Photo courtesy of Marjorie Elzey

The following is a transcription of manager Jim Curtin’s press conference following the Philadelphia Union’s 3-0 win against Nashville SC (full press conference can be watched here courtesy of Stream Punk Soccer on YouTube).

Opening Statement: “Another big thank you for the amazing crowd tonight, got behind us early. Third game in a week so tired legs for both teams naturally but I thought really pushed us in a big way and soccer is fun again for the guys, which is good to see. No group has gone through a tough season like this more than our group and it’s hurt. But for them to you now be back on the field together, to get a guy like Andre back who again makes a big save that no one’s gonna remember at 2-0, turns it from going 2-1 to us going right down the field and making it 3-0 and end the game. These little plays are huge. The value of having your best players be your best players in this game, as simple as that sounds, is so important. Jose Martinez, again, excellent. Dominated the game. You look at the performance of both outside backs, Kai was his normal solid self which I thought was excellent tonight but Olivier went to the level that you guys have heard me say over the years that he should be playing in French League One he’s that talented…just has to do that every game because he’s an elite defender. A lot of great performances. Great for Daniel to get another bundle of goals, again a lot of really good goals from him in the run of play this year. Some through hard work, some through creativity. A lot of different types of finishes. And again, when your best players are on the field together, we’re still a really good team, we’re not where we want to be in the table, I get that guys, it’s been difficult, but these two wins will go a long way now going into the break to build some confidence, to push through the Leagues Cup and to finish the season the right way.”

Jonathan Tannenwald: “I’m going to ask about the center backs too. They did not push up tonight as much as they normally do; two guys who by their nature push up a lot…did you tell them to not if so or not what was that?”

“Yeah part of that is Hany Mukhtar, you know and not wanting to take too much risk. He’s a player that is kind of most dangerous when we have possession of the ball so if you start to you know lull yourself into thinking it’s comfortable that’s when he hurts you the most. Look the Nashville team too statistically is struggling to create chances right now so let’s not give them any breaks in transition. We did a great job on Shaffelberg who’s an incredible attacking player in our league and we really limited Mukhtar for the majority of the game he’s still going to hurt you at certain moments but I thought Jose did a great job and the team did a good job center backs releasing to him like you mentioned Jonathan to not let him get ahead of steam running at you because he’s such a great player so overall yeah a little  more conservative but in that way we had it in our mind we knew we were going to get chances against them at home I think our expected goals was up over four again which is an extremely high number but let’s not just give a silly mistake and let them you know make a play on the break so that was the the thinking there with our our center backs they did a good job though.” 

Joe Tansey: “Jim, you guys had a clear tactical approach to isolate what they were doing, isolate the the green zone with Daniel, Tai, creating two goals… was that the plan from the start tonight?” 

“Yeah sometimes there’s simplicity to it where now Joe we’re telling Mikael you’re best running in behind so you pin the two center backs back and now when Tai comes off the back line into that green zone, the area between the center backs and the six, Anunga was isolated by himself and he has to deal with Gazdag and Baribo coming off so we found a lot of space in there, giving him two things to deal with but it starts by Mikael always being a threat to run behind doesn’t always get the ball but just by being high now both center backs have to respect where he is because he has more speed than them um so it opened up a lot of space again Tai was was excellent Daniel gets the accolades again but I thought Tai’s work right again at the end of the game still sprinting 90 you know 90 plus minutes even at 3-0 to get pressure to the ball, really good. A lot of good performances, Sam came into the game and I thought it influenced it in a big way, you see how good he is and strong in the air, his speed to get in behind could have had a couple goals but we’ll save those for the the 1-0 wins rather than the 4-0 at the end of a game.”

JT: “At least tonight match specific because of the way Anunga sits there but is that something now you can broaden broaden out to the rest of the season you guys attacked a little bit on Wednesday as well but with those three guys instead of just kind of bombing the the fullbacks forrward?”

“Yeah yeah you saw good combinations from those three in tight spaces too in the box which is when it’s really hard to to make those little combinations and I said to them it’s not a night where we need a heel ball or a flick or a really creative play if we’re just really working and moving off the ball for each other and again you give those center backs more than one thing to deal with it becomes really hard so I thought scored some really good goals in really tight spaces in the center of the penalty area which is an area where you don’t have time to think but we had real good composure in there and some of the combinations were fun to watch…the ball Mikael slips to Daniel is a pass that you know to see that is a next level pass so really happy for the way that we combined in there and caused some problems for a strong defensive Nashville team.”

Unknown: “How’s Andre?”

“He’s okay…yeah scary. It was 50% you know he did have a little pain in the knee 50% also Jakob ripped his shoe in half so he had to get a shoe change as well but yeah there’s a little bit of pain there from Dre give him credit for toughing it out. I think you saw at the end of game obviously now we’re taking goal kicks with our center backs which I don’t love because it means you know there’s a risk of someone keeping somebody on sides if you don’t sprint up quick enough but overall gutted through it now we have some time to recover. I don’t think it’s too serious but he’s still fighting through you know just getting back off of surgery there’s always kind of different scar tissue in there that has to break up and you feel different things. I think he’s fine though in talking to him after the game.” 

