CHESTER, Pa. -- The last three times the Philadelphia Union went on the road, they earned points in tough environments – a scoreless draw in Orlando followed by their first-ever victories in Montreal and San Jose.
But after the Orlando and Montreal games, the Union followed that up with brutal performances at home, giving up a late lead in a 3-3 draw with the Chicago Fire and dropping an ugly 1-0 decision to New England two weeks ago.
Now, after a rousing come-from behind victory in San Jose, the Union once again return home for a must-win Eastern Conference game, this time facing Columbus Crew SC at PPL Park (7 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
And the big question is if they can atone for their recent home failures and bring what’s been working for them on the road into their own stadium.
“It’s always tough trying to look at what are the differences,” Union head coach Jim Curtin said. “I think on the road we’ve had more of a sit-back approach; maybe that suits us a little better right now with the personnel that we have because it allows for some room to counterattack. When we high press, that space is not really there. And also we might not physically have the horses to high press and maintain it for 90 minutes.”
Whatever the Union’s mentality was last week, it worked wonders as they managed to cool down one of the league’s hottest teams and end the Quakes’ four-game winning and shutout streak.
And they plan to try to use the same strategy of sitting back and countering against a Crew SC squad that likes to take advantage of their opponents’ mistakes.
“With Columbus, they’re a team that baits you into high pressing and then can kind of expose you if you’re a step late – if one guy’s a step late, there’s sort of a domino effect,” Curtin said. “That’s not something we want to get into with them because you’ve seen this year when teams press Columbus, they pick them apart. When teams have sat back against them, they’ve had some losses, as recently as Dallas on their home field [last weekend].
“We’ve looked at that, we obviously look at the tape, and the best way to approach Columbus, even though its’ on our home field, might be to have the mindset of making them really break us down, as opposed to flying out at them and playing to their strengths.”
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Trying to absorb pressure from a team that’s tied for the conference lead in goals could be considered a risky proposition. But the Union feel like they’re a much-improved defensive team after allowing zero goals from the run of play in their last three road contests.
“The last three tough buildings we’ve been to, we’ve gotten points,” center back Steven Vitoria said. “On our home field, we have to do a better job. We’ve been making it tough for ourselves. We want to get points when no one expects us to, but all we can do is control Saturday night. And I’m confident that we’re going to do a great job and get those points in front of those fans that everybody wants to see and we feel that our fans deserve.”
Forward Conor Casey added that the Union have been winning on the road recently because they’ve harnessed a “hard-nosed underdog mentality.” Considering they’re still a long-shot to make the playoffs, they’ll try to maintain that same mentality even on their own field.
“We talked before the [San Jose] game that people remember how you finish a season, and that’s one thing we can still control right now,” Curtin said. “Obviously we have an Open Cup final and six big games left. The guys took the first step and got us a good win on the road. We recognize, though, that will mean nothing if we don’t do the same thing against Columbus.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
