Jim Curtin embraces unprecedented expectations on the Union, and on himself

This isn’t the first time the Union have started a season with high expectations. They were serious last year, too, and they had only grown from the seasons before.

But there have never been expectations like there are right now, and for good reason. It may be un-Philadelphian to say, but it’s a fact: The Union have the best team in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference.

“I think on paper, we do,” manager Jim Curtin told The Inquirer. “But games aren’t won on paper, as you know. You have to stay healthy; you have to work hard to improve every day, because if you get complacent in this league, you get yourself in trouble.”

How can they not be a favorite? The team that won the conference’s most regular-season points and its playoff bracket returns every starting player. While some important backups left, they were replaced by seasoned MLS veterans who know their places in the Union’s tactical playbook.

Of course, with expectations comes pressure. Nothing like what the Phillies face this summer, or what the Eagles will face this fall, or what the Sixers face every spring these days. But the Union have gone one step better each year since 2019: first playoff win, first conference final, first championship game. Now there’s only one step left.

» READ MORE: How to watch Union games in the new Apple MLS Season Pass streaming package

“I wish we took care of that step, obviously, you know, against LAFC out in L.A., in what was for me the best MLS Cup final,” Curtin said. “The hard thing there is someone has to lose a game like that, so it hurts. I think it drives our guys — it was about as close as you can get, with our own fans in a hostile environment, to getting it done.”

To assert that the Union will get back to the MLS Cup final is unfair, because the playoffs are a crapshoot. To assert that their counterpressing system will steamroll opponents and run up big scores again is unfair, because the margins really were exceptional: a team record-high 72 goals scored, and a league record-low 26 goals conceded in a 34-game season.

» READ MORE: An analysis of the Union’s roster at the start of the 2023 season

But to assert that the Union should top the East again, clearing the easiest way to return to the title game, isn’t a stretch.

“I think the players will only be satisfied with getting back, and that’s a good mentality to have,” Curtin said. “Is it going to be easy? No. Are we going to go through the highs of the goals that we scored last year, the 6-0s and the 5-1s and the 7-0s? Is that realistic? We’re going to shoot for it, but it’s going to be tough to replicate. And then defensively it’s going to be tough to improve on what we already did.”

Then he added: “We have a team that I think can get back.”

» READ MORE: The Union are changing up their playing style, and Jim Curtin wants to see more of it

The challenges will come not just from rivals that have improved: FC Cincinnati, Toronto FC, the New York Red Bulls, and the Columbus Crew team that comes to Subaru Park on Saturday to kick off the season (7:30 p.m., free on Apple TV). Or the big names on Nashville SC, Inter Miami, Atlanta United, and the New England Revolution.

The biggest challenge of all will be the calendar.

Never before have the Union played a campaign with the regular season, playoffs, Concacaf Champions League, and U.S. Open Cup all on deck. When they made their inaugural CCL run two years ago, the Open Cup was still suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now add to all that the new Leagues Cup tournament between MLS and Mexico’s Liga MX that will halt the regular season from late July to mid-August. The Union will play well over 50 games this year, perhaps 60 when all is said and done. They know that last year, the Seattle Sounders failed to make the playoffs after becoming the first MLS team to win the Concacaf title since 2000.

And as they make their way, Curtin will face a form of pressure all his own. He has now coached in four championship games, three in the Open Cup (2014, ‘15, and ‘18) and last year’s MLS Cup final, and lost them all.

» READ MORE: Jim Curtin knew the Union could be good last year, but he didn’t think they’d be as good as they were

“You’re always thinking about it, of course,” he said, “and different things you could do in each game. When you take each individual matchup, I know which ones we were favored in, and which ones we were maybe the surprise to be there. So I’m realistic with that.”

He’s stoic, too.

“Of course I want to push myself and get back,” he said “You can’t be scared to go into another one and be scared of losing. … Those are the games that you learn the most about yourself and your team. So we will fight like hell to get back again, and you don’t quit until you win one.”

It’s the only black mark on an exceptional reputation for a 43-year-old American whose only managerial job has been at his hometown club in his domestic league. That kind of resumé shouldn’t make you a top candidate to lead a U.S. men’s national team of unprecedented, global-scale talent into a once-in-a-generation World Cup on home turf.

But Curtin’s blend of tactical acumen and personal touch have put him on the list on merit.

“I think you have to show that you respect the players: You tell them when you mess up as well, you admit mistakes,” he said. “People in authority positions or leadership positions don’t like to admit mistakes. And I think I’ve been a guy that when we win, I’m going to give the credit to the players, because they deserve it, and when we lose, I’ll take the blame — and that’s how it should be.”

» READ MORE: The Union and manager Jim Curtin have started talks on a contract extension

Will Curtin get the U.S. job? Who knows? He doesn’t even. Would it upend this season? Sure, but Marlon LeBlanc can step up from the reserve team to steer the ship. Just as Matt Real is preparing at left back for if Kai Wagner leaves this summer, the Union know there’s a pathway for the manager job.

Until then, Curtin has plenty to work on: starting the season well, winning a trophy later, and turning the Union into the big-city team they should be in the nation’s fourth-largest media market.

“In some ways we are this lovable ‘Little Engine That Could’ team,” Curtin said. “But we’re in a big market, we’re in a big city. … We’ve used this ‘Nobody respects us’ mantra to get us where we are, and now that we’re here …”

The manager of the team with the most-regular season points in MLS over the last four years, with a local TV rating for last year’s title game that nearly tripled the rest of the country, paused for a moment.

It was a brief pause before Curtin resumed speaking, and soon moved to other subjects. But in just that moment, there was so much that could be — for him, for his team, and more.

“We’ve been so close in so many instances [to] lifting that final trophy,” Curtin said a few minutes later. “But I believe things happen for a reason in this game, and we’re going to get there.”

» READ MORE: For Jim Curtin and the Union, former U.S. Soccer sporting diretor Earnie Stewart wasn’t simply a colleague, he was an ally