With three games left in the regular season, and a hellacious schedule sandwiched around a devastating loss in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final behind them, the Philadelphia Union have one goal: get a home knockout game.
The Union played six games in September, four away from home with trips to Orlando, Seattle, Houston and Columbus. Twice they played midweek fixtures. They are currently fifth in the Eastern Conference, one point behind Columbus Crew SC. If the playoffs started today, they'd travel to Columbus to kick off the playoffs.
"Working hard to get our fans a home game here at Talen Energy stadium, that's the one singular focus of the group right now," head coach Jim Curtin said ahead of their match vs. Minnesota United on Saturday (7:30 pm ET | TV & streaming info). "It starts now with Minnesota."
The Union have Minnesota (H), New York Red Bulls (H) and New York City FC (A) remaining. Columbus have the Montreal Impact (A), Orlando City SC (A) and Minnesota (H).
"There's a lot on the line, every point is going to go a long way," Curtin said. "I think I have every team's schedule memorized and the difficulties they have, there's a lot of big games and big points that're out there. It's important to get a home game in the playoffs. It's critical. It's difficult to go on the road, the turnaround is fast and you don't even have time to celebrate."
If the Union successfully navigate their next two games and escape with six points, they even could have the opportunity to overtake NYCFC for third place on Decision Day when they travel to the Bronx. NYCFC have two games left and are only six points ahead of Philly.
"The good news is that we have no more real difficult travel ahead of us in the regular season, with just the trip up to New York City FC," Curtin said. "We'd like to keep it that way for the playoff game, that's the ultimate goal for everyone."
