Photo: Marjorie Elzey
Greek philosopher Plutarch posed this question in his work, “Parallel Lives:”
If a ship leaves port and, while at sea, replaces all of the planks required to make that ship one at a time as they need to be replaced, is it the same ship when it returns back to port? This thought experiment is called The Theseus Paradox, and it is one already unpacked on the pages of the Philly Soccer Page.
That came in 2017, when the conversation was about comments made by Earnie Stewart. The then-Sporting Director said, “I don’t know about 2014, I don’t know about 2015, apart from what I see in statistics and results. I can’t judge somebody on the fact that they lost games in 2014 when I was not here.”
Fans didn’t feel the way the former National Team star did — they felt every old bruise, every prior slight, every inch of the team’s inability to measure up in years before.
The question at the time was who was right: was it the fans, who had every right to show their scars, their endurance of the veritable S-show through which they slogged? Or was it Stewart, who had nothing to do with that particular storm? At the time, the exercise froze the PSP community in its tracks — some read the piece twice, none had a great answer.
This morning, however, there is clarity.
What’s new is old
Union fans watched their team get dumped out of the Concacaf Champion’s League Tuesday night, hanging with the best team in the region, a much-improved Los Angeles FC side, until they simply couldn’t any longer. The Union are still good, but their opponents — the mark they’re chasing — have gotten much better. Worriers have, on an annual basis, surmised that the league was passing by the Boys in Blue. Year after year though, that wasn’t true.
Until Tuesday, when maybe it was. An empty accusation became possible.
There were no moments of gratitude in Unionville Tuesday night, a night on which the team rose to heights only a handful of Major League Soccer teams have ever matched (for the second time in three years!). Instead, there was only a lock-step march, toward the Cliff of Union Despair.
It doesn’t matter that every single board in this proverbial ship has been replaced save for the owner and captain. It doesn’t matter that those holdovers have presided over the golden years of Philadelphia soccer — unquestionably and objectively. It doesn’t matter that the team has taken those mealy old boards and alchemized them, transmogrified them, into the gold standard of soccer development, with the Aaronsons and McKenzies to prove it and newer Aaronsons and McGlynns behind them to do it all over again. It doesn’t matter that the new sporting director, of a substantially greater pedigree than his predecessor (speaking of boards being replaced), has found diamond after diamond in the proverbial rough of lower-league soccer.
None of it matters.
The truth today is that Union Ship is the Union Ship, the same one that set sail in 2010 — new boards can never cover the old rot. Results in 2023 have proven that it runs too deep.
A loss in one competition from 2015 echoes just as strongly as the most recent one from 2023. The ghost pain of Vincent Nogueira hitting the post overlaps with Mikael Uhre’s dip in form. Amobi Okugo out of position hurts just as much as Leon Flach in the same conundrum. The simple wooden box carried by Sons of Ben pallbearers when Nick Sakiewicz was at the helm seems destined to be exhumed so that Ernst Tanner, or maybe even Jim Curtin, can see their name on it next.
In spite of it all, none of the goodwill earned since Stewart’s comments in 2017 matters.
Today’s paradox of expectations
“Michael Jordan played for 15 years and won six championships. The other nine years were a failure? That’s what you’re telling me.
There’s no failure in sports. There’s good days, bad days, some days you are able to be successful, some days you’re not, some days it’s your turn, some days it’s not your turn. That’s what sport’s about. You don’t always win, some other people are gonna win. And this year, someone else is gonna win. Simple as that.”
– Giannis Antetokounmpo
The paradox of who the Union are, and perhaps who they will always be, is solved.
Further evidence for this discovery can be found amidst the expectations for the team.
At the beginning of the season, this website asked its contributors and readers to talk about their own expectations: what will success look like in 2023? In the big scheme of the year, with the uncluttered perspective that only a preseason roundtable can offer, what matters and what doesn’t?
Save for one voice in each of the respective camps, not a single person on these pages thought the Union would end up in the Concacaf Champion’s League Final. Some thought they’d bow out earlier, but the rest thought they’d end up exactly where they did: as semifinalists.
In meeting the overwhelming set of reasoned expectations, disappointment prevails.
There was a howling chorus of those who thought Curtin had been out-coached over the two legs, to say nothing of his efforts in the early stages of the season while the team floundered to keep its 2022 form. The same coach who seemed on the shortlist for the United States Men’s National Team job just a few weeks prior and the same one who — with objectively fewer resources — has helmed this side to the most points in the league for half a decade.
