Union sporting director Earnie Stewart had plenty to say
Wednesday in evaluating players for 2017 and beyond.
(DFM file)

Earnie Stewart and Jim Curtin spoke for 45 minutes Wednesday afternoon at Talen Energy Stadium. The discussion got very big-picture and very granular at times. There’s plenty to parse out of the many informative digressions, and I’ll post a full transcript later (after I recover from the transcription).

But first, let’s hit the high notes, rapid-fire, player by player to offer the postseason assessment from Curtin and/or Stewart. So here goes:

- First, Roland Alberg, who Tuesday was introduced by CSKA Sofia. Here’s Stewart: “In the conversations I did have with the agent, it never really materialized that there was going to be a substantial transfer fee, so we would’ve maybe looked at that option. It wasn’t something that was there.”

Stewart had more praise for the Dutchman: “When you look at Roland Alberg and his biggest quality, anything that gets close to the 18-yard-box, everything gets on target. Even though he’s a midfielder, I want to say he’s one of the best scorers that we have out there. I’d say his role was very good. When we talk about possession and we talk about touches on the ball and having that, that’s something that we knew we did want to add that special part of Roland to the group, but now that we’re transitioning and trying to go a little further in, we came to the conclusion that the (salary) number that he was at, it wasn’t the right fit or the option number that was there.”

- Andre Blake, via Stewart: “In the offseason, because I remember we talked about Andre Blake, and I can still and will say there were no offers for Andre Blake. That doesn’t mean that there was no interest for him, but not that we were aware of.”

- Here's Curtin on Keegan Rosenberry: "A very good young player that we strongly believe in. Every player goes through highs and lows, peaks and valleys in their development. Again, if you think to when he was selected, obviously the Homegrown issue comes up, but at the same time, we were maybe crazy for doing so from the public perception, and then he went on to a very quick rise: All-Star in his first year, playoff team, U.S. national team player. So a really high high. This year there was the feeling of a low low for him. So again, we have full confidence that he can bounce back quickly. If he as great as the guaranteed, penciled-in, right back starting national team player? Maybe not. But he’s also not defined by just how this year went. So again a developing young player that is a very, very strong right back, an important position because we like to attack with our outside backs. But when you talk about development, there’s on-the-field development, there’s off-the-field development, there’s handling success, there’s handling the down times. These are all part of growth, and to now write him off and say that his development has stopped is silly, because now if he bounces back and we’re a playoff team next year and he’s starting again and is an All-Star, did we all of a sudden redevelop him? I don’t think that’s the case either. ... We believe in him. He has all the tools, all the assets on the field to be a good player, and we’ll pull that out of him. I know he’s going to attack this offseason with a chip on his shoulder, come back ready to go."
Read more »

What does the future hold for Ilsinho and his fellow No. 10 Roland Alberg?
A decisive offseason beckons. (DFM/Mikey Reeves)

It’s been about, /looks at watch/, eight minutes since a query about the Union’s 10 position has been voiced. Feels like a good time to rehash it.

Plainly, this was the Union’s deficiency this season. The Union’s 4-2-3-1 system, that manager Jim Curtin scarcely deviated from (and when he did change, insisted he hadn’t changed), is predicated on a link between central midfield strength to the lone forward via that No. 10 in the center of the midfield triumvirate. That player is responsible for so much chance creation.

With that need , the Union failed to adequately arm themselves. They entered the season with only Roland Alberg at the position, and he showed up to training camp playing fitness catch-up. The No. 10 shortcomings forced Alejandro Bedoya to be shoe-horned into the job, leading to tension and an eight-game winless streak to start the season. The club failed to reinforce the weakness in the summer window despite vetting several candidates. The story of the Union’s 2017 failures is the story of its No. 10 position.

The bright side is that this deficiency is known. Curtin has repeatedly said that the Union need to add difference-makers, and it’s not hard to read between those lines. The two primary occupants of the role, Ilsinho and Alberg, are on the final year of two-year contracts with team options. So let’s state the chases, looking back and forward.

Dressed to ‘impress’

Curtin turned heads with this haughty statement after last Sunday’s 6-1 slapping of Orlando City, which featured two goals and an assist by Ilsinho:

“The one thing that was talked about a lot this year was the number 10 spot and I guarantee if you take Ilsinho and Roland’s production in that spot, in hindsight now when you look back on it, it's going to be pretty darn impressive in terms of the numbers they put up, goals and assists. Having to remember now, probably six to seven games (Bedoya) played at the 10 as well, there was an Adam Najem game at the 10, so if you just separate all that and you look at those two on their production, it's a lot better than I think we all gave them credit for.”

So how “darn impressive” is it? Well, sort of, I suppose.

Bedoya played the first five games, then Sept. 23 and Sept. 27 as the 10, the latter two in a modified 4-1-4-1, notching one assist. Alberg played exclusively at the 10 this season, scoring seven goals and one assist. Ilsinho scored two goals in a run from May 13 to July 6, then a goal and two assists in a stretch of five starts in seven games from early August to mid-September. Ilsinho played the final three games of the season at the No. 10, tallying two goals and two assists. (You’ll note that for the purposes of this discussion, I’m omitting Ilsinho’s scoring from the wing.) Adam Najem started once, played five times, recorded no stats.

The grand total from the 10 spot: 12 goals and six assists, 18 total goals influenced.