Unknown: “A couple of those moments early in the second half there’s uh the glancing header from Mukhtar that he gets a hand on, there’s the one that hits the crossbar..are those moments that you feel like if you’re doing things the right way you somehow buy those breaks? Are those the breaks that you guys weren’t getting a few weeks ago now tipping in your favor? Is it…how do you kind of account for that?” 

“I don’t want to oversimplify it but guys it’s just great goalkeeping. That’s what we’ve had and that’s part of our foundation and people say well it’s all Andre…he’s our player it’s the same thing if you say well the the the Lakers wouldn’t have been good without LeBron back in you know or Cleveland wouldn’t have been good without LeBron or Miami wouldn’t have been good without LeBron he’s our player you know and he plays in the goal which again I’ve said it now seven weeks in a row doesn’t get enough credit that the field players get and I think you saw tonight again everyone will go home and we’ll all remember three incredible goals from Daniel, good job by the the the team to defend and fight and get a big win here um but no one realized the difference if that ball goes in and it’s 2-1 with seven minutes left still you know you can start to have that thing creep back in again where you deal with nerves and and panic but because he makes a save we go right down and score. These are the little moments I talk about a lot and it’s as simple as having your best players on the field and have them be your best players so right up the middle Daniel excellent,  Jose excellent, Andre excellent. Those guys haven’t been here for a good chunk of our year I’m not making an excuse but that’s the reality and you guys see what we are when we’re clicking and we’re confident and I would just say no one wants to play us in the playoffs if we get in that’s a fact because we’re a good team that’s won a lot of games together.”

Unknown: “You talked about it yesterday how you guys haven’t had a lot of normal rest during the week because you guys are playing so many games. 7 days to go now for rest, re-charge and then Leagues Cup begins. What’s the focus going to be for the preparations for this upcoming week where you guys handle a competition within a competition?”

“So we’re a little..it’s going to be difficult because first of all it’s going to be great to have weeks of training that’s good..it’s a great competition in the Leagues Cup, one that we made a pretty deep run last year and earned a Champions League berth and finished third which is  not where you want to finish but at least we accomplished something in those seven games that we got. Unfortunately for us you know we were given a really good seed but sometimes as seasons change and teams change unfortunately we have Charlotte who is is damn good and just added Swiderski and is beating Austin as we speak right now and is a really really good team and then Cruz Azul if you guys watch Liga MX is absolutely destroying everybody and killing everybody so they were teams that were maybe seating wise towards the bottom last year and we were the top seed and we got rewarded with what happens to be now two very very strong teams so it’s going to be hard but we’re lucky that we have home field advantage here both those teams have to come here there’ll be a lot on the line against Charlotte obviously two of the three teams go through so that’s the biggest game right away you win that one you’re not guaranteed to go through but you’re pretty close so that’s got to be our focus and mindset we will have a little bit of a long week to prepare for Charlotte then an awkward I think it’s a Saturday and then we don’t play till Sunday so an extra day in there which is good you know you can build fitness, keep sharpness, let them beat each other up in the midweek and then hopefully we can put on some good performances for our fans.”

Unknown: “Last night David Vazquez scores two goal against Jamaica just your thoughts on his performance last night?” 

“Yeah I mean first of all it looked like everybody scored but no I’m happy for David, he scored the winner, he scored the first two and performed really really well so happy for David it’s exciting we have a lot of good young players that are away with their national team doing well. The two guy at the Olympics,  count Paxton, three guys at the Olympics and then David Vasquez did a great job against Jamaica but I know against different competition now those are the ones now we want to see him continue to gain confidence and get better and better but yeah special player special talent but you know to analyze that game a lot of guys had good nights.”

Unknown: “Can you talk a bit more about Sam’s contributions off the bench, you know just got here after a few days and was that the fastest yellow card you’ve ever seen with Jack Elliott?” 

“That’s not good because now he’s back on Yellow Card Accumulation. He’s worked so hard to get good behavior and then you know one play 10 seconds into being on the field and you’re right back at it. We actually took Damion off because he’s on a yellow card just committed a foul and then also started to feel his quad a little bit so you’re proactive you take him out and Jack picks up a yellow card and is in the same situation after two seconds so we laughed about it but it hurts a little bit. With Sam, look he’s been here two days he’s trained two soccer practices with the group so I kept things as simple as possible press together with your striker make it predictable for the eight guys behind you if you hunt the ball they’ll come with you trust me on that and I said our strikers get service right we’re going to get you service you just run hard in the box. It was true tonight he did a great job, had two really good chances. I’m sure he’ll tell you he wants to score one of those but I really liked his work rate I liked how he won headers, he held balls up, made some good passes, was involved and helped us in a time where you know right around 60 minutes we lost a little momentum and they came at us. Nashville naturally when they’re down two goals is going to throw some numbers at you, Sam came in in and gave us some some life, he’ll only get better and better as he gets more used to his teammates and yeah we could have scored a few more goals tonight too.”