And still, disappointment prevails.
Some called for more substitutions during the match, a regular cry against the team’s rigid Best XI ethos — despite the fact that there aren’t obvious upgrades on the bench nor much correlation between regular squad rotation and success (Manchester City and Arsenal rotate the least amongst Premier League teams, for example). It’s a badge of honor to not rotate players when a team is winning, but the logic fails when it’s losing.
Disappointment prevails.
So now what?
The Concacaf Champion’s League trophy is off the table. By most accounts, so too is the Supporter’s Shield.
What is left is the U.S. Open Cup, the League’s Cup, and of course the MLS Cup.
The first two would have their own charm if the Union won. The last one is the only one that matters, and frankly, the bar most commonly set at the beginning of the year. If contributors and commenters set their expectations now, with one competition off the table and a third of another behind them, what would they be?
Still the MLS Cup? If not, what would be enough to turn the Union ship?
Would anything? Will disappointment prevail?
A team can change if it gets a new coach and rebuilds lol. This is extreme but I feel like this year should be the swansong of these players and this coach. We reached the ceiling. Of course we are still in it. Of course we could go into the playoffs the 5th seed and win it all. That will help, sure.
–
But at this point, I’m not holding my breath. I’m not going to get excited about rolling out the same front three and expecting different results. You can only chase “but they were amazing last year!” for so long. I’m not excited about watching Bedoya hobble around on half a leg for 80+ minutes every game.
–
And as for Curtin, he is clearly a great MLS coach who did amazing things for us. But he doesn’t know how to be proactive or rotate his squad or develop a good group of back ups and Plan Bs. And he isn’t going to learn that here. Time for him to fly the coup, go to Europe, and see if he can learn and grow there.
So you’re advocating for a new ship?
.
I’d argue the opposite. We have a central spine that is under contract for the next 2-3 years and it is a solid foundation for this team. We don’t need to ditch Jim, we just need him to take the next step like he has done year after year.
Not a whole new ship, but some new parts would be nice.
–
I agree about the spine. Overall the CBs and Martinez have been fine this year (though Martinez also has focus issues in big games, and the Elliot is having a down year compared to last year).
–
For Curtin, I agree we can hope he keeps growing but also I’m a big believing in “sometimes it’s time to move on”. I won’t pretend I have any scientific facts in front of me but I really wonder how many coaches stick with 1 team for 10+ years yet continue to grow and develop after 10 years. Sometimes you gain more by refreshing ideas and the voice in the locker room.
One aspect that you failed to mention is that the club made it clear that winning the CONCACAF Champions League was a high priority for them. Curtin managed this early part of the season with this objective in mind and we got beat by a better side in the semis (same as in 2021).
–
I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, the frustration is that we have seemingly reached our ceiling as a club in the various competitions. Consistently good, well run and financially responsible, but always the nearly men when we get to the late stages of MLS Cup, US Open Cup and now CONCACAF Champions League.
This is the most damning part and why I feel the way I do. This club screamed from every angle that the CCL was the goal. Well, we saw how it went. Now what? It’s hard to reset expectations when they told us clearly what the plan was.
Enjoyed this column, Chris. Very good. I think the team has to get something to exercise the many old ghosts of ‘almosts’ that haunt the decade of Curtin’s managerial tenure. I’d be thrilled with any silverware, maybe even the Leagues Cup. I may complain and express disappointment, but I’ll take this run of Union results over those of many other teams in the league.
–
One quibble about squad rotation. When your team has the form of City or Arsenal, you don’t rotate. You tinker on runs that look like the Union’s And even City finds ways to rotate through Alvarez, Silva, DeBruyne, Rodri, etc., sometimes due to injury, but also because Pep knows he’s still in three competitions. Further, Arsenal’s slips in April are in part attributable to a lack of depth. Aside from that, how often have you seen any prem manager not named Roy Hodgson use so few of his available subs in any match?
I agree that it is very hard to tinker when you are playing well and your players are playing well. As Curtin has said, no one wants to come out and Curtin is enough of a players coach to respect that.
–
But being a coach is about making hard decisions, protecting players from themselves and being proactive. I think Curtin has failed on that front. He clearly is a coach who is going to trust his guys no matter what. Well, sometimes that doesn’t work and we saw it again.
