An expert witness talks about Jim Curtin, soccer coach and Philly guy
"I think Jimmy, in so many ways, has made the Union cool," said his friend Chris Albright. "It’s all authentic.”
You want to talk about Union coach, Montgomery County native Jim Curtin, as a soccer guy and a Philly guy, you call Philadelphia-born Chris Albright, who knows soccer and Philly and counts Jim Curtin as one of his closest friends.
“I’m running on the Ben Franklin Parkway now,” said Albright, general manager of MLS up-and-comers FC Cincinnati, in town to get to Game 3 of the World Series that night. “You mind if I jog?”
These two had first met when they were teenagers, both born in 1979, long before this path that has put Curtin in the center of his sport domestically, coaching in Saturday’s MLS Cup final, the Union at LAFC.
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“We probably played against each other before we joined forces at Council Rock Dynamo when we were 15 or 16,” Albright said. “A lot of us on that team, in Philly fashion, didn’t want to go play for Delco.”
FC Delco, out in the western suburbs, had become the powerhouse local youth program, winning a slew of national titles.
“They were seen as the rich kids, which is hilarious,” said Albright, a Penn Charter graduate himself, but with family roots that go back to Lighthouse Boys Club and Kensington neighborhood kids using bottle caps to play soccer from sewer to sewer.
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Back to Curtin … what does Albright remember from those teenage years?
“He was such a good athlete for his size,” Albright said. “He was a great hooper. He was a great baseball player. He was just so athletic. And if I say kind of graceful, he’ll laugh at me. But sort of graceful for 6-4, 6-5.”
Playing the midfield in those days, unusual at that height. Also, Albright said, “tough as …” Tough as you’d want to be.
They went their separate ways, Albright to Virginia and the 2000 U.S. Olympic team, Curtin to Villanova, where he played for Albright’s uncle, Larry Sullivan.
Their next encounters were as opponents in MLS, where Curtin eventually made an all-star team in 2004 as a Chicago Fire defender.
“There’s not a ton of kids who come out of Villanova and start in MLS — Jimmy sort of defied the odds,” Albright said.
How did he manage that? How does he keep managing that? Curtin, at his present gig since 2014, which is several lifetimes in the soccer universe, was named this season’s MLS coach of the year.
“First and foremost, Jimmy is highly intelligent, highly intellectual,” said Albright, who worked closely with Curtin when Albright retired from the Union and became assistant technical director, in that role from 2014 to last year. “Sometimes his sarcasm and stubborn Irish nature suppresses some of that. He’s really nice and welcoming and warm, but he’s really smart.”
Not just on tactics — “like all of us, he’s just really grown,” Albright said of that, but he’s able to navigate through all sorts of complex issues, not the least of which is bringing in an assortment of international personalities, arriving from disparate soccer systems all over the globe.
“When he manages a team, he’s able to be thinking really multiple steps ahead of his group, in what he says privately, what he says publicly, what he lets go, what he addresses,” Albright said, still jogging. “He’s really a master at that.”
How? By being himself?
“That’s just it; you said it,” Albright said. “Players know when you’re full of it. He’s authentically himself and unapologetic about it.”
All traits Philadelphians like to think they possess.
“So much of the Union’s foothold in Philadelphia is how Jim embraces the city,” Albright said. “He’s an Oreland kid” — went to Bishop McDevitt — “used to hit home runs on Marlow Field, I’m told. He’s got that background. He enjoys what we’re about. He lives in the city. I think Jimmy, in so many ways, has made the Union cool. It’s all authentic.”
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Which of them knows more about Philly sports?
“Oh man, probably Jimmy,” Albright said. “But we’re pretty close. We’re not going to recite the 1980 Phillies’ bench, but we follow all the games.”
From a slightly different angle, Albright added.
“You just get different insights into being a fan when you do what we do,” Albright said. “You just have a greater appreciation for the human that you’re booing.”
Is Albright, who heard his share over a long pro career, saying he doesn’t boo anymore at other sports?
“No, I wish I could say that,” Albright said.
He is saying, “Jimmy’s that guy. He’s been booed. HEAD COACH JIM CURTIN … BOOOOO. For five years straight, and his wife and his kids had to sit in the stands and hear that. That’s part of what you sign up for when you’re here and you want to work here.”
Their friendship, in Philly fashion, now extends to summers in Sea Isle City.
“I bought a place maybe six months before he did,” Albright said. “They were looking. I helped him with a Realtor. He called me, ‘Yeah, we found a place.’”
Albright was in Sea Isle when Curtin called and told him the address.
“I walked out on my back deck,” Albright said, pointed his phone at the back deck behind him on the next block. “Jimmy, you’re living right there, dude.”
Probably a good thing he got a job out of town, Albright joked. That would be a little too much year-round togetherness. He won’t be in L.A. this weekend, but he’ll be watching how it all plays out, another Philadelphia title in play, a Philadelphian in charge, which is a rarity in local professional sports.
How far did Albright get on his run?
“I went all the way to the end of Boathouse Row,” he said. “I’m jogging back now.”
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