Unknown: “Jim question for you Nashville was on a five-game losing streak heading into here, was it something you and your team saw on tape maybe you guys exploited on those guys?”

“You can look at that in two different ways you can say yeah they’re not in good form but they’re also dangerous that way you know you’re vulnerable when you have lost a few games in a row because there’s a sense of urgency to now make it right, get in the playoffs, have a response after a couple losses. We’ve been there this year so again it’s still a dangerous team. In this league anybody can beat anybody again you saw tonight there’s a couple upsets throughout the league and who you think is going to win week in and week out is not necessarily who does so every game is hard everyone’s fighting for points now. Didn’t get a couple results that would have been nice to at least be in that eight or nine seed right now but we know we have nine games left now to control things ourselves,to get enough results to get in the playoffs. I think we’d be a pretty dangerous eight or nine seed as well the reality is we’re not going to be at the top. That hurts, it’s our reality, but at the same time now make the most out of what we have in front of us. I think we have two good performances now to build off of but these two wins don’t mean anything if we don’t continue to follow up with better and better soccer each week.”

Jonathan Tannenwald: “Question I should have asked you yesterday, there’s a game here tomorrow and a game next Sunday that Subaru Park hasn’t seen in a while with a couple of women’s teams coming. I know you pay some attention, there’s going to be some local flavor in the games with Brittany Ratcliffe and a few others… how much…I know you’re busy but how much are you going to pay attention and how good is it for them to be here?”

“Yeah it’s great, it’s an incredible opportunity to host great women’s soccer in our stadium. I know that there’s rumors and buzz and different things that I’ve heard around the soccer world and the city of Philadelphia that hopefully a women’s team is coming here sometime in the near future. I think that would be amazing, you know it took a long time to get a men’s team in this city in a sport that soccer players in this area can have role models to look up to instead of like when I was a kid and I looked up to Allen Iverson and you guys know the names Barkley Charles Barkley and Reggie White and Eagles and Randall Cunningham so to now have a men’s team where the players can really look up to, the same thing applies to the women’s game, my daughters both play soccer…they love the sport. I won’t be here tomorrow, Jonathan if that’s what you’re asking, I have a bunch of family down in Sea Isle that I’m going to get to and spend some time with but if I wasn’t I would have been probably taking my daughters here tomorrow to watch the game so it’s a great opportunity to showcase a ton of talent– a ton of local talent like you mentioned and it speaks to how popular soccer is in the city of Philadelphia. It really has grown to a level that I never thought it would have in my lifetime in both the men’s and the women’s game and like I said I think there’ll be a team here soon and there should be.” 

JT: “I know that I asked you this when we went out to Portland and happen to be staying in the same hotel as Gotham but Washington’s pulling off a heck of an experiment right now bringing in Barcelona’s women’s team to this country. Is there much cross-pollination among managers of the men’s and women’s clubs out there and various things?”

“You probably wish there was more for sure but anytime you can share ideas with with any coach and watch a training session or go out and watch how they tactically approach a game. You know the cool thing about this game is there’s a million different ways to do it and if you’re not constantly evolving and learning you die. Unfortunately coaches get changed,  I think they made a bold move to hire a top coach from Europe, it’s starting to happen more in our league and I think that it’ll happen more and more in the women’s league as they see just how appealing it is to number one live in this country, to coach in this country, the fanaticism around the women’s game in the USA is is growing and growing, the TV, the stadiums, the facilities, all these things add up. So yeah it’s going to become very appealing for men’s coaches to coach at the highest level of the women’s game and vice versa and I think that the sharing of ideas is good for all of us. Shoot I learn things when I go to my son’s u12 practice and I see a coach run something that I haven’t seen before and you might take it and tweak it and steal it and make it your own. If you’re not stealing and evolving in this game and trying to get better you know you you die like I said so I think I’m all for new ideas being injected into the men’s league, to the women’s league and that’s a great example of one where yeah they took a risk for sure, it’s different but usually when you’re brave like that it winds up being rewarding.”

Unknown: “Hey Jim, so during these two wins you guys are starting to have fun again. What do you think was the biggest difference during the winless streak compared to these last two wins?”

“Well scoring more than the other team is the most fun thing in the world. So no look I wish I could bottle it up guys, what it feels like to come off the field with a win. Even as a player I actually hated game day, I hated the buildup to it, I hated the nerves, the sickening feeling before a game where you almost want to throw up that’s how I was as a player but I loved walking off the field with the 11 guys and having won three points and our group’s the exact same way. So when you don’t have that feeling for as long as we did it hurts right. You’re not the same person you’re maybe a little testy with family members, you’re not as happy, shouldn’t be that way but the reality is that’s our business and you know the feeling of walking off the field to the crowd, to you know 18,000 people cheering you is what these guys play for and what they love so to get that back was really valuable and yeah losing is is no fun that’s for sure.”