Marco Fabián and a (not so crazy) theory about his missed meeting

The Union’s $2.2-million-dollar man, Marco Fabián, did not make the gameday roster for yesterday’s match against LAFC, a move that left many fans confused. Fabián has started in eight of the Union’s last nine games, so his absence in such a crucial fixture was certainly a shock.

Post-game, Head Coach Jim Curtin offered an explanation as to why the highest-paid player in Union history failed to even make the 18.

“Marco Fabián missed a team meeting the day before the game,” Curtin said. “That was the reason for his absence, a mistake on his part, he feels bad about it, but at the same time we had to move on.”

Curtin added that while Fabián obviously could’ve made a difference on the game, he didn’t want to talk about hypotheticals. “That’s in the past; we’ll never get it back, so that part hurts,” he said. “We’re better with [Fabián] in our team and with us. We’re trying to keep 30 guys going and not one.”

While the explanation of Fabián missing a team meeting is probably true and an honest answer by Curtin, it does raise more questions. Did Fabián skip the meeting? Or did he honestly forget there was a meeting the day before a game? 

I’ll put my money on the former. After spending just about an entire season in Philly, he has to know that there are team meetings the day before games. But if this is true, does Fabián still want to play in Philly?

The midfielder has not had the year that most people expected from him, and right now you could argue that 18-year-old Brenden Aaronson is working to take away his starting role. Marco himself has stirred speculation that he may be looking for a move back to Liga MX, where he played from 2007 to 2016. 

Not many Union fans would be overly disappointed to see Fabián leave after this season, as most are focused on making sure Jamiro Monteiro can stay with the club, and it’s possible that Fabián wouldn’t be overly sad to walk away from 1 Stadium Drive. But we’ll have to wait a few months to see how it plays out in the offseason. Until then, we’ll still be focused on the playoffs.