The Union are off to the best three-game start in team history
Now they go for their first win at Yankee Stadium against New York City FC, in the teams' first meeting since last year's Eastern Conference final.
It’s a statement about how bad the Union’s early years were, not just how good more recent times have been, that the team is off to the best three-game start in its history.
But here the Union are: undefeated so far with two wins and a tie, sharing first place in the Eastern Conference, and again flying a bit under the radar across MLS and among Philly sports fans.
» READ MORE: Union defeat San Jose Earthquakes, 2-0, for Jim Curtin’s 100th victory as coach
“Early points in this league are hard to get, and we’ve found a way to get seven,” manager Jim Curtin said. “I think we’re in a good spot, but it’s only three games. I think the real test [is] after 10-12 games — we start to recognize what teams are for real, what teams thought they were for real, and what teams are, frankly, bad.”
Fair enough. But we’ll get a sign of some kind on Saturday, at least on the MLS radar count, when Curtin’s team faces New York City FC for the first time since last year’s Eastern Conference final (1 p.m., 6abc).
It will also be the Union’s eighth attempt to win at Yankee Stadium for the first time. The Union got a 1-1 tie in the Bronx on the last day of last year’s regular season, only their second draw there. Curtin believes some lessons from that game can carry over to this one, perhaps even more than the playoff clash at Subaru Park, because of the psychological aspect of Yankee Stadium’s unique surroundings.
“You can hear it and you can talk about it, and people maybe on the outside think, you know, what’s the big deal? It’s just a road game,” Curtin said. “It’s just a unique place to play, it’s a unique environment. ... You can never really get used to it, and credit to them, they’ve made it a great home-field advantage and they’re nearly impossible to beat there.”
» READ MORE: Union defeat San Jose Earthquakes, 2-0, for Jim Curtin’s 100th victory as coach
Indeed, City lost just four of its 17 home games last year, and one of them was to Mexico’s Pumas UNAM on penalty kicks in the Leagues Cup. Among the wins were some big scores: 5-0 over Orlando and 4-1 over Columbus in July, and 6-0 over D.C. in October. The year’s home slate concluded with a 2-0 win over Atlanta to kick off the playoffs, and this season’s home opener was a 4-1 win over Montreal.
If there’s a good time for Curtin’s team to swing for the proverbial fences, this might be it, because New York is coming off a wild Concacaf Champions League quarterfinal series against Guatemala’s Comunicaciones.
The reigning MLS champions won the first game at home — well, at a home-away-from-home in East Hartford, Conn. — 3-1 on March 8, then lost in Guatemala City 4-2 on Tuesday. They advanced on the away goals tiebreaker after the aggregate score finished 5-5.
We’ll see if the stress of the road trip leads New York manager Ronny Deila to rest any of his regulars on Saturday. But Deila’s squad has plenty of depth, with veteran striker Héber among the bench options — and stars Valentín Castellanos and Maxi Moralez only played an hour each on Tuesday anyway.
There will also be plenty of eyes on Talles Magno, the 19-year-old Brazilian forward who had his national breakout when he scored the winning goal at Subaru Park last December. Now he has officially arrived, with four goals and an assist in seven games this year.
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“Credit to the coaching staff for the way they brought him along,” Curtin said. “They didn’t just throw him out there and say, ‘Sink or swim,’ they brought him along slowly and now you’re starting to see a real growth and a real development. ... A special young talent, a top talent in our league, and one that you certainly have to focus on.”
But we probably won’t see the Union’s star striker Mikael Uhre, as he still hasn’t fully recovered from the quadriceps strain that kept him out of last weekend’s win over San Jose.
“Mikael has trained off to the side a little bit,” Curtin said. “It’ll be tight for the weekend, obviously we have to be smart with things.
Curtin also admitted that after Uhre “lost a little bit of fitness because we had the visa issue [getting him to the U.S.] ... I maybe pushed him a little too hard in training” as Uhre regained his game fitness.
Reserve centerback Stuart Findlay is also probably out, given how Curtin described the state of the Scotsman’s knee sprain.
“At the worst, he misses this game, but after that I think he’ll be fine,” Curtin said.