Around the league

First thing’s first: There is almost no team in MLS with as strict an adherence to the 4-2-3-1 as the Union. The only exception may be Atlanta United, and if I was a coach with Miguel Almiron playing between Yamil Asad and Hector Villalba, you’d bet I’d keep going back to that high-scoring well.

Atlanta is the easiest comparison, thanks in large part to Almiron being out there almost unflinchingly until his recent hamstring injury. He posted nine goals and 14 assists, while his deputy, Julian Gressel, compiled two and two in his absence in September and October. That’s 11 goals and 16 assists, 27 total goals influenced.
Read more »

The fullback contingent, including left back Giliano Wijnaldum,
presented a mixed bag for the Union this season. (DFM/Mikey Reeves)

The Philadelphia Union’s deployment of fullbacks this season was consistent, in that only four players manned the role, hewing to the two-deep philosophy. The results they yielded, as befits the larger narrative, was decidedly mixed.

Let’s not bury the whopper of a stat that involves the one person everyone wants to discuss from this quartet. Here’s the Union record broken down by the starter at right back:

Ray Gaddis, 23 starts, 10-9-4
Keegan Rosenberry, 11 starts, 1-5-5

We can take that further, since Rosenberry played every minute of the 2016 season, which means he was intimately familiar with the late-season collapse that resulted in eight winless games to end the season, including a 90-minute playoff cameo. That means the Union have won just one of Rosenberry’s last 19 starts, a record of 1-11-7.

There’s some bad fortune that factors in to Rosenberry’s predicament – 16 of those 19 starts occurred when the Union as a team were sliding into the abyss. But the coincidence is pretty startling. And oddly, it doesn’t bear out in the left back comparison this season.

Fabinho, 21 starts, 6-10-5
Giliano Wijnaldum, 13 starts, 5-4-4

Again, neither’s record is gleaming. But both went up and down with the Union’s fortunes this season, while Rosenberry’s descent seemed to be one-way.

Going to goal

Consistency in the lineup was one thing; production was an entirely different proposition, and one didn’t translate to the other. All the rhetoric about fullbacks jumping into the attack and the shorthand scouting reports of “watch those fullbacks getting forward” is bunk, according to the numbers.

Union fullbacks contributed a grand total of five assists and no goals. Fabinho led the way with two helpers, one a secondary in the finale. The other three added one each.
Read more »

Alejandro Bedoya, right, delivered a sterling performance Saturday
in a reconfigured midfielder that yielded a 3-1 Union win over Chicago.
(Mikey Reeves/DFM)

Jim Curtin heard you, dear citizens of Twitter, and decided to change his formation as a result.

OK, no, that wasn’t the reason that Curtin flipped the Union from the 4-2-3-1 into what is more of a 4-1-4-1 Saturday, a move that certainly contributed to a 3-1 win over the Chicago Fire. To what degree is debatable. Curtin pushed the right tactical button by clamping down on the central midfield space afforded to Dax McCarty in a Fire side deprived of Juninho and Bastian Schweinsteiger. But the efficacy of Saturday’s switch has limits, and no one was more cognizant of that than Curtin, who cheekily faced up to a question about the formation change with a response that deserves to be published in full:

“Yeah you know, people get caught up in the graphics and how they get put out and as soon as I saw the graphic get put out that I figured that you would probably come with that as the first question. To be honest, it's still a 4-2-3-1, you know, just because it's written that way on a schematic that comes out, it's the difference between a yard or two in either direction. If you look, go back and watch the tape, as we will as well, by design we still always had someone next to Warren, so it is still the 4-2-3-1. The best thing about the formation is there can be fluidity in it. Warren is a guy who is a ball winner. We thought, matchup-wise, he's obviously been in good form and what Chicago likes to do, we thought that it was important to invert the triangle a little bit in some moments to get pressure to Dax McCarty, who for me is the engine of that team. So, yes, on paper it looks a little different. The running of five, six yards a little more forward from Alejandro defensively and from Haris is a little bit of a change, but still the same formation, the same idea, same principles that the guys, as you saw, when they execute them, are pretty dangerous and tough to play against.”

It’s been two and a half years since Curtin has done anything even remotely as different as this in his formation, so the temptation could be to read too much into it. So let’s assess what this move does, and what it doesn’t do moving forward for the Union.

- It does … minimize a weakness and maximize a strength. We can argue until we’re blue in the face whether Ilsinho and/or Roland Alberg has been given too many opportunities this season. There’s no rationale I’ll allow for saying that Warren Creavalle should be starting fewer than 10 MLS games. He’s just a better player than that, and his failure to find the field regularly lands squarely on the lack of attacking creativity in the other five members of the midfield/forward six. In this regard, it’s a smart move by Curtin given the constraints of his roster.
Read more »

The Union's 2017 season is likely lost. So why not give minutes
to young players like Keegan Rosenberry? (DFM/Mikey Reeves)

If you’re of the sort that trusts probability, the Union’s chances of making the 2017 MLS Cup playoffs are essentially nil. That means to salvage merit from a lost season, the sixth of eight in Union existence in which they’ve fallen at the manageable hurdle of playoff qualification, the goals must shift. (Even tanking for the sake of a draft pick is off the table, as you’ll recall.)

