Tag: Jim Curtin

Cavan Sullivan becomes youngest MLS player ever, breaking record set by Freddy Adu

Arguably the top young prospect in American soccer is now an MLS record holder

Cavan Sullivan may have just started his pro soccer career, but he’s already made history.

The Philadelphia Union midfielder, aged 14 years and 293 days, became the youngest player in MLS history on Wednesday.

When Sullivan entered as a substitute for Tai Baribo in the 85th minute of the Union’s 5-1 rout of the New England Revolution, he surpassed Freddy Adu, who was a mere 13 days older than Sullivan when he debuted for D.C. United in 2004.

On Tuesday, Union coach Jim Curtin announced that Sullivan would be named to Philadelphia’s gameday squad of 20 on merit.

“He will be in the 20 because he’s earned it, if you look at his performances in the Union II games and the goals that he scored,” Curtin said.

“We are missing a few guys, obviously that goes his way when you have [Jack] McGlynn and [Nathan] Harriel away as well [with the U.S. Olympic team], but Cavan’s earned the right to be in the 20 if you just go through the numbers and he’ll get that opportunity now.”

Sullivan, whose older brother Quinn scored a brilliant goal seconds before his sibling made his league debut, has been biding his time on the club’s MLS Next Pro side, where he has scored in two straight games.

In May, the Philadelphia native signed the most lucrative Homegrown Player deal MLS has ever seen. The deal includes a clause that will see him join Manchester City in 2028, when he’ll be a grizzled veteran at 18 years old.

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Sullivan, 14, nears history after making Philadelphia Union matchday squad

The midfielder will break Freddy Adu’s record for youngest player in MLS history if he enters the match

Cavan Sullivan will be part of the Philadelphia Union’s matchday squad for Wednesday’s game against the New England Revolution, head coach Jim Curtin has confirmed.

It will be the first time Sullivan has made the first team’s matchday roster, and it could be a history-making night at Subaru Park.

If he appears in the game, Sullivan, who will be 14 years and 293 days old, will break Freddy Adu’s record by 13 days as the youngest player in MLS history.

At his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Curtin said that the midfielder has earned his chance to make history.

“Tomorrow he will be in the 20 because he’s earned it, if you look at his performances in the Union II games and the goals that he scored,” Curtin said.

“We are missing a few guys, obviously that goes his way when you have [Jack] McGlynn and [Nathan] Harriel away as well [with the U.S. Olympic team], but Cavan’s earned the right to be in the 20 if you just go through the numbers and he’ll get that opportunity now.”

Sullivan signed the richest Homegrown Player contract in MLS history back in May, which included a clause that will see him join Manchester City when he turns 18.

Since then, Sullivan has been featuring with Philadelphia Union II in MLS NEXT Pro, and has scored in each of his last two matches.

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Who’s next? The top candidates to take over as USWNT head coach

The USWNT job will be a hot topic in the months to come

A cruel summer has left the U.S. women’s national team boarding early flights home, and that means change is on the way.

Head coach Vlatko Andonovski spent most of the last two years under increasing pressure thanks to inconsistent performance levels and some iffy results, and the USWNT will in all likelihood be looking for a new coach in the near future.

U.S. Soccer has made no such pronouncement just yet, and Andonovski declined to delve into his future immediately following the his side’s World Cup exit to Sweden, citing a desire to not hijack a moment for his own needs. That’s a prudent choice from a coach who no matter his stumbles, has placed the team’s needs before his own. It might not stoke the news cycle, but holding off on that discussion is the upstanding thing to do.

However, Andonovski’s tenure has included a series of underwhelming performances at the Olympics that ended with bronze instead of gold, and a three-game losing streak that tied the longest such run in USWNT history. That made this summer make-or-break for Andonovski.

As a prominent philosopher once said, you’re only funky as your last cut, and the earliest World Cup exit in this team’s history means that change is a must. There are issues beyond Andonovski’s control, including a long list of injured stars, but the USWNT job is a “no excuses, just win” role. It’s a safe bet that U.S. Soccer will soon be thanking Andonovski for his services and wishing him well in his future endeavors.

In other words, the discussion is already here. U.S. Soccer is surely going to be working on a preliminary list of USWNT coaching candidates before winnowing it down to a shorter list for first interviews, and so on. Within a few months, they should be introducing a new boss.

Here are some of the coaches out there that have the kind of resume the federation will be interested in.

Curtin disagrees with clubs blocking players from U-20 World Cup

“We’re not Spain, we’re not Germany, we’re not Argentina. We haven’t won a World Cup ever”

Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin has said he doesn’t agree with clubs preventing their players from going to the U-20 World Cup, which starts later this month.

Clubs across the world are facing tough decisions as the tournament draws near. The U-20 World Cup does not fall within a FIFA window, meaning clubs would potentially be losing players for multiple games should they allow them to play in the tournament.

Already, some potentially key American players have been ruled out by their clubs.

