Jim Curtin and Dániel Gazdag rue Union’s defensive mishaps as big clash with Nashville looms

“I chalk up tonight to turnovers that I don’t think we’ll see again," Curtin said of the lapses that cost the Union in a 3-2 loss at Minnesota.

Dániel Gazdag's celebrations for his first goals from open play with the Union ended up short-lived.Read moreKim Ahrens / Philadelphia Union

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Oct. 21, 2021, 2:28 a.m. ET

Dániel Gazdag should have been celebrating his first two Union goals from open play, the kind of game-defining attacking performance for which everyone (including him) has been waiting all season.

But after the Union’s defense coughed up three awful goals in Saturday’s loss at Minnesota United, he understandably didn’t want to.

“I have different feelings after the game,” the Hungarian midfielder said. “On one side, I feel it was a wasted chance to get the three points today and go really high up on the table just before the end of the regular season. And [on] the other side, I am happy that I scored two goals, finally.”

Those defensive lapses even overshadowed an admission by Gazdag that he has struggled to adjust to Major League Soccer, “a faster league than the Hungarian league, so I should have been faster in games.”

Now, he said, “I feel better, and hopefully I will score some other goals.”

That optimism will have to be saved for other games. Because this one stunk.

Sure, the Union’s six-game unbeaten run was probably going to end eventually. And if this game lights a fire under the team ahead of Nashville SC’s visit to Subaru Park on Saturday (7:30 p.m., PHL17) for the biggest game of the regular season so far, that will help.

Until then, the heat came from the grilling Jim Curtin took a few minutes before Gazdag’s turn at the mic. Not only have the Union conceded goals in consecutive regular season games for the first time since the first two games of last year, but they blew second-half leads in both games.

“When things get crazy, we have to stay a little bit more calm,” Curtin said. “I chalk up tonight to turnovers that I don’t think we’ll see again. That’s the hope, and we’ll try to eliminate them. … We don’t like giving up goals, and this is five in two games which is very uncharacteristic of us.”

This game was probably more wide-open than either team wanted: 30 combined shots, 20 combined fouls, and a pile more that could have been called (including some for diving). Nashville likely won’t be as generous. The upcoming visitors have conceded the fewest goals of any team in the Eastern Conference, 27, and remarkably have lost just three times in 30 games this season.

What is a team with that kind of record doing in second place in the East? The next column in the standings has the answer: 16 ties, two shy of the single-season record set by the 2014 Chicago Fire.

Seven of those ties have been scoreless and five have been 1-1, including Wednesday’s draw at Columbus.

It won’t surprise anyone if Nashville is satisfied to leave Chester this weekend with a 17th tie. That’s all they need to stay in the driver’s seat to finish second in the East. And they’ll be significantly shorthanded, as goals and assists leader Hany Mukhtar will be suspended for yellow card accumulation. So will winger Luke Haakenson, a regular contributor off the bench.

If the Union win Saturday, they will tie Nashville on points and take over second place on the first tiebreaker of total wins, 13-11. And with just three games to go after that, whichever team has the edge after this weekend will be in good shape to keep it the rest of the way.