The remaining seven games of 2017 should be aimed at granular accomplishments. Time to take a page out of the Phillies’ book of perpetual rebuilding: The Union need to know who is worth keeping and who isn’t. The best way to glean that info is to let players take their lumps and, for better or worse, evaluate how they emerge on the other side.

SPI's @MLS playoff projections after the weekend. @ColumbusCrewSC up 22 points with the win and Montreal's loss. https://t.co/KqFHjJXNkg pic.twitter.com/QOrFqP60nD

— Paul Carr (@PCarrESPN) August 29, 2017

Let’s consider seven objectives, which care little how many of the 21 points on offer the Union reap.

Play. Your. Kids. Josh Yaro has struggled this year. Keegan Rosenberry has been up and down. But the Union are better off knowing if their rookie successes were outliers or the norm. Given the peaks and valleys, Jim Curtin and the organization need to know where the mean for each player rests. Yaro won’t travel to Minnesota in observance of his red card. He should play the last six games. We know well what Ray Gaddis brings at right back, and it’s unlikely to differ in the next seven games from his previous 138. (Not a value judgement, just an observation on plasticity.) What Rosenberry brings requires space to be sussed out.

Two starts for Adam Najem. That’s at a minimum. I doubt Roland Alberg is in the Union’s plans beyond this season. I don’t know if Ilsinho is. I would hope the organization recognizes and will act on the glaring need for a No. 10. But ascertaining what it has Najem, in terms of starting potential or merely carving a positional niche, is vital.
Read more »

UNION (4-2-3-1) 

McCarthy 

Gaddis-Elliott-Yaro-Wijnaldum 

Bedoya-Medunjanin 

Picault-Ilsinho-Pontius 

Sapong 

Bench: McGuire, Fabinho, Marquez, Creavalle, Alberg, Epps, Simpson 

Montreal (4-3-3) 

Bush 

Duvall-Cabrera-Ciman-Lovitz 

Dzemaili-Piette-Bernier 

Oduro-Mancosu-Piatti 

Bench: Crepeau, Fisher, Francis, Beland-Goyette, Coinere, Salazar, Jackson-Hamel 

Preview 

- A 3-1 win over FC Dallas last week alleviates the impulse to change for Jim Curtin, who makes just one change in the side enforced by injury. Oguchi Onyewu’s groin injury flared up, so Josh Yaro steps in. Richie Marquez makes his return to the bench. As expected, John McCarthy starts his seventh straight game in net with Andre Blake out again.

- Besides that, it’s the same team that worked so well in attack. Ilsinho is back in the No. 10 spot, with Roland Alberg ready as the super sub role. No Keegan Rosenberry or Derrick Jones, who might be in line for time with Bethlehem in Sunday’s game.

- Montreal is set to hand a debut to Canadian international Samuel Piette in central midfield after signing him from Spanish minor league team Izarra this summer. He moves Hernan Bernardello and Marco Donadel out of the 18 altogether. It’ll be interesting to see how they change shape around them, with Ignacio Piatti’s tendency to drift in off the win and Blerim Dzemaili nominally farther back in the midfield three than his normal No. 10 role. It could come to look more like a 4-2-1-3, with Piette and Patrice Bernier anchoring a triangle with Dzemaili at the point.

For Roland Alberg and the Union attack, there hasn't been much
to smile about the last three games. (For DFM/Mikey Reeves)

In their last three games, the latest a 1-0 loss to Columbus Saturday night, the Union have all of four shots on target, including a penalty kick. That is suboptimal; with the club amidst a stretch of winnable games against Eastern Conference opposition, it’s one of the worst times this could occur.

Connecting the dots here isn’t difficult. The Union aren’t creating chances why? Because they lack an elite chance creator in their front four. Specifically, they lack anything approaching a standout No. 10 in a system that demands one.

My position on this matter is on record: The Union should sell out this summer, find their starting No. 10 of the future and cut bait on options whose contracts can be escaped at season’s end. But I think that argument requires a little refinement. So allow me three points to burnish that position:

- The 90-minute fallacy. Roland Alberg is playing the best soccer of his Union tenure. Ilsinho can be one of the league’s premier game-changers. These are positions that manager Jim Curtin has advanced about his existing options in the middle of the pitch.

Both are patently false. And even if there are slivers of truth, they are overridden by a singular verity: Neither is a 90-minute performer in MLS.

This is beyond the realm of speculation; it’s verifiably proven. Alberg has logged the full 90 minutes four times in 41 MLS matches, 18 of them starts. (Yes, through a season and a half, Alberg is averaging 12 starts a season.) The adjustment phase has ended; we’re seeing Roland Alberg for what he is.

Ilsinho has gone 90 minutes just twice in 41 MLS matches, 29 starts. He turns 32 in October. His fitness drastically improving is about as likely as me hitting that elusive growth spurt to get on NBA teams’ radars.

Neither is a 90-minute player. As evidence, I submit that neither has ever been a 90-minute player in MLS.

- Not exactly apple pie. The argument I got plenty of on Twitter Saturday night was what I fear will remain in vogue for a while: The season’s lost, let Adam Najem play. Indeed, the Union have two creative midfield options of the future in Najem and newly signed Homegrown Player Anthony Fontana, whose contract goes into effect in Jan. 2018. That’s solid depth, so why not cultivate it?
Read more »

Before Roland Alberg, center, and company do too much celebrating,
a big summer win like Sunday's over New England has rarely been apropos
of anything for the Union. (For Digital First Media/Mike Reeves)

The Union are coming off arguably their best performance of the season, a 3-0 drubbing of New England at home Sunday. It was comfortable, it was steady on both ends, with a rock-solid defense and crucial bouts of finishing in the attacking third.

