Philadelphia Union End Arduous Regular Season Against New England Revolution

The Union finish a long and trying MLS regular season at Gillette Stadium on Saturday.

CHESTER — The busiest season in Philadelphia Union history has taken a toll on everyone involved with the club.

“It’s been a long, demanding year,” Union manager Jim Curtin said this week. “We’ve played more games than we ever have. We won more games than we ever have.”

“I tend to try and focus on the positive things,” Curtin said.

Saturday’s Decision Day matchup with the New England Revolution will be the 48th game played by the Union across all competitions. They will play at least three more games in the best-of-three first-round playoff series.

The fatigue set in more over the last month during a string of six draws in the last seven regular-season contests.

The negative seems more prominent than the positive because the Union are now a victim of their own expectations.

“I do think it’s fair to say, maybe it’s the 50-plus games we’ve played and there’s a little bit of apathy in a long season, fatigue from everybody, not just the players and the staff, but the fans, the people that work in the stadium. It’s been a lot. It’s been a long year. We still secured a Champions League spot and we still have a season where we’re in the playoffs in a good seed where anything can happen,” Curtin said.

A 55-point season and third place in the East is now seen as underachieving (which I personally still find wild given the state this club was in just five years ago).

“Sometimes we joke and say we wonder what’s going on with the 18th-29th clubs’ locker rooms because there is a negative feel around things,” Curtin said.

If you choose to focus on the positive, the Union have not lost since August 30. The Union are tied for the longest unbeaten streak in the league at eight along with the Seattle Sounders and FC Dallas.

The Union have had plenty of missed opportunities to preserve victories, or to turn ties into three points, during that stretch, which is where the frustration understandably comes through.

The reality is the Union can clinch third place in the East with a win. I broke down all of the Decision Day permutations involving the Union earlier in the week in this post.

Curtin, in his honest style, admitted there will be plenty of scoreboard watching at Gillette Stadium during the 6 p.m. ET kickoffs.

Three matches will have the Union’s attention. The Columbus Crew host CF Montreal, Nashville SC hosts the New York Red Bulls and Atlanta United visits FC Cincinnati.

“Any coach that tells you they are not aware of the other results that are going on is lying to you,” Curtin said. “I know the cliche thing to say is we only care about us winning the game. You have to have the context of what the games need at all times, especially when there’s the difference between playing one or two home games on the line. That’s a big difference. We want to know every scenario. We’ll have that wired in by a very trustworthy source during the game. Hopefully the wifi stays in tact in Gillette Stadium and we can get that information because it is so valuable to have and it dictates how you sub, the way you are playing.”

“We want to win the game and we want a great performance, but we have to be aware of all the variables because anyone who says they don’t care whether they play at home or away in the playoffs is not telling the truth,” Curtin continued.

Curtin did not admit to which opponent he prefers to see in the first round.

“I’m not going to tell you who we match up best against, but you can figure out some positives and negatives,” Curtin said.

I would assume the Union would have absolutely no issues seeing the Revs, who are currently in a free fall, two or three times over the first round.

New England conceded multiple goals in each match of its three-game losing streak and it has one win in the last two months.

Atlanta and Nashville come with their respective matchup challenges. The Five Stripes possess a dangerous attack, while Nashville has one of the most organized defenses in MLS.

As for the Union’s Decision Day match with New England, they have four players listed as questionable with small injury issues.

Olivier Mbaizo is dealing with a hamstring issue, Matt Real sprained his ankle in practice earlier this week, Jesus Bueno returned to full training on Thursday and Tai Baribo has a hamstring knock.

Jose Martinez is also suspended for Saturday’s game due to yellow card accumulation.

Curtin has two tactical options: He can go back to the 3-5-2 after Damion Lowe turned in his best performance of the season. Or he can split Leon Flach and Bueno for 45 minutes each in the No. 6 role of the 4-4-2 diamond.

We may see variations of both formations over the 90 minutes because of all the dynamics in play.

The goal remains the same regardless of who is on the field and what goes on elsewhere. Play as many playoff games as possible at Subaru Park.

“We have to go on the field, try to execute and earn that No. 3 seed, which is a big advantage in terms of that next round. If a higher seed gets upset, we can find ourselves in a good position having to go through Subaru Park. We want to play in as many games in that stadium as possible,” Curtin said.

Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.