First-place Union to face FC Dallas and the Texas heat on Wednesday

There’s six degrees of separation, and then there’s 20 degrees of added Fahrenheit.

It has been warm in Philadelphia recently, but temperatures in the 80s vs. the 103 degrees that Dallas is expected to reach Wednesday ups the ante for the visiting Union seeking a win.

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Sure, to be exact, FC Dallas plays in nearby Frisco, but because a large enclosed area tends to trap heat, on-field temperatures in Toyota Stadium often are a few degrees hotter than the ambient readings.

At home at Subaru Park, the Union have been invincible this season.

“We’re 17 games unbeaten [at home],” manager Jim Curtin said. “We’ve had a great home mentality.”

With a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Fire on Saturday, the Union are coming off a thumping of one of the only three squads to beat them this season. They take on FC Dallas as the Eastern Conference leaders, already practically assured of a playoff spot.

Currently third in the Western Conference, Dallas also is above the playoff line. But with a pack of teams close behind, it will be highly motivated to get a win against the Union. Frankly, Dallas often has been successful in this pursuit, with an overall record of seven wins, two losses, and four draws against Curtin’s side. The Union have never beaten FC Dallas in Texas, losing six times and drawing once.

“It’s a team that has a lot of dynamic attackers,” Curtin said. “They’re very dangerous getting in behind you.”

He didn’t name 21-year-old FC Dallas striker Jesús Ferreira specifically, but he didn’t have to. The Colombian American has 14 goals on the season and has a strong shot at being named to the World Cup roster for the United States. Former Union star Brenden Aaronson is expected to make the U.S. squad as well, but FC Dallas, which also produced Weston McKennie, is one of the few teams in Major League Soccer that can stand its development program alongside that of the Union.

Since the Union play D.C. United on Saturday, the turnaround from this match also necessitates lineup rotation. It’s likely that means more playing time for the Union’s young core, including Paxten Aaronson, Leon Flach, Jack McGlynn, and Quinn Sullivan.

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“Our challenge now is to guard against letdowns,” Curtin said. “It’s not easy.”

Another challenge will be dealing with the heat. MLS has rules for water breaks when temperatures rise. During training, players also are carefully monitored by performance vests that track heart rate and other health metrics.

“We wear all this GPS stuff, so they know the workloads that we have,” captain Alejandro Bedoya said earlier this season about dealing with the heat. “And then you combine that with the fact that because it’s so hot, everybody can’t go as hard as they normally would — you’re not making the same sprints, or when you do make a sprint, you’re gassed. You have to deal with the elements.”

Weather conditions are of course the same for both teams, but the truth is that the FC Dallas players train and play in that type of heat more often than the Union does. As a result, Dallas’ players are far more accustomed to, and even comfortable under, these difficult conditions. Still, the Union are looking for the win, not excuses.

“It’s at a time of the year when you want to chase every point,” Curtin said. “It’ll be a tough task to go down there on a Wednesday night in 100-degree temperatures, but that’s our job.”