–
As a coach, who is literally in control of this stuff and can change whenever he wants, you don’t get to say “I tried nothing and I’m all out of ideas.” We have been calling on him to rotate Bedoya for years at this point, or to try our some new wrinkles in the attack or defense. He never does it, so he needs to own that.
LAFC has the form of Arsenal and they have rotated heavily from day 1 of this season
Right. I think Arsenal’s lack of rotation has been out of necessity — lack of depth and key injuries.
One thing that is being lost on the Cliffs of Union Despair is that the team hit a high water mark Tuesday night.
.
Yes that loss and overall performance Tuesday was severely disappointing, but we surpassed our ’21 CCL vSemi-Final result by a goal.
.
baby steps…
Wait….. Baby steps?
Let me see….
Seattle has won both MLS Cup and CCL, Supporter Shield too.
Portland, Atlanta, NYCFC and of course LAFC have all won MLS Cup as expansion teams AFTER 2010.
Should I go on?
And frankly Curtin has benefited from Blake and his amazing heroics over the years. With any other goalie, sorry but the coach would have been gone during Earnie’s tenure…. But he knew where he was headed, did not want to rock the boat by firing Curtin.
The year is a step backwards…. and after the performance at LAFC, Section 114 will be chanting FIRE CURTIN again.
Plus Herr Tanner finally stocking the roster with winners, not aging retreads from other leagues.
Second place is the first place losers.
.
Some called for more substitutions during the match, a regular cry against the team’s rigid Best XI ethos — despite the fact that there aren’t obvious upgrades on the bench
.
This logic sounds good on a video game but that’s not how professional sports is played. Would there be an upgrade in fitness with replacing a player in the 80th minute? LAFC replaced two players in the 66th minute and scored two goals. Were the players on the bench better than the starters?
.
The same coach who seemed on the shortlist for the United States Men’s National Team job just a few weeks prior….
He wasn’t on anyone’s shortlist for the USMNT managers job. He simply stated that if someone asked would he take a job as an assistant he would make the move. Since that statement the team hasn’t played well.
.
Last year LAFC had one of their best player’s leave the team in Christian Arango for Liga MX. They themselves have replaced boards to their ship but the difference is they play them. Long, Biuk & Tillman have all contributed this year. Meanwhile the off-season Union signings other than Lowe have seen minimal minutes. The team strategy of developing players like Sullivan and McGlynn by giving them minutes is smart, but these two players might leave for the U20 World Cup, while Perea and Torres have played less minutes this season, makes one wonder going forward how they will complete in the up coming weeks?
.
I like Curtin but much like Andy Reid he’s only taken the team so far while having successful winning seasons. Andy went on to be quite successful with another team but the Eagles also picked up some hardware themselves.
.
There’s a difference between despair and demanding more to me. Sak out produced more for this franchise and I believe few will disagree with that.
LA can sub on the 66th minute because they have difference makers on the bench (e.g.cifuentes) where there’s little to no drop off from the starting 11. We simply don’t have that this season so far, with the Burke loss looking like a major issue, particularly paired with a dip in form from Uhre.
Difference makers on the bench? Please tell me who wanted Tillman over Perea & Torres before the season started? Torres scored a goal off the bench this year and his since disappeared since. The reason so many picked the Union to win this year was the addition of these players…. You can’t produce differences makers on the bench.
I’m sorry but whining about the quality of backups we can bring in is tired and pointless. No kidding there are “no obvious upgrades on the bench” – they are back ups!
–
We will never have the depth of LAFC or Man City, so please let’s just drop that excuse now.
–
The goal isn’t to find a better player on the bench, the goal is to find a way to rotate, to minimize weaknesses and highlight strengths. That’s what a coach needs to do.
–
Sitting here an going “Well, he doesn’t have Gareth Bale on the bench! Oh well!” is tired and annoying and I don’t want to hear it anymore.
–
Ok I actually read your whole comment now that I have calmed down and I see I am agreeing with you now lol. I think my comment is more accurate in response to Scott E now.
+1
MLS cup is what matters, and the remainder of the season should be planned accordingly. B team lineups in US Open Cup, and only flip to A team lineups should we happen to advance to a semi- final. And Leagues Cup? Just not that into it. As good as this group has been the last few years, only a MLS cup is what would cement their legacy and make this whole journey a success.