It’s also a harbinger of things to come, right? Not so fast.

Sunday represented what has become a yearly tradition – a June/July hammering of an opponent at home that raises the Union’s hopes of a mid-summer renaissance. Often, that result hasn’t elevated the Union much higher than the three points gleaned on the day. Let’s go year-by-year:

- In 2016, the Union pounded D.C. United, 3-0, on July 9 thanks to – as it was known until just a few weeks ago – Ilsinho’s only two goals. One of those tallies, along with a Roland Alberg marker, came from the penalty spot on a day where the D.C. was reduced to 10 men thanks to a Kofi Opare red. The result came on the heels of two straight losses and was offered as proof that an early-season surge wasn’t regressing to the mean. What followed was just three wins in three months as part of a 3-8-4 finish and a first-round playoff ouster.

- The 2015 Union were a thoroughly forgettable bunch. But out of the Gold Cup break that year on July 11, they thumped Portland, 3-0, when coach Caleb Porter packed only a pair of reserve outside backs for the trip – the legendary duo of Taylor Peay and Jeanderson, both in MLS debuts to forget. That was the alchemy that produced Andrew Wenger’s first (and only) goal of the season in his 20th (and somehow not final) appearance. Vincent Nogueira also scored twice in Brian Sylvestre’s fifth and final shutout with the club. And the momentum translated to … Three straight losses and a five-match winless streak.

Though @DaveZeitlin isn't here, if there was ever a night for Andrew Wenger to be due, it would be vs fullbacks making their first MLS start

— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) July 11, 2015

- OK, it wasn’t a shutout. But the Union’s 3-1 win over the Red Bulls July 16, 2014 fostered hope that the Jim Curtin new-coach bump might be sustainable. Conor Casey chose wisely in drinking from the right grail to cap a streak of six goals in six games, while Fred (!!!) also checked in with his first and only goal of his 14th of 16 stints with the Union (and counting?). This result actually translated to consistent form for a while – followed by two road draws, the Union went on a five-match unbeaten streak and lost once in an 11-game streak (5-1-5). But the exhaustion of the U.S. Open Cup final run eventually took its toll.
Read more »

UNION (4-2-3-1) 

Blake 

Gaddis-Onyewu-Elliott-Wijnaldum 

D.Jones-Medunjanin 

Picault-Ilsinho-Pontius 

Sapong

Bench: McCarthy, Yaro, Rosenberry, Tribbett, Alberg, Epps, Simpson

New England (4-3-1-2) 

Cropper 

D.Smith-Angoua-J.Smith-Farrell 

Watson-Koffie-Caldwell 

Nguyen 

Bunbury-Kamara 

Bench: Knighton, Tierney, Delamea, Woodberry, Hollinger-Janzen, Herivaux, Wright

 Preview 

- Union manager Jim Curtin admitted to approaching this stretch of games with almost two separate teams. Particularly in the back, changes are wrought from the U.S. Open Cup with three new defenders in: Ray Gaddis, Giliano Wijnaldum and Oguchi Onyewu.
- CJ Sapong left Wednesday’s affair with a knock, a result of being “beat up” in Curtin’s words. Today would seem a great opportunity to rest him, particularly with a trip to former team Sporting Kansas City looming Thursday, but Curtin opts otherwise. Jay Simpson again on the bench.

- Interesting to see the choice with Roland Alberg. He worked for 120 minutes against the Red Bulls midweek, but after scoring a goal and giving what Curtin called “his best game in a Union jersey” (a history that includes a hat trick), the calculus between rewarding and resting him is difficult. But with a recovered Ilsinho waiting in the wings, Alberg gives way with a chance to impact the game off the bench.

- The Revs are depleted. No Diego Fagundez. No Kelyn Rowe. No Xavier Kouassi. No Juan Agudelo. No excuse for the Union to get three points. Granted, Kei Kamara and Lee Nguyen are plenty dangerous – Kamara has five goals and four assists in 10 games against the Union – but the lack of depth should make a team prone to conceding goals even more susceptible.

In his first 'real game' with the Union, rookie Adam Najem impressed Wednesday.
(For Digital First Media/Mikey Reeves)

The Union are facing the last two installments of six games in 21 days, and the more granular stretch is a Wednesday-Sunday-Thursday span around the Fourth of July in an quirky schedule. The big news from training Friday was the return to full work for Maurice Edu, who’s approaching two years since his last Union game. You can read his reaction to this step in his recovery here.

A few other notes to send you into your holiday weekend:

- Let’s start on a positive note, shall we? Jim Curtin on Roland Alberg in Wednesday’s PK loss to the New York Red Bulls in the fifth round of the U.S. Open Cup: “I thought Roland Alberg had his best performance in a Philadelphia Union jersey. He was excellent.” Alberg scored in the 86th minute to send the game to extra time.

- Injury updates bring good news that extends beyond Edu. Andre Blake’s rib injury isn’t a concern, and he’s ready to go Sunday against New England, a team he’s demonized in the past. He got through training without issue Friday.

