Philadelphia Union’s head coach, Jim Curtin, met with the media today ahead of the Union’s home opener against the Chicago Fire tomorrow at 7:30pm. Among the topics discussed: Andre Blake’s availability, Jack Elliott returning to training, Tai’s injury in the preseason, and Quinn’s impact on Tuesday games in today’s notes.
Andre Blake’s Availability
Jim was asked about Andre’s status after Tuesday night’s game. The Jamaican goalkeeper appeared to have suffered a leg injury and did not take goal kicks the remainder of the game, despite playing the remainder of the game. Jim provided an up as to his status for tomorrow. “Yeah, Andre, I think everybody saw against Saprissa had a little bit of a strain adductor strain, it’ll be a game time decision. Obviously, we know how good we are with Andre in net, Oliver has been good as well. So, we’ll see where Dre is at exactly you know, hopefully it’s not a long term thing I don’t think it’s anything too severe. But we’ll see tomorrow do some testing and see exactly where he’s at but that’ll be a game time choice.”
If indeed Andre cannot go tomorrow, then the Union will rely on newcomer Oliver Semmle who was acquired in a trade with the Colorado Rapids this offseason. The Union seem high on Semmle, so will the keeper who set a USL record 13 clean sheets for a rookie get the nod tomorrow? Time will tell.
Jack Elliott is back
Elliott was absent from Tuesday’s match in Costa Rica and Jim did provide an update on the center back. “Jack Elliott will be back in the group as well injury wise, had an adductor also and they’re tricky you know, they can kind of- it becomes a situation where there’s not a tear in there, there’s a little bit of a strain but he’ll be okay train fully today and will be available for us tomorrow for selection, which is good.”
It will remains to be seen whether or not he starts but the fact that the Union might have their top 3 center backs available for selection will help with insuring that their line stays fresh with the long season ahead.
Tai Baribo’s fit into the rotation.
Jim did address how last year’s mid-season signing Tai Baribo is doing and why he was not featured in Tuesday’s match. “It’s usually based on how the week goes of training. And hopefully, you know, Tai can get fully healthy and start to put together some good weeks. But yeah, having missed a couple of weeks in the preseason, that was a tough way to, you know, to start. But again, as we all know, it’s not about how you start. It’s how you progress during the season. And we expect big things from Tai.” It remains to be seen if Tai will play at all on Saturday, but again as Jim said, its not how you start, it’s how you finish.
Staying Fresh with Tuesday’s match looming
Finally, Jim did touch on the Union’s fitness levels a little bit and on the impact of the second leg versus Saprissa on Tuesday. “Yeah, we’re fresh right now. I would still say you know, second game of the year, these guys can handle this this load. Where it gets tricky now is the turnaround to Saprissa. You know that that will be guys with some real minutes on their legs. But you’re right, we will have a group that we’re going to need everybody to be ready to be, you know, ready for when they’re called upon. Sometimes it’ll be for 90, sometimes for 60, sometimes for 45, sometimes for one minute to close out the game. But I think you saw in our first game, we went to the bench, probably a little quicker than usual, with Chuchu and Ale and they came in and impacted the game and helped us in a big way.”
Jim went on to mention Quinn Sullivan, who had a wonderful game on Tuesday, could impact tomorrows match. “Quinn’s set up two goals for us, which was important. So we’ll need him to be ready to so we have probably have four or five guys that are capable as starters and we have to plug and play them and keep guys fresh throughout the remainder of the year.”
Tomorrow’s game figures to be close to if not to a sellout, and should be a rowdy crowd despite the weather. “Subaru Park has become the hardest place to play in this league. I think in our last 65 matches here, I think it’s only like four defeats or some crazy statistic like that. But the group is comfortable in this building. It gets very loud, whether it’s cold, whether it’s raining, whether it’s snowing, whatever the elements are, the people come out and support us here. That’s something that the last five, six seasons we’ve shown a real consistency. And we know it’s going to be loud here.” You can view the entire press conference here.
What is your game plan tomorrow? Both Jillian and I will be at Subaru Park early tomorrow and you can follow us on Twitter @totwag as we will be bringing you coverage before, during, and after the match. Jillian will be covering the stadium and crowd environment, while I will be covering from the press box and we hope to see you there as well. The Union are 2-2-2 in the last six opening MLS season matches, lets hope for a third in the win column.
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