CHESTER, Pa. – Last September, Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin called it strange that his team had to play Toronto FC twice in a four-day span.
Seven months later, he used the same word to describe the Union’s back-to-back games against New York City FC, including Thursday night's match at Yankee Stadium (7 pm ET, MLS LIVE).
Last year’s clean sweep of Toronto is giving Curtin hope that his team can follow up Saturday’s 2-1 home victory over New York City with another win over their new Eastern Conference rival.
“It’s almost like a home-and-away playoff series,” Curtin said. “I referenced Toronto last year and how we were able to put together two good games against a good team. … So there’s a real familiarity there.”
Curtin did admit that the timing of the Union’s two matches against NYCFC works out nicely. The Union will miss facing Frank Lampard – still at Manchester City – and also will likely not have to deal with Mix Diskerud, who played 80 minutes for the US national team in their 2-0 win over Mexico in San Antonio on Wednesday night.
Still, the Union coach is wary of the challenges that go into beating the same team twice in five days, as well as how he will manage his own lineup this week, because Philadelphia – who host New England on Sunday – are still dealing with injury issues.
Attacking weapons Crisitian Maidana, C.J. Sapong and Conor Casey all played in Saturday’s contest against New York City after dealing with injury issues, but Curtin does not expect any of them to be able to go 90 minutes at Yankee Stadium. Arguably the team’s two most important players – leading scorer Fernando Aristeguieta (left quad strain) and captain Maurice Edu (right hamstring strain) – are both questionable for Thursday night.
“We’re going to have to use our depth over these next two games, because we have the quick turnaround Thursday and then Sunday against a good New England team,” Curtin said. “So we’ll take it one game at a time, but we do have to rotate the squad in a way that makes sense to get results in both games.”
Winning the road part of the series will also naturally be more difficult, but the Union are hoping to use Yankee Stadium to their advantage. Right back Sheanon Williams is one of the league’s best at long throw-ins, which should come in handy on NYCFC’s small field.
“I know [NYCFC coach Jason Kreis] hates the long throw, so we’re going to have to use it,” Curtin said. “With Sheanon, we have it, so we might as well use it. It is a weapon. People like it, people don’t like it. But it’s something that we have and we’re going to utilize just because it can be dangerous. Every throw-in becomes like a corner kick, especially on a tight field like this one.”
No matter how they generate offense, the Union know back-to-back wins over the same Eastern Conference team would help revitalize their season after a frustrating 0-3-2 start.
“The challenge is coming out and playing the same way we played at PPL,” fullback Ray Gaddis said. “We had a stretch last year where we did the same thing against Toronto. It’s a quick turnaround. But the first game means nothing if we can’t get a result at Yankee Stadium.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
