Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

Tonight at PPL Park the Union begin their two-game series against a Toronto team that just fired its head coach (7 pm: CSN, MLS Live, MLS Direct Kick).

Curtin said of Toronto, “It’s tricky. Any time you get a new coach in, there’s going to be an initial burst. We talked very specifically about how the first 15 minutes of this game will dictate a lot. They’re going to come in flying — everybody always wants to impress the new coach. We have to get through the first 15 minutes and then it will settle down.”

Curtin said of player absences such as Carlos Valdes and Rais Mbolhi due to international call ups, “We’ll be fine. We have depth. That’s why you need to have depth. We’ll juggle some things in the back. Valdes is obviously a great center back for us, but we have guys that can come in and do the job back there.”

Curtin added, “I made the point at the start of training this week that there’ll be one guy in front of me in training that will play a major role in this thing that hasn’t played minutes at all this year. It always happens in MLS. In every team I’ve been involved in, a guy that somebody least expects to steps up, and whether it’s scoring a big goal or making a big play or big save or whatever it may be, that is something that will happen. And our team will be no different.”

Curtin said, “[T]he thing that we’ve been stressing all week is that this game is about us. We kind of control our own destiny at home with the majority of our home games being here.” He explained, “[W]e know that it’s not going to be easy — there’s no easy game in MLS. I’ve said it before about our group: We have a very good group when everybody plays good. We can’t afford though – the margin for error is zero – we can’t have three and four guys have bad games. We don’t need anyone to have a great game, we just need everybody to be good, do their job, and that’s kind of been our message and our mantra over the past 13 games or so.”

While Valdes and Mbolhi will be unavailable for the Toronto series, Cristian Maidana is set to return. Describing Maidana as “fully ready to go,” Curtin said, “Chaco’s had his best week of training over the past, you know, since he’s come back, actually. He’s been very good in training. It’s very good to see him with a lot of life, his legs seem back under him, he’s fit, he’s put a lot of work in.”

Amobi Okugo said of tonight’s game, “We know this is a big game. We’ve got to take advantage of our home games. If we win our home games, we put ourselves in a good position. And since it’s the first game in this little two-game series, we can really lay a stamp in of what we want to do for the next game.”

Toronto’s Michael Bradley said of tonight’s game, “It’s a huge game. There’s no getting around that. You get to this time of the year, especially given how tight things are in our conference, you can expect that every game – especially games amongst ourselves, teams in our conference – are going to be tight, hard, fast and physical, so that’s the kind of game we’re expecting.”

New Toronto coach Greg Vanney said, “What’s important for me is that we bring a high level of energy to the field and that we bring a confidence level to the field that we’re going to try and get three points, that we’re not going to try to survive. I really want us to feel that we can let loose and play with some freedom, but with our tactics in mind the whole game…I don’t like waiting and letting the other team dictate what we do. I want to try to put the game in our vision of the game, not wait and see what the opposition’s vision of the game is. And that requires us to be proactive through the course of the match. I like to be possession-oriented and I like to be attacking-minded.”

Vanney added, “We have a plan, but it’s a short-put-together plan. But I’m confident in the group we have because we have some special players.”

Previews from PSP, click here.

Why has Sebastien Le Toux been on fire lately? Le Toux says, in addition to being fully fit as compared to last season at this time, Curtin has “given me more freedom to go in the center of the field.”

Power rankings! At ProSoccerTalk, the Union move up one spot to No. 7. At SI, they drop one spot to No. 11. Why do I suddenly want a soda?

Local

Harrisburg’s Yann Ekra received an honorable mention in the latest USL PRO Team of the Week.

The City Islanders need to win one of the two games remaining in the regular season — both of which are on the road — to secure a postseason berth. Ekra said, “We have everything in our hands. We know if we win one, we’re in. So we’re going to try to get three points on Friday and get more points on Saturday. We’re going to try to win both games.”

The Drexel men’s team hosts Villanova tonight at 7 pm. The game had been scheduled to be played Tuesday night but was postponed after the opening whistle due to lightning when Drexel was trailing 1-0 late in the first half. The game will be replayed from the start tonight.