- Fabian Herbers cleared what Curtin called “the last hurdle,” shooting at full strength with his adductor strain that his cost him four MLS games. Sunday will be the fifth, as Herbers will join Bethlehem Steel for a home game with Richmond Saturday.

- Warren Creavalle is “ahead of schedule,” Curtin said, on his hamstring strain. But Sunday appears to be a bit too quick for the midfielder.

- Derrick Jones, who left Wednesday’s game with a knee knock, trained fully Friday, as did Ilsinho, who missed the RBA trip after a kick to his calf that led to bruising and swelling, which has dissipated.

- CJ Sapong left the Red Bulls game in extra time after a scary looking fall. Though he wasn’t out on the field for the entire session Friday, Curtin said he’s fine. Though the forward is sporting knocks to his shoulder and leg (“a little bit of a dead leg feeling that goes up into his back,” Curtin said without apparent concern), he should be fine for Sunday, though you wonder if Jay Simpson might be in line for the start to save Sapong for his return to Kansas City Thursday.
Read more »

UNION (4-2-3-1) 

McCarthy 

Fabinho-Elliott-Yaro-Rosenberry 

Jones-Medunjanin 

Sapong-Alberg-Picault 

Simpson 

Bench: McGuire, Gaddis, Onyewu, Tribbett, Najem, Pontius, Epps 

New York Red Bulls (4-2-3-1) 

Meara 

Lawrence-Collin-Perrinelle-Long 

Adams-Felipe 

Davis-Kljestan-Zizzo 

Wright-Phillips 

Bench: Robles, Allen, Metzger, Etienne, Lade, Royer, Veron 

Preview 

- Once again, the U.S. Open Cup allows Jim Curtin to use two forwards without abandoning the one-striker formation (shrug emoji). Jay Simpson starts up top, with CJ Sapong on the wing. The ability to spell either of them, with Chris Pontius and Marcus Epps, presents itself on the bench.

- Ilsinho isn’t in the side, which means that Roland Alberg has the No. 10 role all to himself. He’ll have chances to create offense with forwards all around.

- The backline roulette lands on Keegan Rosenberry and Fabinho on the outside. Josh Yaro is in for Oguchi Onyewu. On the whole, no surprises, though a rib injury apparently rules out Andre Blake (or the Union want to get John McCarthy some time since he’ll be the goalie of choice against Sporting Kansas City when Blake is away for the Gold Cup).

- Red Bulls’ lineup is a mishmash, featuring three natural center backs and four natural center mids. I’d opine that Sean Davis becomes a winger opposite the defensive-minded Sal Zizzo and Aaron Long pulls out to the left back role. But we’ll see it in practice.

- These teams have played so often that there are few tactical unknowns. So let’s focus on the psychological ones. How miffed are the Red Bulls at the pointed commentary Haris Medunjanin had for Felipe after last week’s waving away of a red card? How does Derrick Jones rebound for that red 10 days ago? Where is the mind of Sapong after his Gold Cup snub? How are the Red Bulls feeling after the rivalry trouncing by New York City FC last week, motivated or defeated? That’s plenty of subtext.

Ilsinho has started two straight games at the No. 10 role. Jim Curtin
seems to think he could be up for a third Saturday against Colorado.
(For Digital First Media/Mike Reeves)

CHESTER >> For the third time in eight days, the Philadelphia Union will suit up Saturday night against the Colorado Rapids. That backlog of games could mean changes are in the offing, though that conventional wisdom opposes the Union’s red-hot form, in search of the franchise’s first ever four-game winning streak and enjoying in five-game unbeaten run, with the Western Conference straggling Rapids visiting to boot.

Some notes from training Friday:

- Roland Alberg won’t be a part of any squad shuffling Saturday. Manager Jim Curtin ruled the midfielder out after an injection in Alberg’s strained quad. He worked to the side of training with the goal of prepping him for Real Salt Lake next week. “Difficult to not have him, but at the same time, we know that other guys can step up in his absence, but it looks more like next Saturday in Salt Lake hopefully,” Curtin said.

- Two of the more obvious candidates for change Saturday are the oldest legs in the side – defender Oguchi Onyewu and midfielder Ilsinho. Onyewu has played every minute of the three-game winning streak, and Ilsinho has two starts in the No. 10 role under his belt this week. The Brazilian logged 64 minutes in the win over D.C. United and 67 Wednesday against Houston. Here was Curtin’s answer when asked directly about Onyewu and Ilsinho:

“You look at the data: Gooch plays a position where it’s a lot of organizing, it’s winning your duels and he’s done an excellent job of that. It’s not a position where it’s as taxing on the legs. It’s still difficult, but I think he’s up for the task of turning it around. Ilsinho in a newer position for him, I think has adjusted well to it. He’s doing a lot of running defensively. It is tough on the legs, but we’ll look at everything. We’re kind of still in the process of picking the final lineup, but he tells me he’s feeling great.”

On paper, this looks like a decent time to get Adam Najem his first start – at home, against a struggling team, maybe lower expectations. But if Ilsinho is ready to go, he’s Curtin’s preference, it seems.