I pull this over from James article earlier as I feel it is apropos.
.
Union are be’twixting right now.
.
You can see the quality is still obvious but there seems to be a dulling of their senses.
.
Almost as though they are in a dissociative fugue at times. I really think the trauma of that November 4th loss last season has not been totally processed.
.
It hasn’t for me. We have moved on — are stabilized and functioning, but there is still something off deep down and it is keeping them (me) from functioning optimally.
.
Hell Howie Roseman was on the morning show this week and I happened to catch it and he is still ‘traumatized’ by the loss to Kansas City- you could hear it in his voice and reticence to even discuss the topic with John and John.
.
There is still Open Cup and that is winnable. There is this wild midseason tournament upcoming. Then from there just focus on being optimal by Fall.
.
We seem to have arrived squarely on the doorstep of needing some kind of trophy –which is not the Supports Shield– to validate this run of form and level of commitment from the franchise these past few years.
.
The fans need it.
.
Jim needs it.
.
Alejandro needs it.
.
In order to be considered one of the top franchises in MLS (and process past failures) … the next step needs to be taken.
.
I always like to end a post I feel is particularly on point with the comment… Just the Truth.
.
Every once in awhile an article is written on these pages that succinctly and perfectly articulate an underlying feeling. You achieved that today James and Chris.
.
These articles are excellent work.
+1
+1 — Both authors have weaved words together that articulate what I’ve been feeling and trying to express. Well done and thank you.
All this angst…..
It’s those damn SoCal Surfer jerseys, I’m telling you.
NEVER wear them again….
and do not call the sport soccer, its football
You’re on a losing battle. In US it’s soccer… like inches and feet. We’re different. Respect us….
Wink. 😉
i know, but but but, american football is soccer and soccer is football…it is untenable and absurd that its actively undenied…..i will put my helmet on and play some football so i can soc someone.
its a case of transsexualism in sports.
but i like the philly football page and the eagles will soc their opponents.
I feel empathetic towards all the comments, lots of good knowledge expressed, however the coach cannot be held responsible for Mbaizo red card, or Carranza red card earlier in the season or the injuries to Blake and Martinez.
How can he be outcoached under these circumstances ? the answer is he plays his back ups, if he knows their strengths
and the needs of the match he has shown to use them. In my opinion the game was lost at home with the late goal. So lets go on and cheer for the players, Curtin has accused his players of trying too hard, if they keep up this work ethic
we will have some success.
+ 1 said it before the late goal by LA in game 1 was the kiss of death. L A plays just as good as Philly at home. Martinez is a bit of a looney but he can put fear in the hearts of opposition attacking midfielders. He will also not let anyone intimidate our players or they will pay the price. We need (figuratively ) punch LA in the mouth from very first minute of the game if we get another shot at them Keep them looking over their shoulder the whole game. Just dont get caught. Please wipe the smile off Velas face.
Saturday, September 23
More like the Union are Sissyphus and that boulder keeps like flattening them each time they almost get it to the top of the mountain.
MLS CUP Winners/Entered League:
Portland 2015/2011
Seattle 2016/2009
Toronto 2017/2007
Atlanta 2018/2017
Seattle 2019/2009
Columbus 2020/—
NYCFC 2021/2015
LAFC 2022/2018
US Open Cup Winners/Entered League:
Seattle 2010/2009
Seattle 2011/2009
Seattle 2012/2009
SKC 2013/—
DCU 2014/—
Seattle 2015 vs Phil
SKC 2016 vs Phil
FC Dallas 2017/—
SKC 2018/—
Houston 2019 vs Phil
Atlanta 2021/2017
Orlando 2022/2015
It’s time for a change….
I will not disagree with any comments here. I understand the feeling of everyone, good and bad and mixed. I will just share that on Twitter during the match similar questions about substituting came up and Matt Doyle said: “If you’ve watched Perea or Torres for the last two seasons, you’d know why they aren’t ready for this game.”
That may very well be true, but if it’s not Curtin’s fault for failing to play them, it’s Tanner’s for bringing them here in the first place. I think Doyle may be right on Torres, but I don’t think Perea has done anything but play relatively well here and in limited appearances in Orlando. Both he and Lowe are perfectly capable of providing rest to our starting XI.
and dont call it soccer its football, see my reply JFav