Photo and video: Daniel Studio

Postgame wrap with Eli Pearlman-Storch and Matthew De George

Jim Curtin’s postgame press conference

Postgame interviews with Ray Gaddis, Tranquillo Barnetta, Andre Blake, Richie Marquez, and Cristian Maidana

Philadelphia Union postgame quotes

Note: Questions have been paraphrased. Jim Curtin’s comments transcribed by PSP. All other quotes provided.

Jim Curtin

Opening statement

Disappointing result, I thought the first half both teams played well, had chances. They had a little more of the ball but I still thought we had a couple opportunities in front of goal. We didn’t capitalize. Credit to them, they made it difficult for us the whole night. I thought they were a little sharper and cleaner on the ball, did all the little things to get a win on the road that it takes in this league. Second half I thought we were poor, I thought there was a big drop off. Jermaine was probably the best on the field, I think their big guys had big games. Lee Nguyen was able to find some space and was dangerous all night. Conversely, not our best performances from our key guys. Difficult. Everybody knows the result that went on tonight, we missed a big opportunity.

Can you explain what happened on the Maidana red card?

I’m not sure, it’s all kind of speculation now. I’ve heard different things so I’m not really — I haven’t seen the video of it yet but I’ve seen some things that been said and written. Any time you get sent off it’s not good, doesn’t help your team. I think it wasn’t particularly a good game for Chaco. They did a good job limiting his touches, were hard on him, he didn’t have an easy night and then kind of compounded it by the red card at the end.

How do you present it to your players in terms of where they stand?

We have three games at home left and four on the road so that’s the way we have to approach it. We can’t get any momentum going. We had a very good professional performance in Montreal, a difficult place to go. We get a 1-0 win and then come back home with a good opportunity against a good New England team, that’s a very good team,  and they deserve the points tonight. Disappointing. We can’t get over that hump of putting together back-to-back performances.

How frustrated were you to see your defense specifically seem disoriented, hooking the ball aimlessly out of the back and not even trying to maintain possession?

We worked hard to finally win it back and then as soon as we would win it back it was coming right back down our throat because we weren’t able to connect our first pass. We talked all week about trying to play into CJ’s feet, at least giving him a chance to fight for a ball into Maidana’s feet to let us breathe a little bit; that didn’t happen. Like you said, a lot of balls were just aimlessly hit out of bounds. Even on the goal, we’re building ourselves out of the back, Ray tries to play a one-time ball — maybe he can take a touch and make an easy pass. It goes out of bounds and for a second they catch us on the throw-in and leads to the goal. Again, not a night where we give up a million chances but the ones we do are critical and we get punished for.

On Maidana’s red card, did you see more as a sense of frustration? Are you disappointed by when it happened?

I mean, at that stage, yeah, everybody’s frustrated, the game didn’t go the way we wanted. It was a late foul, and he knows that’s going to slow things down. So, again, I’m not sure what he’d done, we couldn’t really see it from where we were, but he did something to get sent off, obviously, that was, in the judgement of the referee, deemed a red card offense.

What did you think of Andre Blake’s performance and did he solidify that starting job?

Good, he was very good. He saved what he was supposed to save. The one that, even on the goal it was a tricky one, I have to look at it again. I’m not sure if it went through Richie’s legs or went actually back against him so he’s screened a little bit. It was a good play by them, a good shot. So, again, not at fault on the goal, bailed us out on a couple where he made some very good saves, was good on crosses, so, happy with Andre’s performance, I thought it was solid.

With the playoffs basically out of reach, will we see changes such as bringing Tranquillo Barnetta inside to partner with Vincent Nogueira?

Yeah, I mean, it sounds like that could be happening naturally now with Chaco being out, that seems like a possibility. We’re going to still,obviously, push to get results and wins. Obviously, that is the name of the game in pro sports. Still not eliminated yet, so we’ll play, like you said, the final seven games as best we can to try to get as many points as we can. Stranger things have happened. We understand the situation, though, it’s fading.

How did Barnetta, Naogueira and Maidana do together tonight?

I thought the first half there were some real good moments, good possession, interchange. They’re still getting used to each other. There’s not a lot of time — obviously there’s not time to really have a margin for error left in the season but, I thought they still had some moments where they caused some problems. Barnetta, I thought, in the first half were some of his best minutes with us. He’s dangerous; a couple of things got blocked in front, and he had a couple of opportunities at goal, a couple of good crosses into the box, so, positive from him.

Vincent, for his first game back, had some rust, for sure, but also made some decent plays. Obviously, there’s regular season and the cup final [so] to get all those guys gelling will be critical.

On Andrew Wenger getting his first minutes after his long layoff recovering from concussion

At that stage, we decided to go to a 3-5-2 and kind of throw everything we could at them. Still probably didn’t create enough, or threaten them enough. But, he’s a guy who’s versatile, he can play on that left side in that role. It wasn’t as an outside back but, you know, there’s been discussions of that just because of his skill set. I thought he — to get him back for the first time in what was a long, frustrating layoff for him is positive. And, again, he has to continue to push for minutes every week in training now. It is nice to have a strong option on the bench in Andrew right now.