- One area where the Union have options to swap is the wing, in part because Curtin’s system asks so much of wingers defensively. Chris Pontius and Fafa Picault have forged a bountiful pairing, but Fabian Herbers could slip in a start Saturday, given how the wingers tired against Houston and contributed to the Dynamo applying more pressure than Curtin would’ve liked. Curtin Friday:
Read more »

UNION (4-2-3-1) 

Blake 

Gaddis-Elliott-Onyewu-Fabinho 

Bedoya-Medunjanin 

Picault-Ilsinho-Pontius 

Sapong 

Bench: McCarthy, Rosenberry, Marquez, Creavalle, Herbers, Najem, Simpson 

Houston Dynamo (4-3-3) 

Willis 

DeLaGarza-Machado-Leonardo-Beasley 

Alex-Cabezas-Clark 

Manotas-Torres-Quioto Bench: Deric, Anibaba, Holland, Sanchez, Remick, Wenger, Boniek Garcia 

Preview 

- No changes from Jim Curtin this week, which should shock no one. Roland Alberg is still out, so Ilsinho gets another shot at the No. 10 role. Oguchi Onyewu and Jack Elliott keep their spots in central defense. And Chris Pontius stays on the same right wing where he’s been so effective late.

- It’s steady as you go for Houston, which makes just one change. Instead of risking Alberth Elis with a hamstring strain, he stays home and Erick Torres, MLS’s leading goal scorer, is restored to the starting XI for the Western Conference leaders.

- If you’re looking for a matchup to watch tonight, might I suggest the wings? Romell Quioto and Mauro Manotas have stretched opposing defenses vertically and horizontally, spreading defenses out and getting in behind. Ray Gaddis and Fabinho will have their hands full; they need to keep those two in front of them and prevent dangerous crosses from the byline in the direction of a dangerous target man like Cubo Torres. Given the steamy conditions tonight, expect Fabian Herbers to be ready to spell one of the wingers sooner rather than later since they’ll have to run plenty, too.

Ilsinho, here splitting a pair of D.C. United defenders in the April trip
to RFK Stadium, performed admirably in the No. 10 role last week.
(For Digital First Media/Mike Reeves)

CHESTER >> For the 16 or so months that Ilsinho has been with the Philadelphia Union, a false equivalency has sprung up around him.

The Brazilian is impeccably creative, capable of summoning tricks with a soccer ball that many dare not dream attempting. A career winger in Europe whose upbringing in the Brazilian ranks occurred as an outside back, Ilsinho has played his entire career on the flanks. But his skillset, to an American audience, mimics what is expected from a No. 10 – the passing, the runs, the danger but reticence to shoot, the diminished defensive responsibility.

To slide him centrally by 20 or so yards couldn’t be that different for him, right?

“Everything is different at this position,” Ilsinho said Tuesday.

Well, then.

Ilsinho capably handled matters in the middle of the park in Saturday’s 4-0 win over D.C. United. He made way in the 64th, just before Oguchi Onyewu’s second goal sent the visitors flying toward a rout. But his first foray of the season in the No. 10 role in the absence of Roland Alberg was promising, even if it entailed a good deal of change for the 31-year-old.

“Everything is new for me because I just played it two times last year, just the first two games,” Ilsinho said. “I have to move different, I have to run different. I have to look for some space, look for the final pass for other guys.”

For as different as the position might have felt to Ilsinho, manager Jim Curtin thought it extracted some of the traits the staff sought from him out wide. And while the final touch remains lacking – see the 21st-minute passage in which he does magnificently to create space but curls a meek effort straight at goalie Bill Hamid – the initial signs are encouraging for a player who hasn’t played there since the opening two games of 2016 when Tranquillo Barnetta was injured.



“I thought a lot of things we worked on him as a winger came out in the game,” Curtin said Tuesday. “We’ve been trying to get him to run in behind the defense a little more, since he has a tendency to come inside and not stretch them as much and hold the ball at his field. Strangely, as a No. 10, you saw the ball that Fabinho plays him over the top where he’s running behind aggressively, the one that (Steve) Birnbaum makes that hell of a play in the box to defend otherwise that’s a great goal, a tap-in from Ilsinho and a really good action from Chris (Pontius). To get him to do that, to run hard in the box, was really eye-opening, was good.”

“It’s different but the good point is that I have more freedom, I can move to both sides, left or right,” Ilsinho said. “But I need to run at it a little bit more. But it’s good. I just try to help my teammates, and I try looking for CJ (Sapong) or Fafa (Picault) or Chris when I get the ball. It’s different, but it’s good.”
Read more »

UNION (4-2-3-1) 

Blake 

Gaddis-Elliott-Onyewu-Fabinho 

Medunjanin-Bedoya 

Pontius-Ilsinho-Picault 

Sapong 

Bench: McCarthy, Marquez, Rosenberry, Creavalle, Herbers, Najem, Simpson 

D.C. United (4-1-4-1) 

Hamid 

Birnbaum-Opare-Boswell-Kemp 

Jeffrey 

Sam-Harkes-Acosta-Neagle 

Mullins 

Bench: Worra, Robinson, Korb, Odoi-Atsem, Ortiz, Sarvas, Le Toux 

Preview 

- A win = NO CHANGES ALLOWED for the Union, apparently. Ray Gaddis is again preferred to Keegan Rosenberry, and Oguchi Onyewu and Jack Elliott each keep their spots even with Richie Marquez at full health. There’s a certain logic to that, and we’ll see how it works.

