CHESTER, Pa. – The first trophy.
The Philadelphia Union know how elusive it can be, after literally coming inches away from winning the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup last year, only to watch the Seattle Sounders celebrate on the Union's own field.
They also know how it could, potentially, change the direction of the sixth-year club.
On top of the excitement, prestige, prize money and the exposure of a CONCACAF Champions League berth, the Union believe a US Open Cup championship – which they can capture Wednesday when they host Sporting Kansas City in the finals of the historic tournament (7 pm ET, ESPN2, WatchESPN, UDN) – is an important part of building a strong foundation for the future.
“The hardest thing to do in our sport is to lift a trophy,” said Union head coach Jim Curtin, who won two Open Cup titles as a player with the Chicago Fire before leading Philly into last year’s finals shortly after taking the helm. “It’s what everybody plays for. It’s what everybody remembers. And it does give you confidence.
“It would inject a prize: monetary value for players and monetary value for the club. It would help us strengthen our roster as well. So there are a lot of things that come along with it.”
It’s not lost on Curtin that Wednesday’s opponent is probably in the midst of their best era in club history, which Kansas City could cement with their second US Open Cup crown in four years. He knows that getting to that point of being recognized as one of the league’s elite clubs didn’t come with any shortcuts.
“When you look at Kansas City, [head coach] Peter Vermes has done a heck of a job giving them an identity and a style,” Curtin said. “A lot of times, the identity and the style, no one recognizes that until you win a trophy. One doesn’t come before the other.
“Winning a trophy does kind of solidify what your team’s about and gives a little bit more of an identity. We recognize we’re in the process of forming our own identity and shaping our roster and trying to get our own style. But it takes a little bit of time, and I think winning a trophy does speed it up a little bit.”
Curtin and technical director Chris Albright had a long meeting with the team’s ownership over the summer to present a vision for the future, which in many ways mirrors what Sporting has done.
Although Curtin declined to get into too many specifics, he did say that the plan hinges on building up the middle, adding speed to the flanks, sprinkling the right mix of foreign players with American players that are “indicative of the city’s blue-collar, hard-working mentality,” and filling out the roster through the team’s growing youth academy.
How can winning the US Open Cup this week help move that plan forward?
“It puts a lot of equity and belief in what we’re doing,” Curtin said. “We understand the season hasn’t gone the way we had hoped. But it does take time. We know that we’re young and that we’re new at this. At the same time, we’re confident in what we’re doing and what we’re building. We’re trying to build the right way.”
The summer acquisition of Tranquillo Barnetta was a big part of the Union’s plan, but Curtin admitted that you “need two to three Barnettas, and then you’re in the playoffs consistently.”
With that in mind, the Union coach knows it will be a crucial offseason with many contracts coming off the books – and the opportunity to perhaps sign players to long-term deals, as opposed to the short-team loans the team favored last offseason due to less financial flexibility.
While winning a US Open Cup championship and selling the idea of playing in CONCACAF Champions League games could go a long way in recruiting foreign players, Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz said Curtin and Albright have the ownership’s blessing to proceed as planned, no matter what happens this week.
“I’m very confident in Jim and Chris,” Sakiewicz said. “They have our vote [of confidence], win or lose Wednesday, to move this team forward. But winning the Open Cup championship is great in a number of respects.
“A lot of people don’t truly realize and understand that the reward for winning the Open Cup is not a whole lot different than winning the MLS Cup. There’s money, there’s more games at stake in the Champions League – those are a lot of the same elements you get with the MLS Cup.”
Of course, winning an MLS Cup is still a goal for the Union, as it is for every team. But barring a miracle, they’re about to miss out on the playoffs for the fifth time in six years. While the Union have struggled in league play through three different coaching regimes, they have thrived in the Open Cup, reaching the semifinals in three of the last four tournaments and advancing in some wild and unlikely ways to host the final in consecutive years.
Now that they’re here again, though, they know they have to win it – not just for the immediate joy of hoisting a trophy in front of the fans, but for how it would give them a better chance to win many more in the future.
“The reality is that we’ve made the playoffs once in six years, and that’s not good enough, especially in this town,” said Albright, who played against fellow Philadelphia native Curtin in the 2006 US Open Cup final while with the LA Galaxy. “So to be able to have these players and our players going forward, as well as for our younger kids and the kids in the area in our academy, know what it’s like to win something, I think that’s important for building into next year.
“You want to be associated with a winner. And this is a big trophy to win.”
