Photo courtesy of Marjorie Elzey

The following is a transcription of manager Jim Curtin’s press conference following the Philadelphia Union’s 2-1 defeat against Orlando City SC (full press conference can be watched here courtesy of Philadelphia Union on Facebook).

Opening Statement: “That on the road, that’s usually a good sign from there, you know, not the best start to the second-half. You know, they, they punished us. They, they take a 2 goal lead. You know, we fight to get back in the game, maybe not deservingly, but we still have three or four chances to to tie the game. Had some free headers and, and just couldn’t convert. And at this stage of the season, you know, to go on the road, you need a really, really strong performance and, and we just did not have that. Starts with myself. And the entire group just wasn’t good enough.”

Matt DeGeorge: “Jim, in terms of  fitness and just how much has been asked of these guys, where do you think they are physically and mentally in terms of, you know, do you think that this is a group that could be running out of steam? Are you worried about that at all?”

“Look, we, we made three changes to our group. Orlando made zero. So this, this idea that, you know, guys can’t recover and play quickly at this stage of the season, everybody should be fit. Look, it’s a hot night for sure. That was the reason going into it with the three games in the week, we made, you know, three changes to try to keep the group fresh. We just didn’t get, you know, if you go through each guy, we didn’t get many good performances. So, you know, we win as a team and we we lose as a team. But we needed more guys in the game where, you know, you know what, at home, Orlando’s going to put a lot into it. They have the confidence of just making the playoffs. They’re a team that competes and fights for every, every inch. You know, they’re they’re used to the heat. They made no changes from from the previous game, so we can’t use fitness as an excuse at this stage of the season. Guys worked hard, again, had chances to steal a point at the end and we just weren’t good enough tonight.”

MD: “What do you make of Nate’s last two games? He’s been involved in a lot of things from the goal to maybe the goal that was conceded against Atlanta and then some of the missed chances. What do you make of how he’s been performing down the stretch this late in the season for such a young guy?”

He’s had some really high highs and some things you can learn from as well. You know, he’s usually our best header of the ball which makes it weird that he got three free ones in this game and on a different night he scores on those chances. So, if I was to put money on our best header of the ball, attacking it and being aggressive, it’s Nathan but just for whatever reason timing wise it just didn’t get the contact it needed to get past the laces. Three really good looks, obviously scored a big goal against Atlanta, but maybe as a team defensively there’s 8 different things that could have happened on the goal against Atlanta so it’s not just him but covering the back post, the alarm bells could go off a little quicker there. He’s played great, he’s had a great season for us, unlucky, unfortunate tonight, but again we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we have to find a way to regroup and get results in our last two games and whether we deserve it or now, we still are in control of our own destiny. If we don’t win a game down the stretch than we don’t deserve to be in the playoffs and I’ve said that to our group already. I know we have a quality group that if we’re able to get in we can beat anybody but we need to be able to execute and do a better job.

Unknown: “Tonight you started Mbaizo and Bedoya in spots that later you subbed in Bedoya and Quinn. Just wanted to know what you guys as coaches, before this match made you choose that because typically the roles flip–those guys are the ones who are coming in late and Quinn and Nathan are getting those starts so just the reason behind that decision.”

“If you look at our road to success this year, Olivier and Ale have gotten results in both New York City’s game and New York Red Bulls. They partnered up well on the road and the thinking tonight was to keep them together. I think Quinn and Nathan have a really good relationship as well but what happened tonight obviously it didn’t go well. Both goals came down that side, the first one when Olivier and Ale are in and the second one when Quinn and Nathan are in. You know, these things happen but the thinking was just our road performances this year the relationship between Mbaizo paired with Ale, with Danley back in the lineup, them being able to speak French and communicate also plays a minor role in things as well and we’d gotten some results on the road. So that’s what we went with, it didn’t work tonight so the questions I think are fair ones. Quinn came into the game and made a big impact on it which I thought was good and again just trying to keep guys fresh and being able to press and run and fight as we go into this final stretch of the season. So, didn’t work out tonight, could’ve made some plays when we had the opportunity to do so on and didn’t get it done tonight.”

Unknown: “You talked about in the past the fast starts against New York City, New York Red Bulls, Inter Miami, and then after the DC United game, that it wasn’t a good start to the half for you guys. Yet tonight, slow start. What do you say about the inconsistency where there’s games where you start games hot and then these last two games it’s been a little inconsistent from you guys?”

“I think our road record has been good enough this year. If you get to five wins, five draws on the road you’re doing your job on the road. Where we’ve let ourselves down is at home, 100%. We haven’t gotten the job done at home. I thought our start tonight, you know you warn the guys as much as you can that they’re gonna come out flying–it’s their first home game in a little while. They’re gonna have energy. It’s a Wednesday night game. I thought maybe we could have jumped on them early and we didn’t do that. We were sloppy, we turned balls over. To be fair, they missed clear cut chances. Andre didn’t really have to make any saves, they just missed the target and could’ve punished us on a lot of plays tonight. So again, we’re lucky to get in it and got a gift honestly to get 0-0 at halftime on the road. That’s never easy. We didn’t take advantage of that opportunity. Muriel placed two passes that are next level passes no question about it and changes the game for them. We got punished. Overall, at this stage of the year, as you know, the margins are razor thin. We have to do a better job in the attacking end and also defending our box because the goals we concede, we could just do a lot better on it. Obviously we’ll look at it, try and get ready, regroup, and go against Columbus very quickly.”

Jose Nunez: “I would think and one would assume at this point with a game coming up on Saturday and then a obviously a little bit of a break with the international window minute restrictions and anything of that sort is out of the window considering the situation you find yourself in, anything you want to add to that?”

“Yeah look we’re into a point in the year where points are the only thing that matter. They don’t have to be pretty points, they don’t have to be ugly. You can see how big the Atlanta two we dropped and even tonight where it was terrible from us but we could still steal a point in the end. That point would be massive. So we have to regroup quickly. Now you have a situation where both Kai and Dani are up against yellow cards. Kai’s was short lived–his respite was short-lived, one game, and now he’s back in jeopardy of missing what could be the biggest game of the year. So they’re both gonna start and they’re both going to have to navigate having a yellow card scenario. Again, I don’t know how the Columbus-Miami ends, I think Miami took care of things there so we’ll see and prepare for Columbus wanting to stay high in the standings and we’re fighting to get in. So it’s not a situation we want to ever be in again but we are where we are because of us and we have to kind of try to fix it and two games left and the simple simple question is how much do we want to be in the playoffs. Whether we deserve it or not at this stage, you guys can debate and you can say none of the teams probably at eight or below right now deserve any sniff of the playoffs but the reality is that we control our own destiny. So I hate where we are, I’m not happy with where we are but we still have an opportunity to get in and from there anything can happen.”

JN: “A final question–the transmission showed Schlegel and Araujo approaching the referee looking for VAR of some sort. Did something occur off the ball that maybe we didn’t get to see through the television tonight there at the end?”

“I don’t know–honestly, there was so much stuff off the ball tonight. That happens you know on every corner kick there’s always–from both teams–embellishment, grabbing, holding, pushing, you know Schlegel has a history of some theatric, I’ll just put it that way. He fights and competes for everything and I love that part of his game but there’s also the other part that maybe goes a little too far.”