A day after he was officially acquired by the Philadelphia Union, Fernando Aristeguieta promptly went out and scored two goals in just 30 minutes of a preseason game.
Union head coach Jim Curtin is counting on that same type of resolve from the club’s new Designated Player, who hasn’t been able to train with the team much ahead of Saturday’s season opener against the Colorado Rapids at PPL Park on Saturday (4 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
Aristeguieta – who wasn’t brought into camp until a month into the preseason – traveled to his native Venezuela last weekend to pick up his P-1 visa and then faced some weather-related travel issues on his way back, getting stuck in Miami before flying to New York and then taking a train to Philly on Thursday.
But Curtin still thinks the Venezuelan international’s MLS debut could be a memorable one.
“He’s a guy that has a strong mentality for a young kid, a good head on his shoulders,” Curtin said. “He can handle coming into a new group just because of the way he plays. His style of play is doing the dirty work running for his teammates, anything to win, anything for the Union badge.”
At the same time, Curtin said the team’s marquee offseason acquisition may show some rust, adding that he’ll base his decision on whether or not to start on him on how he looks during Friday’s practice.
If Aristeguieta is held out of the starting lineup, the Union will likely go with fellow Union newcomer C.J. Sapong or veteran Conor Casey up top, with Sebastien Le Toux and Andrew Wenger on the wings.
Barring a last-minute surprise, the rest of the opening-day lineup seems pretty much set with Maurice Edu, Vincent Nogueira and Cristian Maidana in the midfield, Ray Gaddis, Sheanon Williams, Steven Vitoria and Ethan White along the backline, and Rais Mbolhi in net.
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It’s a group comprised of mostly returners from last year’s squad. And it’s one that Curtin has high hopes for, based on that kind of continuity combined with a couple of key offseason acquisitions in Aristeguieta and Vitoria.
“I think any time you start a year, there are 20 teams right now that think they have what it takes to win the MLS Cup,” Curtin said. “Right off the bat, I think you can dismiss 10 of them that don’t. And I think we’re in the 10 that have a shot. We did have some changes. Our changes were up the spine of our team. I wouldn’t say that they’re wholesale changes, where we blew up the whole thing and we have eight new starters this weekend. But we’ve added pieces in very important parts of the field – namely up the middle.”
Philly fans won’t have to worry about not seeing how the lineup takes shape Saturday. Despite some trepidation over a snowstorm that blasted the region Thursday, Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz guaranteed that the opener would be played as scheduled as a large crew has been working feverishly to remove snow from the field.
“I can assure everybody that PPL Park will be ready,” Sakiewicz said. “The conditions will be very challenging for us, but despite those conditions, we’re very confident we’ll open safely on Saturday.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