On giving New England’s Diego Fagundez too much space in the lead-up to the goal

It’s tough when a guy’s got a full head of steam running at you as a center back. I thought we kind of fell asleep for a second on the throw in and allowed him to get a full head of steam. A dangerous player who’s very good 1-v-1 running at you. I thought Richie backpedaled and maybe didn’t notice that there was too much separation. Again, I’ll have to look a little more closely on the tape and we’ll have a discussion with him to see things he could do better. Again, I’m not sure if it went through his legs or where his help was in that situation. But, it’s not a — off of a throw-in from midfield, I’ll put it this way, they shouldn’t have an opportunity with a guy running one-on-one at our center back that easily.

Andre Blake

One of the key things was you didn’t give up any rebounds. Was that something you really work on?

I’ve been practicing a lot, putting in a lot of work, doing all the stuff that I need to and it’s carrying on into games.

How about on that goal it looked like you were stunned that he shot that. Did you expect him to shoot it at that point or did you think he was still going to try to break down a defender?

I was playing for both, I was playing for another touch, I was also playing for a shot. It’s a pretty tough one it was at the top of the 18, my defender was close I kind of lost sight of the ball for a second. I feel like and a lot of guys feel like I could’ve saved it. The past is the past.

You get some momentum and now you’re going to leave, how tough was that?

Once I leave, I’ll get to be in Jamaica and that would be awesome. But that’s not for me to worry about because I can’t control that whether I play or not. I make sure to stay mentally ready and so when I get back if my number is called I will be ready to go.

Do you feel much better about things leaving for Jamaica this time?

I’ve gotten a couple games in, feels great so now the decision is up to the coach.

Richie Marquez

Thoughts on the goal

Too much space, shot went by me, through me, whatever you wanna call it. It was unfortunate but it happened.

Did it go through your legs?

I think it just went right past my head. He shot it across I don’t even know if he meant to do that. But it’s a good shot.

Was the space given to him because of the way he can break down defenders?

Yeah once he’s coming at you like that the best thing do is trap him. Try for one of your center defensemen to come back but there was just too much space. It’s just a tough one, a tough goal to take.

How frustrating was this game? What are they doing to you guys to break you down so much?

I don’t know I mean this late in the season it’s just grinding a lot of wins out and obviously some players are going to excel and some are going to struggle a little bit, whether you want to call it fatigue or just end of season. It’s just grinding it out and hard work because that game was back and forth and it’s just a matter of who’s going to want it a little bit more and they came away with it.

New England Revolution postgame quotes

Jay Heaps

Three big points on the road. Thoughts?

Yeah we were really happy with the way we went about the game. I thought early it went really well and then the game got into a little bit of second balls but I thought the second half we were really good at limiting chances. I think we could’ve been a little sharper and had a little more of a game but Philly’s a very good team and they’re playing well at home and they weren’t able to break on us and that was key to our game plan.

Charlie Davies does a lot for you but tonight he did a lot of hold-up play. Was that part of the game plan?

It’s always part of the game plan. With the way he was holding up, the players got confident. On the goal, Diego knew that he was holding up really well and the two of them linked up really well.

What has turned it around this season?

It’s a combination of continuing to fight through it. You hit ups, you hit downs. I think we’ve got a good perspective. I think tactically we’ve taken a hard line on our shape. I think we’re known for our fluid attack but sometimes we can get stretched. Defensively, I think our shape has been really good these past few weeks.

You won both games here this year. Does that surprise you?

Yeah they’re a really tough team and both games were really different at different times. No one likes coming to Philly late in the year because now they’ve got open cup and all these things and we’re hoping they get that because they’re a tough team. Tonight we did a good job limiting what they’ve been good at lately and that’s credit to our guys. At any moment it felt like they could get one.

Charlie Davies

There was a lot of hold-up work for you tonight. It seemed more than usual.

In that center striker position you have to offer a lot to the team and any given night the team needs you to do something different. Tonight it was holding up the ball and the team has given me great balls so that made my job pretty easy. I just had to hold it up and keep the ball moving for our teammates.

How much of an eye do you keep on results or is it still too early to watch playoff races?

I think we reflect on last year. What made us so good last year is that we just worry about ourselves. As long as we play our game, we know that we can achieve our destiny. From here on out if we continue to win games we know that we’ll be in the playoffs. All we can hope for is that we go out and get the highest seed possible and I think if we play like we have I think we will.

Is it dangerous to count on what happened last year?

Not at all. It’s just something that we can reflect on. Knowing that you’re never as low as you seem. We lost eight games in a row last year so we look back at that knowing that things haven’t gone as well as we would have liked but things were a lot worse last year and look how far we made it. That’s just something we can always reflect on. We know we’re a different team and it’s a different season but that’s always something we can look back on. Look what we dug ourselves out of. So after a rough patch this summer, it’s nothing out of the ordinary for us.

Diego Fagundez

On the goal

I just remember that they were trying to attack and we were putting on good pressure, which led to a throw in. Chris played it through to Charlie and Charlie just had to do his job and lay it off for me. I just went for a hole in one and I just took a shot and saw the ball going in.

Were you surprised with the space?

I was surprised with how much space they were giving me and I just kept coming and coming and the space kept opening. I had to make sure I didn’t do a bad touch or anything, just make sure I had a good shot.

25 goals at 20 years old, making you the youngest to do it. Thoughts?

It’s something great and it’s something you can add to the career but there’s still a lot more learning and I just have to keep playing the way I’ve been playing and hopefully more things come my way.