Some advice for Jim Curtin as the Union’s season falls apart, from the longest-tenured manager in MLS

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Peter Vermes knows how it feels to be in charge of an MLS team that falls from the heights of the league’s elite.

In fact, the Willingboro native is living through it right now.

The league’s longest-tenured manager has led Sporting Kansas City to four first-place finishes in the Western Conference, the 2013 MLS Cup, two more Western Conference finals, and three U.S. Open Cups since taking the helm in August 2009.

But his team is having an awful time this year, next-to-last in the Western Conference at 4-12-5 (17 points). Saturday’s 2-0 win over Austin snapped a three-game losing streak, and a 2-1 win over Seattle on June 8 was the first regular-season victory in 10 games since March 30.

Though Vermes is still in his job, a sign of his clout with the team, Sporting has made three front office changes this year.

Sporting director Gavin Wilkinson lasted just eight days in January after a backlash over his treatment of abuse scandals in Portland, where he oversaw the Timbers and NWSL’s Thorns. Longtime vice president of player personnel Brian Bliss was fired in late June, and Mike Burns was hired as the new sporting director a few days later.

» READ MORE: Julián Carranza’s departure from the Union to Dutch club Feyenoord is official

In circumstances like that, there isn’t much room for sending sympathies. But Vermes knows his good friend Jim Curtin’s Union team has suffered a similarly thorough fall this year — arguably an even sharper one after so many wins over the last four years.

Heading into Wednesday’s game at Chicago (8:30 p.m., Apple TV), the Union have just one win in their last 14 games, are winless in their last seven, and have lost their last four.

“I think the first thing you’re always thinking about is how do you return the team to gaining confidence,” Vermes told The Inquirer. “Confidence is everything in this game — it takes so long to build it, and it can be taken away so fast. And so the first thing I’m thinking is how do you get confidence back in the group.”

In reflecting on how to spot signs of players losing confidence, Vermes cited one that’s especially relevant to the Union: How they high-press defensively.

“They maybe are hesitant,” he said. “Like, I’m thinking, ‘Should I go?’ When you’re thinking like that, it’s already over.”

How does the manager’s message change when the chips are down?

» READ MORE: The Union have no All-Stars for the first time since 2018

“You have to stay resolute to what you believe in, but you can’t have blinders on,” Vermes said. “You can’t just think everything you’re doing is perfect and it’s all right; you have to be able to self-evaluate. But what you can’t do is you can’t second-guess everything — because if you do that, you’re done.”

Over the course of the conversation, Vermes gave Curtin — the league’s second-longest-tenured manager at just over 10 years leading the Union — a strong endorsement to right the ship in Chester.

The advice offered along the way applied to the Union, but it could apply to any soccer team.

“As the leader, you have to understand that you have to be the person that leads,” Vermes said. “Anybody can take a team that’s doing well; anybody can go coach them. You’re hired for these moments: the tough moments when you’re in this.”

Vermes was especially forthright on a subject that has been front of mind all year with the Union: the perils of running a roster back too many times. MLS is merciless to teams that do so, and it’s biting the Union now for their aging legs and lack of depth in key positions.

» READ MORE: Union striker Mikael Uhre is out 2-3 weeks with a groin injury

“That’s our issue at the moment,” he said. “You have to be active in every [transfer] window, and you have to have the resources do it. Everybody knows around here that we have to do that — it’s not a knock. It’s just a reality.”

That doesn’t mean making huge moves every window, but it does mean being active.

“I’m all about trimming the bushes, not ripping out the garden and starting over,” Vermes said. “And that’s what you have to do.”

Curtin said in his gameday-eve news conference Tuesday that midfielder Alejandro Bedoya was back in training but is “not quite ready to make the trip with us.”

Goalkeeper Andre Blake is back on the field but also “not quite ready to rejoin the group.”

Curtin did not say whether Andrew Rick or Oliver Semmle will start in net on Wednesday, signaling he hasn’t made his decision yet.

“We have two young goalkeepers in Oliver and Andrew that we believe in,” he said. “We know when you play young players, there’s going to be learning moments — you only get those through the games. Does it hurt sometimes with points? It does, but we still believe very much in them and know that they’re both capable starters.”

» READ MORE: U.S. Soccer has a big decision to make about Gregg Berhalter’s future as USMNT manager

Striker Mikael Uhre is sidelined with a groin injury, and Curtin said he hoped Uhre’s rehab timeline is “another week or two.”

No. 2 striker Tai Baribo suffered back spasms before Saturday’s 2-0 loss at CF Montréal and played through them for 76 minutes.

“Doesn’t feel good right now,” Curtin said. “We’ll probably meet with him right now to see if he’s able to make the trip.”