Jim Curtin dials down revenge talk as Union prepare to face LAFC in Champions League

There’s little doubt that the Union’s Champions League semifinal series against Los Angeles FC that starts Wednesday at Subaru Park (9 p.m., FS1, TUDN) is worthy of the hype.

It’s a rematch of last year’s MLS Cup final that the Union lost in heartbreaking fashion. They were denied in the final minutes not just by superstar Gareth Bale, but by Northeast Philly-born ex-Union goalkeeper John McCarthy.

It’s another contrast in the teams’ styles. LAFC has Hollywood star power in Carlos Vela and MLS’ second-leading scorer this year, Dénis Bouanga. The Union have academy products led by Jack McGlynn, the team ethos the brass loves to talk about, and other ways of showing they win games while spending less money.

Because it’s a Champions League series, each team gets a home game this time. LAFC has come here just once before, a 1-1 tie in 2019 that signaled the Union’s ascent toward prominence.

The game is on traditional TV, too, which will please people who are still upset that regular-season games only are on Apple’s streaming platform.

» READ MORE: Even after breaking the Union’s heart, LAFC goalie John McCarthy is the ‘same dude’ from Mayfair

Wouldn’t it be nice to trumpet all that for a Wednesday night when the Sixers are off and the Phillies-Mariners game at Citizens Bank Park should be over before the Union reach halftime?

Alas, Jim Curtin knows better.

“This is halftime,” he said at a Tuesday news conference, “of a very emotional, high-intensity series.”

And if there’s a certain word any fans were hoping he’d feature, he declined to.

“The word ‘revenge,’ I wouldn’t use that one,” Curtin said. “It’s an opportunity for us to now try to beat a very good team and get into the final of a major competition on our continent. So I’m not going to give you any fuel for the fire or for the bulletin board.”

The truth is he doesn’t have to, because the history between these teams speaks for itself. The Union have gone pound-for-pound with LAFC four times over the last five years: the 2019 game, a wild 3-3 tie in 2020, a 2-2 tie in last year’s regular season, and a 3-3 tie over 120 minutes in the title game that was decided by penalty kicks.

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“We bring the best out of each other,” Curtin said. “In some ways, I think you go to the old boxing adage that styles make fights. It’s different styles, no question about it. … It’s similar to two heavyweights getting together that have a different way of playing, and there’s no one right way to play in this game.”

This year, though, the teams’ styles haven’t been so different. Though LAFC has more attacking flair, the team thrives in a transition game that’s similar to the the Union’s high press.

“They’re the No. 1 transition team scoring goals, and they’re the No. 1 transition team in defense,” Curtin said, citing leaguewide statistics his staff keeps track of. “If you go end to end with them … we’re not built for that. We’ll lose a game if it’s ‘they get a chance; we get a chance.’”

Union captain Alejandro Bedoya agreed, adding some frustration that his team hasn’t kept a shutout in its last four games.

“It’s been a little bit upsetting that we’ve allowed the many goals that we’ve let in so far this season,” Bedoya said when he followed Curtin on the podium. “I don’t think we’ve beaten LAFC yet, so hopefully we’ll get that victory tomorrow that we’ve been looking forward to. And it’s halftime, so we’ve got to make sure that we don’t mess up tomorrow night and get a bad result.”

» READ MORE: A four-goal outburst against Toronto lifts a burden off Mikael Uhre and his teammates

The Union have enough experience with this by now, including in the recent quarterfinal series win over Mexico’s Atlas. Though the 1-0 win at home in the first game was narrow, it still was a win. And since goals scored on the road is the first tiebreaker, that home shutout was as crucial as the two goals the Union scored in Guadalajara.

“You can’t win the whole thing in the first leg, but you can lose it because if you get behind against this team, you can really hurt yourself,” Curtin said. “While those those first 15 minutes have to be chaotic, and we want the crowd to be nuts ... we want to get that early goal and try and push for it, but maybe more importantly than goals is keeping a clean sheet.”

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