CHESTER, Pa. – Jim Curtin was in the mood to make bold predictions Thursday.
Fresh off a devastating 3-1 loss to the Seattle Sounders in Tuesday’s US Open Cup final, the Philadelphia Union interim manager quickly turned his attention to the rest of the MLS season, starting with Saturday’s tricky matchup against the Houston Dynamo at PPL Park (7 pm ET; MLS Live).
And he believes great things could be on the horizon for a team he knows missed out on a big opportunity to hoist a championship trophy but is now hungrier than ever to make a splash in league play.
“People might think I’m crazy but our goal is to see Seattle again,” Curtin said. “We want to play them again, and that would be a final. I think it could happen. I know people will laugh at that. But I honestly believe we’re good enough to do that.”
The first step to playing in the MLS Cup, of course, is making the playoffs. And with just six regular-season games remaining and the team squarely on the postseason bubble, the Union know they must find a way to knock off a Dynamo team that they haven’t beaten in their last five matchups.
The good news for Philadelphia is that four of their final six games are at home, where they were unbeaten in 10 straight contests before Tuesday’s Open Cup loss in extra time.
“We’ll have to do a good job protecting our home field,” Curtin said. “If our fans can create the atmosphere they did on Tuesday night – which I know is tough – we won’t lose again at home. And I mean that.”
The atmosphere at the Open Cup final was just one of the many great things about the memorable evening Tuesday. Curtin also loved almost everything about his team’s performance, saying that “if we play the way played against Seattle against the rest of the Eastern Conference teams, we won’t lose.”
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But the manager knows that the Union still need to take the next step in their maturation as a club – which, in some ways, means being more like the team that will pay a visit to PPL Park on Saturday.
“Guys now understand what it means to play in a pressure game,” Curtin said. “Our guys have risen to the occasion a lot. But Tuesday resulted in a loss and we’re not about moral victories and we want the club to move past moral victories and applauding losses.
“We want to now be a team that’s always in the playoffs like the Dynamo, so that when they think about Philadelphia, they think about a team that’s always in the playoffs and always in the mix for trophies.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