- The one change is one some have been clamoring for: Ilsinho as the No. 10. He doesn’t seem to be changing games as a winger, so why not try him centrally in the absence of Roland Alberg (quad)? The only slight issue in this: 60 percent of the supposed attack five (Ilsinho, Alejandro Bedoya and Fafa Picault) have a combined 0 goals and 0 assists this year. At least Bedoya gets another game in the No. 8, where he’s been quite good.

- D.C. goes defensive with the backline, with Steven Birnbaum playing at right back, an injury-depleted position for them. Sebastien Le Toux is sitting he bench with Patrick Mullins restored to the starting lineup along with Bill Hamid.

Midfielder Adam Najem, center, poses with Union sporting director Earnie Stewart,
left, and coach Jim Curtin after signing with the club last week.
(Courtesy of Philadelphia Union)

PHILADELPHIA >> A smile creeps across Adam Najem’s face when a scenario that he has clearly thought plenty about is presented to him.

Someday soon, whether while wearing a Bethlehem Steel or Philadelphia Union jersey, Najem could line up against the club of his youth, the New York Red Bulls (I or II). Opposite him on the field that day could be his older brother, David Najem, a 24-year-old midfielder for Red Bulls II.

“We grew up playing against each other all the time and having little one-v-one battles in our backyard,” Adam Najem said with a smile Monday after Union training under the bubble at Penn’s Dunning-Cohen Champions Field. “We’re always competing with one another. It’ll definitely be fun to see him competing on the other side of the field. I’m just glad he’s getting his opportunity, and hopefully he can make his way up from there.”

The potential of a brotherly matchup is just one oddity of Najem’s move to the City of Brotherly Love, sealed last week when the Red Bulls shipped Najem’s Homegrown rights to the Union for its natural second round in the 2018 SuperDraft pick.

It appears a tidy piece of business to add the 22-year-old attacking midfielder, who spent four seasons at the University of Akron and likely would’ve been a high first round pick had he entered the draft. Instead, with the Red Bulls holding his rights to sign or trade, Najem was excluded, forced to play a different kind of waiting game as his classmates learned their professional futures.

“I know it’s a business and everything around it is going to be complicated,” Najem said. “It was a little unsettling and I didn’t really know what was going on, but I’m sure guys in the draft had the same type of unsettling feeling. Everything happens for a reason. I just took it and was patient and thankful for Philadelphia Union for taking a chance on me.”

Najem surfaced at Union training camp on Day 1 as a “trialist” and drew plaudits from manager Jim Curtin from the start. In the native of Clifton, N.J., Curtin saw the talent that yielded 33 goals and 29 assists in 89 games for the powerhouse Zips, and the diminutive playmaker’s skills translated instantly to the professional practice field. Curtin drew cautious parallels between Najem and FC Dallas’ spritely playmaker, Mauro Diaz, one of the league’s best.

Curtin invokes Mauro Diaz as a comp for Adam Najem, says you should totally get your hopes up for him to be that good.

— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) February 3, 2017

The 5-foot-8, 150-pound Najem enticed the Union as a depth option at the No. 10, where the Union are relatively thin – Alejandro Bedoya is the presumptive starter, with Roland Alberg as a proto-backup/super-sub.
Read more »

Bosnian midfielder Haris Medunjanin is the latest
in a flurry of Union moves that comes close to completing
their roster. (AP)

MLS doesn’t adhere to the Deadline Day hysteria gripping the rest of the soccer world (or at least England, the only jurisdiction that really matters) every Jan. 31, but Philadelphia Union sporting director Earnie Stewart has given the impression that it’s a significant milepost.

By Feb. 2 or so, depending on some paperwork, the Union’s roster could be close to complete at 28 players and solidly structured for a season of MLS rigors. Stewart’s motivation certainly isn’t an artificial deadline, though he subscribes to the idea that the sooner you get guys in, the better. Hence the flurry of recent moves that have brought in Haris Medunjanin, Oguchi Onyewu and others.

On that account, the Union are making deals more quickly than in the past. Steven Vitoria, you’ll recall, didn’t join until the second week of February two years ago. Roland Alberg was Feb. 4 last year. Ilsinho was in camp but not signed until late February. The sooner guys like Medunjanin and Fafa Picault start training, the better.

The Union have 26 players under contract. The 27th is reserved for a third goalie. The 28th appears to be the only open one, pending an outflow (either by transfer or loan). That means diminished possibilities for the five rookies in camp, among others.

(Something to remember: Bethlehem Steel works like a traditional hockey or baseball farm team only in one direction; anyone playing for the Union would have to be among the 28. Essentially, if there’s any chance of a player getting into MLS games, they’ll be signed to the Union roster and loaned down, not the other way around.)
Read more »

The question of Roland Alberg's fitness for the Union's full-time No. 10 job
will be tested this preseason. (AP)

The Philadelphia Union’s first full practice of the 2017 season will take place Tuesday morning at the Power Training Complex. And it will ensure an almost unfathomable level of consistency from the last time the Union assembled in the shadow of Talen Energy Stadium.

Of the 18 players in the squad last October for the Union’s first playoff game in five years against Toronto FC, 17 remain with the club. Ten of 11 starters’ jobs are preserved from last season, Tranquillo Barnetta the lone exception. I don’t even have to check past figures; that’s surely unprecedented for a club where roster churn has been the norm.

As I wrote Monday, the Union have the best of both words. They have the prestige and tangential benefit of three players prepping for the season with the U.S. National Team in its January camp, three who are certainly among the 10 given starters. Fewer regulars means more opportunities to see the contestants for the other slots on the depth chart battling it out.

