Photo: Marjorie Elzey
The end-of-season awards keep coming for Philadelphia Union.
For the second time in three years, manager Jim Curtin has won the Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year award, after leading his side to the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
Curtin just barely edged out Montreal’s Wilfried Nancy by .1% of the vote. Although Nancy pulled in nearly 44% of the media vote, Curtin won the vote among players (23%) and club technical staff (29.8%) to finish ahead of his northern counterpart. LAFC’s Steve Cherundolo finished third.
Curtin joins Andre Blake (Goalkeeper of the Year) and Jakob Glesnes (Defender of the Year) as leaguewide honorees.
Under Curtin’s leadership, this year’s Union set club records for points in a season, goals scored, and fewest goals conceded, with the latter also being an MLS record over a 34-game season. The Union did not lose a single home game during the regular season, and just missed out on the Supporters’ Shield after dropping points in two of their final three matches.
Curtin, who has coached the Union since 2014, first won the award after the club’s Supporters’ Shield campaign in 2020. He becomes the fifth coach in league history to take home the award multiple times, joining Bruce Arena, Bob Bradley, Sigi Schmid, and Frank Yallop.
His side will look to make their first-ever MLS Cup appearance when they take on New York City FC this weekend in the Eastern Conference Final. Kickoff from Subaru Park is at 8 p.m. Eastern on Sunday night.
Congrats to Jim, Andre, Jakob and the entire club!
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T-81 hours and 4 minutes until match time.
I remember the many times I wrote on these pages that I thought the Union had gotten as far as it could go with Jim Curtin as coach. So glad I was dead wrong about that. I’m glad he’s had the opportunity to learn and grow with this team and I’m glad we’ve benefitted from that learning process by having a guy who checks off just about every box you could ask for in a coach. When I think of why I want this team to win the cup, a lot of it is for Jim Curtin. The man deserves the cup for all his hard work. Let’s go.
If they win the cup I’ll be curious to see if he stays. I think he would like to, but there is always a part of you that wants to take the next step, and he could get offers from overseas. It would be an English Championship League team or an equivalent, so it would be an interesting decision.
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Either way, I totally agree that it’s a good thing management didn’t listen to the fans on this one. Their patience has truly paid off and been rewarded.
Yeah, I think he would be torn. He has three kids who might not want to up and leave their home. I’d kind of like to see him manage the USMNT, which might benefit from a similar system, though he might be better served trying his hand in Europe if he gets the chance.
I had a discussion with LAFC fans at the semifinal last week on Curtin being coach vs Cherundolo. They were scoffing at the idea of Jim winning it. Hoping we collect more honors at their expense!