whole season, which is pretty good, but that one still bothers me — in Cincinnati [a 3-1 loss there after a 6-0 home win over Houston].”

If Curtin’s players can avoid another one Wednesday, it will be another statement about how good they are.

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