Notes from the 2/13/24 presser with the Union’s Hungarian midfielder and leading goal scorer from 2022 and 2023

Daniel Gazdag met with the media today as part of MLS’s series of virtual media availabilities with several players and coaches. In this brief presser, Gazdag hit on several aspects of the upcoming season.

This season will include absences for national team duty for several Union players, including Gazdag for Hungary. When asked by Jonathan Tannenwald about his expectations for the upcoming season, and with all the games he would be playing if he thought he would get any rest at times, he remarked:

“Yeah, obviously it’s gonna be a busy year for the national team too, so I’m gonna miss some games here, so other than that, I wouldn’t like to be sitting out games when I’m here. So I would like to play as many games I can with the Union. Obviously I expect a good season. I will try to help as much as I can for the team with goals, assists, and everything I can do for the team. As a team, I think we are having a good preseason now. We are playing better game after game. I expect a good season again and I hope we can go further than last year.“

A concern for many with regard to how long last season was and how short the off-season was, Todd Lewis asked Gazdag how he was doing health-wise:

“Yeah, I mean the end of the last season was pretty annoying. [We were] disappointed after the last game and then we got a few weeks to rest, and we started to work again in January. It wasn’t too long, but I missed soccer to be honest and I think everyone else on the team missed soccer already, so we are happy to be back and we are ready to go again next week.”

Gazdag was asked about the upcoming CCC games with Saprissa, to which he remarked that while he was not with the team the last time they played Saprissa, he has heard it is going to be a tough environment but then they have two games to get the job done, and also get to play in Philadelphia where he knows they will be better.

He was also very happy to have Alejandro Bedoya and Kai Wagner back when asked about the re-signings by Steve Cangialosi, and said that they are both great players and it is great to have them back. Alejandro has been the captain and such an important part of the team. On Bedoya:

“He is in good shape, I can say that obviously he joined a bit later with the team than he should, but I think he’s getting ready for the season. He’s in good shape and I’m pretty sure he will have a lot for us this season on and off the field too.”

When asked by José Nuñez about the new players on the team, while offering few specific details, Gazdag had this to say:

“Yeah, we signed some new players, mostly young players, you know they can help us in the future a lot. They are talented players, I think they [got] into the team pretty fast, so everyone accepted them and as I can see they are good players so for sure they will help us.”

Gazdag finished the presser with comments regarding his goal scoring being some of the top in the world amongst midfielders. While the statistics are certainly impressive, Gazdag emphasized that the most important thing is the team being successful, and he would rather see the Union win the league over his goal count being high. Obviously the goal scoring is important and he tries to score as much as he can, but the team success is what matters.

That team-first attitude from Daniel Gazdag is just another reason why the Union are lucky to have him, and we look forward to hopefully lots of goals from him and the team very soon as the season is about to commence.