So let’s look at the five positional battles sure to play out in camp this week and in Florida next month:

Roland Alberg vs. Expectations. Lest you think the Union have everything figured out, consider that one battle dictates several others. (I needn’t remind you how many returning starters Columbus had in place before last season, do I?) Parse the roster and the Dutchman is the only player you’d consider a No. 10, lest Alejandro Bedoya moves up into that spot and somewhat out of position. Doing so leaves the current reserve corps at the No. 8 remarkably thin. So getting Alberg to consistently play the 10 in a 4-2-3-1 system that the Union show little taste for changing is vital. Alberg proved last year he can play excel in spurts; if we allow the benefit of the doubt in his acclimation period to MLS, then the hypothesis to be proven is that he can be for the Union what Barnetta was last year.

Fabinho vs. Gilliano Wijnaldum. To dub this Fabinho’s job to lose would disrespect the work the Brazilian did last season. More apt is that it’s Wijnaldum’s job to win. Earnie Stewart put it bluntly: Wijnaldum didn’t come to MLS to sit the bench. And while Fabinho wasn’t necessarily the weak link in a defense that leaked 56 goals in 35 games last year, his left back spot is as logical a place as any to start searching for reinforcements. Read more »

UNION (4-2-3-1) 

Blake 

Fabinho -Marquez-Tribbett-Rosenberry 

Creavalle-Bedoya 

Ilsinho-Alberg-Ayuk 

Herbers 

Bench: McCarthy, Gaddis, Trusty, Carroll, Pontius, Sapong, Barnetta 

Red Bulls (4-2-3-1) 

Robles 

Lawrence-Collin-Perrinelle-Duvall 

McCarty-Felipe 

Grella-Kljestan-Muyl 

B.Wright-Phillips 

Bench: Reynish, Zizzo, Zubar, Davis, Damari, Veron, S.Wright-Phillips

Preview 

- Jim Curtin promised changes, and he delivered, at least up top. Eric Ayuk makes his first start of the season after 28 appearances last year. He hasn’t made the bench yet this year for the Union. Ilsinho starts for the first time since Aug. 20. Roland Alberg starts for just the second time since the end of July. A reminder that the Union need to give up fewer than 12 goals, and they have probably the most defense-averse attacking midfield possible. This could get interesting.



- CJ Sapong makes the bench after a concussion. Charlie Davies is the conspicuous absence from the squad.

- The worst news the Union could possibly have also dropped today: Maurice Edu fractured his left fibula in practice Saturday. Reports had surfaced yesterday that he left the field with a non-contact injury, and a Union source confirmed that today. No timetable was offered. Edu has not played in over a year after a sports hernia and a stress fracture in his leg.

- It’s all about the milestones for New York Red Bulls in a full-strength lineup. Bradley Wright-Phillips is in the race for the golden boot with 23 goals. New York City FC’s David Villa can catch him; he’s got 22 goals and starts for NYC at home against Columbus. He can also solidify his record for the best three-year goal-scoring stretch in MLS history (he has 67 since the start of the 2014 season). Sacha Kljestan can get to 20 assists this season, becoming just the second player ever to do that in league history, joining Carlos Valderrama.

At season's end, Tranquillo Barnetta will be headed back to Switzerland.
How might the Union replace his sizeable contributions? (AP)

The Philadelphia Union, in a surprisingly and laudably proactive announcement Tuesday morning, revealed that Tranquillo Barnetta will be leaving at the end of the 2016 season to rejoin the club of his youth, FC St. Gallen in Switzerland.

The possibility was long mooted, with Barnetta’s contract purposefully drawn up at 18 months from last summer to offer both club and player the flexibility to escape and the acquisition of Alejandro Bedoya, a player capable of playing the No. 10 role.

Barnetta will be missed, as he’s been an exemplary player over 37 games (plus whatever’s left this regular/postseason) and ambassador for the club. The “why” of the timing is fairly clear, with Barnetta having achieved his objective of an American experience and wanting to have something left in the tank for St. Gallen, but I’ll leave Barnetta to speak for himself if he’s available after training Wednesday.

I’ll stand by the declaration last summer that he’s the most decorated player the Union have ever acquired, and even with Bedoya, Charlie Davies and Ilsinho since joining, Barnetta retains that title with his wealth of Bundesliga, European Champions League and three World Cups worth of experience.

The conversation shifts as to how to replace Barnetta, a discussion we can have now and then shift to the backburner as the Union’s late-season run plays out. When Bedoya was acquired in August, I posited a Barnetta-less future that would seamlessly integrate Bedoya into the No. 10 role instead of the No. 8 that he’s a less obvious fit for. From the blog:

That’s not to say the Union would move on from Barnetta. But if they can't resign him or wanted to divest themselves of a potentially redundant asset, Barnetta could make sense. Or Bedoya could be the starter with some combination of Alberg and Barnetta as reserves or on the wing. And it allows (Derrick) Jones, hailed as the No. 8 of the future, a chance to grow into the job. What better way for him to do that than sandwiched between Edu and Bedoya?

Let’s alter the thinking somewhat. I’ll follow the lead of my colleague, Kevin Kinkead, in this. If you’re replacing Barnetta and have the $700k or so of salary cap flexibility, what could the Union get?
Read more »