Philadelphia Union set out to play small and lost big

My brother and I walked through the parking lot toward Subaru Park through the excited atmosphere building as Lionel Messi, perhaps the greatest player ever to play the game, and Inter Miami came to visit to play the Philadelphia Union. To add onto that, winner of this Leagues Cup Semifinal match would book their ticket to the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup, a tournament I love.

But at the sight of the lineup, the excitement ended. My brother and I began to recite a very niche scene from Muppets Treasure Island, a childhood favorite of ours, where a delirious and dying Billy Bones, played by the legendary Billy Connelly, grabs the young protagonist Jim Hawkins by the shirt to plead his warning, “ Jimmy Jim Jimmy Jim Jim Jim Jim!” The exasperated and desperate call of Billy Bones echoes between my brother and I when we feel Jim Curtin has made a bad decision. His lineup might’ve been his most egregious yet. In a marquee matchup, against a marquee opponent, the Union’s lineup set out by Jim Curtin told everyone one thing:

Hopefully we don’t lose.

From the first whistle, the Union resigned to allow Miami all the time in the world to pick them apart. Not interested in being an active participant in the game, the Union opted to set up shop, keep Messi off the ball, and dare Miami to pass through them. Given the personnel, it was a frightfully small mindset to go into such a big game with and they paid the price.

Within 3 minutes, Miami passed right through the supposedly staunch Union defense and thanks to a miscommunication on positioning between Damion Lowe and Leon Flach, Josef Martinez snuck in between Jack Elliott and Lowe to slot a shot right by Andre Blake for a 1-0 lead.

Gameplan demolished in seconds.

From that point, there was nowhere to go. The Union had boxed themselves into this lineup with no meaningful link from back line to Chris Donovan when they had the ball, which was rare. When they didn’t have the ball, they had no intention of pressuring the pair of center backs Miami deploys. Both of Miami’s center backs are prone to turnovers, particularly Kamal Miller, who was a sitting duck for the Union to take advantage of. Donovan, unable to apply effective pressure as the lone striker, was equally placed in a difficult position, being unable to hold the ball up and get in front of goal for any prospective crosses. Not to mention being forced to press both center backs by himself was a fruitless endeavor.

The first goal, in addition to the miscommunication that dragged Lowe out of position, was also the fault of the usually excellent Andre Blake. Reeling from the dissecting pass, Blake over committed to his near post and Martinez was able to hit the far post with ease. That goal, however, was far less his fault than the second and third, where his typical prowess failed him on a low drive from 30 yards out by Messi was missed and a breakaway by Jordi Alba got passed him.

In both situations Blake is usually stellar, bailing out his defense when they leave him high and dry. In this game, he was particularly ineffective in stopping shots, his biggest strength, but given his track record its hard to hold him too much in account. A bad game from him at a bad time when his team in front of him was set up to fail.

After the second Miami goal, the Union were forced to press a bit more and they did so to mild success. Unable to get much on frame, the Union pushed further and further forward only to allow a counterattacking goal to make it 3-0 as the transition defense once again got caught out of position.

The dismal first half cost the Union the game. The small mentality the lineup ensured sent a message to everyone watching that the Union wanted nothing more than to escape this game, rather than win it. “Survive and advance” is a good mantra when you’re outmatched. In no way shape or form should the Union have felt outmatched in this game. Messi is a wonderful player and has clearly raised his team to new, unimaginable heights, but there are holes in Miami’s defense.

I’m not going to go on a diatribe about Jim Curtin’s seat and whether it should be hot or not. But there are questions that should always be asked of the Union’s coach until otherwise answered. First and foremost, can Jim lead this team to win in big games? Oftentimes the team comes up small in big moments, but never did I feel this team was set up to fail in a big game more so than in this semifinal. In the only final under Jim that the Union played their style and pressed to dictate the game on their terms, they played in the best MLS Cup Final in league history. After last November, I thought Jim learned his lesson.

Another, less existential question regarding the team’s success, when will Jim stop shoehorning his team into fitting “his guys” in the starting XI when there are better, more effective options on the bench? How many times is Jack McGlynn going to have to prove to Curtin that he is a substantially better option than Leon Flach? The 5 in the back strategy was nice in a pinch, but can we please stop pretending Damion Lowe is in the best available 11?

I understand the team has been bitten by the injury bug and the tactical flexibility shown by Curtin this year is wonderful. But this game really highlights the underlying problems of how Curtin and his staff analyze personnel and apply it to our game day selection. The Union aren’t the best team in the league over the last four years because they survived and advanced, it’s because they embraced our small team mentality and created a club culture that was more important than any individual. This loss should serve as another lesson for this team to continue to embrace their identity and not utilize their small team mentality to shy away from big moments. The Philadelphia Union and their fans preach that it’s “us against the world.” That ideology tends to push the team to heights its budget otherwise prevents.

Last night that “us against the world” felt more like the whine of a club who had convinced themselves they already lost.