Mikael Uhre is excited for his first MLS playoff game with the Union

After 34 regular-season games that saw the Union smash a pile of records, it’s time to make all of that stand up in the playoffs.

The fans who will pack Subaru Park for Thursday’s Eastern Conference semifinal against FC Cincinnati (8:08 p.m., FS1 and Fox Deportes) know it. Manager Jim Curtin knows it better than anyone else. And the players know it too, even one who hasn’t been part of an MLS playoff run before.

“From what I’ve been hearing from the guys, it’s going to be an amazing experience, and I’m really looking forward to it,” striker Mikael Uhre told The Inquirer after practice on Wednesday.

“We’ve had an amazing season so far, but then again it doesn’t really matter if we go out in the playoffs and we don’t win anything,” he said. “The real season starts now, and you can really feel that every day.”

Though Uhre is in his first year in MLS, he has some experience with big-time knockout games. He played 19 games in Denmark’s domestic cup, including a run to the final with Brøndby in 2019.

More importantly, he played in a UEFA Champions League qualifying series against Brenden Aaronson’s Red Bull Salzburg in August last year, scoring the opening goal of the two-game series before Salzburg won, 4-2, on aggregate.

» READ MORE: Union-FC Cincinnati: Game time, channel, how to watch and stream MLS playoffs

Uhre said he watched almost all of this past weekend’s first-round games, and wasn’t too surprised by what he saw.

“It’s not always the prettiest football, but it’s the games where the people that want it the most get it,” he said.

The Union will have many advantages Thursday night, starting of course with home field. They will have the better talent on that field, even though Cincinnati got a 1-1 tie in Chester in June and a 3-1 win at home in August.

Uhre played in both of those games and scored in neither. But his 13 goals and six assists this season helped pay off the team-record $2.8 million transfer fee he commanded from Brøndby, and a few tallies in the postseason would pay off some more.

“I don’t really look at it that much while we’re in the season,” he admitted. “After the season, you can evaluate and say this was good, this was bad, and look at the numbers you produced. Right now the focus is just to keep scoring and keep the team winning, because if we win the next three games it’s going to be a really nice offseason — and that’s even better than individual awards.”

Another advantage for the Union will be rest: 11 days since their last game, compared to Cincinnati’s five since Saturday’s first-round win at the New York Red Bulls.

That is a healthy amount, but Union manager Jim Curtin knows there’s also a danger in having too much. MLS traditionally ends its regular season right before FIFA’s October national-team game window, and starts the playoffs right after that. But there was no October window this year because the World Cup is in November.

In 2019, the Union had to wait 14 days from the end of the regular season to their playoff opener. In 2020, when the Union won the Supporters’ Shield, they waited 16 days — and infamously lost to a New England team that played a play-in game four days earlier. Last year, the wait was 13 days.

Not that Curtin has anything against national teams, but he said he likes this year’s schedule “a lot better.”

He also likes his Union team, as he should. Which helps keep the message as powerful as the Union’s hype video that former Villanova men’s basketball coach Jay Wright voiced this week, recorded to help a famous Villanova alum.

“The goals against and goals for and wins total [team records] are all nice,” Curtin said, “but this group only wants one thing. And that’s to go out on the field on Thursday night and get a victory, and start our playoff run the right way.”

» READ MORE: Jim Curtin knew the Union could be good this year. He didn’t think they’d be this good.