Ahead of the Union’s road trip to Atlanta United, Jim Curtin address the media on Wednesday about injuries, Marco Fabian’s red card against Kansas City, and his potential replacement.
In its last match, the Union lost 2-0 at Sporting Kansas City from an Ilie Sanchez penalty and Jack Elliott own goal.
Having started the year with two losses, the Union look to make up ground quickly, but taking points at Atlanta is never easy. Optimism was high surrounding the game, despite the previous meeting between the two teams, where Alejandro Bedoya and Haris Medunjanin both received red cards in a 3-1 loss.
The starting XI trained separately today. The rest of the squad played a short, 15-minute scrimmage against Bethlehem Steel.
Below are the main points from the press conference:
Injuries:
- Sergio Santos has a grade two strain to his hip-flexor. Curtin confirmed Santos will miss at least four weeks.
- Mark McKenzie was cleared to play from his concussion.
- Ilsinho received a knock in training on Wednesday and left for an X-Ray. Curtin believe he “should be okay.”
The Union will not be appealing Marco Fabian’s red card.
- “It’s [VAR] supposed to be for clear and obvious errors. If it turns into that with VAR we’re searching for fouls – we’re going to video and pausing it – I think any slide tackle or tackle could look bad if you pause it. I think Russell arrives early and actually fouls Marco, he’s off balance – I don’t know where he can put his foot – but at the same time, that was a point of emphasis from league officials this year for stepping on a player. So it’s not a thing we have a good chance of winning. It doesn’t make sense for us to appeal this one.”
On Marco Fabian’s replacement:
- “We have a good idea who that is, it’s a player who’s been deserving of minutes the past few weeks and that we’ve been trying to get into games. We still have a decision to make, we have plenty of options, but I thought we were pretty stable as a team in disrupting Kansas City. I have a pretty good idea of the change we will make. But I’m not going to reveal that to you guys just yet.”
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- Signs point to this being Brendan Aaronson, who Curtin has mentioned was deserving of minutes in the past.
- “Brendan has been excellent for us in every preseason match in which he’s gotten an opportunity. He continues to be – it’s no secret – one of the options we’ve been talking about when we talk about the #10. He’s played on the wing for us as well. So however it shakes out, Brendan is certainly high in our thoughts for the weekend, and that’s not because its a nice story or he’s a young player coming through, it’s because he’s deserving. I’m not scared to start him.”
- Anthony Fontana is another option for this position, and featured there last year in the opener before Borek Dockal was integrated.
- Ilsinho is another potential option. He has played attacking midfield for the Union before, but it seems Curtin prefers Ilsinho on the right wing.
- Signs point to this being Brendan Aaronson, who Curtin has mentioned was deserving of minutes in the past.
Curtin wants to have two defensive midfielders when defending, and to not isolate Haris Medunjanin to cover the whole back line. Alejandro Bedoya and Warren Creavalle have the duty to drop into the midfield when the ball is on the far side of the field, and switching to press when it comes to their side.
- “There is very few systems in the world where one guy does all that running. Haris’ strength isn’t his defense, but he is incredibly intelligent and knows where to be to break up plays. He knows how to start our attacks. The least of our concerns is Haris.”
Curtin would feel comfortable playing the XI that he sent out to play against Bethlehem Steel in MLS games.
- Coronel, Fabinho, Collin, McKenzie, Mbaizo, Jones, Monteiro, Aaronson, Accam, Ilsinho and Przybylko were the XI who played in that training exercise.
“We have a lot of guys playing good, but we need great,” Curtin said. “As a coach you want to see separation where it becomes clear who to write on the team sheet, and it usually does during the week of training.”
- It appears Curtin has a core set of players that have earned a place. That would presumably be the starting XI and some substitutes from the past two games.
On Jamiro Monteiro’s status:
- There is a possibility for Monteiro to play on Sunday, but the green card isn’t finalized yet.
- The latest he is expected to be available is against Columbus.
- Has looked sharp in training. Made a lot of tackles and covered a lot of ground.
- “Jamiro does like to get higher up the field, a little more attack minded, whereas Warren [Creavalle] is more defense first. They bring different things to the game.”
On Kai Wagner and Ray Gaddis:
- “Gerso and Russel are two of the most dangerous wingers in our league. When you go watch the tape again they really tried to spread us and stick to the touch line. You can feel like you’re isolated on an island for Kai and Ray. But I think both of them did a really good job.”
- Curtin went on to mention that Wagner was one of the Union’s best players against Kansas City. It’s likely that he’s earned the left back place this season.
On SKC game:
- “I thought we made them uncomfortable, but at the end of the day we came away with no points.”
- “There were good moments when he [Warren Creavalle] tracked [Gianluca] Busio. There were probably too many moments when he came too deep where could have passed him on to Auston [Trusty] and Auston could have communicated and kept Warren a little bit higher. Another thing we talked about in film, so that we don’t have Warren tracking back into our back line and looking like a back five. We don’t want him sitting deeper than Haris [Medunjanin].”
On the team’s playing:
- ” We’re number one in the league in expected goals, we have to start turning those into real goals. I’d be a lot more concerned if we weren’t creating chances.”
- “We can turn things around, it’s two games. We’re not happy, we wanted points. It’s a new season, its a new set of guys, its a new system, but we have to finish chances.”
- “Like last year, all of the sudden you get a result, some of the goals start to go in and it snowballs. We wanted the three points in Toronto, now we’re chasing those three points.”
On Atlanta game:
- “I think it’s comical people are saying Atlanta’s struggling.”
- Preparing for Atlanta to set up in a 3-4-3, but waiting for the Champions League match.
- “We’re not expected to go and win in Atlanta, we know that – we weren’t expected to go to Kansas City and win – but we’re still chasing those three points that we dropped.”
Possible starting XI:
Blake
Gaddis, Elliott, Trusty, Wagner
Medunjanin
Bedoya, Creavalle
Aaronson
Burke, Picault