Kevin Silva (Players Development Academy; Bethlehem, Pa.) and Matthew Olosunde (New York Red Bulls Academy; Trenton, N.J.) are among the 29 players invited to the 2014 Fall Semester of the U.S. U-17 Residency Program in Bradenton, Florida.

At GametimePA, Matthew De George examines the experience of British coaches in Delaware County high school and club soccer.

Chestnut Hill Local’s Tom Utescher has a slew of previews and reports on local teams, including the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy girls team, the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy boys team, a preseason scrimmage between the Mount St. Joseph Academy and Ridley High School girls teams, and a preseason scrimmage between the Penn Charter and Germantown Friends School girls teams.

MLS

In addition to the Union hosting Toronto tonight, New England is hosting Kansas City (7:30 pm: MLS Live, SiriusXM FC), and Chivas USA is hosting Seattle (10:30 pm: MLS Live, SiriusXM FC).

Brotherly Game looks at the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Tally Hall is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Reports say Real Salt Lake’s proposal to build an 8,000 seat stadium at the Utah State Fairpark’s to be the home of the club’s new USL PRO team have been approved.

Las Vegas Review-Journal has posted an editorial urging city council members to vote against public spending for a proposed $200 million soccer stadium “contingent upon an ownership group obtaining a Major League Soccer franchise.”

San Antonio Scorpions have announced plans for a 10,000 seat expansion to his team’s Toyota Stadium intended to advance that city’s MLS franchise prospects. More from woai.com and MLSsoccer.com.

League executives are scheduled to visit MLS expansion franchise hopefuls Sacramento in a little more than two weeks.

US

A young US squad will face Czech Republic today in a friendly (2:15 pm: NBCSN, UniMás, NBC Sports Live Extra).

Previews from PSP, US Soccer, MLSsoccer.com, Soccer America, ESPN, Fox Soccer, ProSoccerTalk, Goal.com, US Soccer Players. Fox Soccer also has five talking points ahead of the game.

Jozy Altidore will be the US captain today.

Jurgen Klinsmann said something on Tuesday that Union fans can get behind given the absence of Carlos Valdes and Rais Mbolhi for two critical club matches while they are away with their national team: “Our biggest wish going forward is that MLS takes time off at the FIFA fixture dates because it’s a lose-lose for both sides when that happens.” Klinsmann continued,

Canada, Honduras, Costa Rica, Mexico, whoever plays in MLS, the foreign guys, they all go. But I compromise my own players? It’s because the coaches say, ‘We need them now badly to go towards the playoffs. Now it’s really going to get hectic.’ There’s something wrong, then, because the other nations, they benefit from the professional league in MLS. They call them because it’s a FIFA fixture date…

It’s not working anymore. Therefore our wish is [that MLS] extend the season — obviously you get 21 teams next year — start earlier, finish later, but open these slots for the national team program…

You want to not only build your senior national team to the highest level, but also at the same time — this is what all other teams do — you have your U-23 camp, they have U-20 camps, they have U-18 camps with games, meaningful games,” he said. “Those slots are made to develop your national team program, globally. In the past we compromise that because we want MLS to do well, and we want to do well as well.

Klinsmann said he’s taking a “relaxed” approach with dual national targets such as Gedion Zelalem. “With Gedion, it’s a family process that is there. He’s not in possession of an American passport. If he gets one, that’s step one. Step two is then talking soccer with him and his family, and he needs to feel comfortable with him and his family. There, again, we started the process very early, and also we are in touch with him but in a very relaxed way.”

Klinsmann also shared some of the thoughts he had after the US was knocked out of the World Cup by Belgium: “You kind of leave the place with, ‘It was a good performance, it was thrilling games, but shit—we should have gone even further. There is still that learning curve. We want to become this more proactive team and go eye-to-eye and take it to the opponents no matter what their big name is. I had the feeling that we could have done that.”

Elsewhere

Check out the latest Footy on the Telly for listings of today’s international friendlies and club games on TV, online, and on satellite radio.