Jim Curtin faces his mentor, Toronto’s Bob Bradley, at a crucial time for him and the Union

Every game counts equally in the standings, but some have special meaning for Union manager Jim Curtin. Saturday’s game against Toronto FC at Subaru Park is one of them (7:30 p.m., Apple TV, paywalled).

It will be the sixth time he coaches against his mentor in the profession, Bob Bradley, and it comes at a crucial time — for the Union and for Curtin personally.

The Union need a win, having not won a regular-season game since March 12. And Curtin’s lack of a contract past this year continues to turn heads around MLS, even though principal owner Jay Sugarman said this week the clock won’t run out on it. At the same time, chatter continues around Curtin being a candidate for the U.S. men’s national team job.

Bradley drafted Curtin out of Villanova while managing the Chicago Fire in 2001. That was one of five MLS teams Bradley has coached in his more than 40 years in the profession, along with two colleges (including Princeton from 1984-95), three European clubs, Egypt’s national team from 2011-13, and the U.S. men from late 2006 until the summer of 2011.

His vast coaching tree includes the Union’s original manager, Peter Nowak; former Union assistant Mike Sorber; and former Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch, a close friend of Curtin’s who is the top American candidate to get the U.S. job.

» READ MORE: Union owner Jay Sugarman says Jim Curtin’s contract status will be settled before his deal expires

“I was really fortunate early in my career that he took a chance on me, a kid from Villanova,” Curtin said. “He called me into preseason, and I was really fortunate to be around a really special group that Bob assembled in Chicago. … He’s a guy that I look up to quite a bit, and I’ve learned so much from as a player and a coach.”

Bradley returned the favor at a news conference in Toronto on Thursday.

“He was a great guy to coach,” he said of Curtin. “He came in as a rookie, he was unassuming, but you could tell that he had good qualities. He was smart; he had a really good career, and from the time he got into coaching, you could tell that his understanding of the game, his way of going about things with his players, all worked in a really good way. It’s been excellent to watch him develop as a coach.”

Curtin first met Bob’s son Michael when the midfielder was a kid hanging out in the Fire locker room. Michael is now 35 and has played 18 times against the Union, with many of those games featuring his fellow national team alum Alejandro Bedoya. Alas for the two of them, Michael Bradley won’t travel here because of an injury.

But even if Bradley was healthy, the spotlight wasn’t likely to be on those two. The biggest names on the field will be Toronto’s star wingers Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi, veterans of Italy’s national team and famed Serie A clubs including Napoli, Fiorentina and Juventus.

» READ MORE: Three former Union players will broadcast Saturday’s game vs. Toronto FC

They arrived in Toronto last summer, and were immediately handed two of the year’s four biggest salaries in MLS: more than $6 million to Bernardeschi and $14 million, by far the largest paycheck in league history, to Insigne.

Bernardeschi, a right winger, has delivered 11 goals and five assists in 22 games for the Reds. Insigne, a left winger, has just six goals and two assists in 13 games — with two long injury absences along the way, including a six-game stretch this year. He returned off the bench as a substitute against Atlanta last weekend.

Though Bernardeschi might be limited by a lower body injury, the Union will still be wary. Curtin said Wednesday that Kai Wagner is “100 percent” healthy with “no lingering effects” from the hamstring tweak he suffered in the Champions League game at Mexico’s Atlas last week, but the team’s injury report for the weekend called Wagner questionable.

It’s clearer that Olivier Mbaizo isn’t fully recovered from his own hamstring tweak in the same game. That means Nathan Harriel is in line to start at right back and match up with Insigne.

Harriel needs a shot of confidence after being in the middle of both goals at Chicago last Saturday: caught ball-watching on the first, and taking Jakob Glesnes’ clearance off his rear end for an own goal on the second.

“The own goal you can’t put as anyone’s fault, it’s just one of those plays where it just goes a little haywire,” Curtin said. “The first goal, I think we have three or four guys that could do a little better to prevent the ball coming all the way across to the back post. Overall, Nate’s a great defender. We have full confidence in him.”

» READ MORE: Union rally for dramatic but unsatisfying 2-2 tie at Chicago Fire