CHESTER, Pa. – Leading up to this past Thursday’s game against the Chicago Fire, Philadelphia Union interim manager Jim Curtin implored his players to be more committed about making runs into the box to help the team break out of an offensive funk.
That Amobi Okugo answered the call with a go-ahead 88th-minute goal was not surprising, and Curtin expects the defensive midfielder to continue to surge when the Union host the Columbus Crew on Saturday (7 pm ET; MLS LIVE) in the first of their final three must-win games.
“He was a guy when you looked out on the field and everyone was kind of down and pressing and nervous, he was calm and still was vocalizing the fact that we can still do this,” Curtin told MLSsoccer.com. “He was being positive and it’s no coincidence he was the one who got rewarded with the goal.”
Okugo, the last remaining Union original, has often worn his heart on his sleeve in late-season games. In the 2012 finale against the New York Red Bulls, Okugo memorably raced up and down the field in the closing minutes of a 3-0 loss that held no playoff implications, later saying that he just “didn’t want the season to end.”
And now that the calendar has flipped to October again, Okugo seems to be thriving as he’s shaken off a couple of recent omissions from the starting lineup to emerge as a dangerous midfielder on both ends of the field that, according to Curtin, has “covered a ton of ground.”
In addition to his goal Thursday, Okugo also made a potentially goal-saving tackle on Florent Sinama-Pongolle early in the second half.
“Everyone needs to step up,” Okugo said. “Whether I make or play or whoever else makes a play, it’s going to take a group and that’s what we’re focusing on.”
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Considering how invested he was in Thursday’s game, perhaps it wasn’t surprising how angry Okugo was after the Union allowed a stoppage-time equalizer to settle for a 1-1 draw that severely hurt their playoff chances, vowing that players were “going to get hurt” in practice.
A few days later, Okugo did say that practices were “more intense,” but his anger had mostly subsided as he looks ahead to this weekend’s pivotal game against the Crew.
“We’re all professionals,” he said. “We all have that competitive spirit. But the best thing about it is we have another game Saturday we can rebound from. When you fight for 90 minutes and you put all of your effort and all of your emotion into it, everyone is going to be angry. But it’s a team and we have to help each other move forward.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