On Wednesday, Chicago Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson said the club wouldn’t release midfielder Brian Gutiérrez and goalkeeper Chris Brady. The next day, Croatian club Hajduk Split said it wouldn’t be releasing midfielder Rokas Pukštas.

There was some good news too for the U.S. U-20s, as Atlanta United left back Caleb Wiley said he was cleared to play by his team.

Curtin delivered even more good news on Thursday, saying he would release any of his players who are called. That means the Union will likely be without Brandan Craig, Quinn Sullivan and Jack McGlynn for an extended period.

While confirming his players would be available, the Union head coach said he disagreed with clubs who aren’t allowing players to go to the World Cup.

“Sometimes we get in our own way and act like we’re Europe or South America,” Curtin told reporters.

“We’re not there yet. We’re not Spain, we’re not Germany, we’re not Argentina. We haven’t won a World Cup ever. Let’s try to win every competition at the youth level and show we have great players because we do.”

“Think about the kids too,” he continued. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that they may never get back again. To prevent them from playing in a U-20 World Cup? I’m sorry, I don’t agree with it.

“Maybe I’m in the minority there, but that’s what I believe in and that’s what our club believes in. Any of the guys that [U-20 head coach] Mikey Varas calls in, we will excitedly release them.”

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MLS Madness™ as double-VAR goal helps CF Montreal stun Philadelphia Union

Did you know VAR can VAR itself?

It’s safe to say that Jim Curtin didn’t enjoy the late, er, show at Stade Olympique on Saturday.

The Philadelphia Union boss was left baffled after his side threw away a 2-1 road lead to fall 3-2 at CF Montréal. Julián Carranza was sent off in the 69th minute, and the Quebecois club turned a seeming loss into a stunning win thanks to a goal that went through two different VAR checks, and a 98th minute Romell Quioto winner.

It started well enough for Montréal, who took a third-minute lead. Mathieu Choinière’s shot was handled by Jakob Glesnes, sending Quioto to the spot early. The Honduran had no trouble converting the penalty, giving Montréal their first goal of the season.

The Union weren’t happy with their first half, and wasted no time getting level. Mikael Uhre shot home after just 20 seconds following excellent work from Leon Flach and Dániel Gazdag.

Philadelphia then produced a lovely second, passing their way around the characteristic high press of Hernán Losada’s teams. A series of headed passes fell to José Martínez, whose clever lob opened the game up.

Gazdag then essentially produced a carbon copy of Martínez’s pass, taking advantage of an odd hop off the Big O turf to send Uhre in alone for a brace.

However, Carranza picked up a second yellow card nine minutes later, crashing into Joel Waterman well after the ball was gone.

It was a golden chance for Montréal to break out of a season-opening three-game losing streak, but even as Losada threw in a quadruple substitution to try and get his team some kind of equalizer, shots for the home side were hard to come by. The Union were showing their experience, and seemed set to kill the game off for a hard-earned win.

Montréal had seemingly one last push, though, and produced an unconventional equalizer in the 90th minute. Waterman, a center back, ended up in space on the right wing, and served in a hopeful cross. Choinière, a wingback, found himself in the goalmouth, and despite the attentions of three Philadelphia players, floated a header back against the grain.

The Union were bailed out, as the ball clipped off the crossbar and away from goal. With the game up for grabs, Chinoso Offor simply wanted it more than Glesnes, winning a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge to bundle the ball across the line.

VAR held up referee Nima Saghafi, though: Offor and Sunusi Ibrahim were possibly offside as Choinière’s header went towards goal.

Replays seem to point to a goal coming back, but even after Saghafi booked Losada for urging the game to restart and then checked the monitor, no conclusion came. Saghafi left the monitor after less than 30 seconds, calling the goal off. Montréal captain Victor Wanyama pleaded with an official, and before play resumed, VAR called down again.

The overturned call needed to be checked again…by the guy who had overturned it.

Saghafi took another look, and this time the goal stood. Unsurprisingly, the two coaches had differing takes.

“Luckily for the beauty of the sport and for us tonight they could come back and make the right decision because at the end they made the right call,” Losada told reporters after the match.

Union boss Jim Curtin felt somewhat differently in his remarks, saying “the word s—show comes to mind,” adding that “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”

Answering a question sent by a pool reporter after the game, Saghafi explained the situation:

On the initial review, the defender holding [Offor] onside was off screen. After the initial review occurred, prior to play restarting, the VAR discovered an angle that clearly showed that [Offor] was in an onside position when the ball was last touched by a teammate.

Back to the game, which wasn’t over. Losada’s D.C. United teams were known for going all-out for wins, whether or not that was the wisest course of action. With a home crowd roaring and a short-handed, fatigued opponent, though?

You probably already know where this one’s going: in the eighth minute of stoppage time Choinière was involved yet again, looping a cross to the back post. What started as a battle between Quioto and Union right back Olivier Mbaizo ended with the former easily shedding the latter, and Quioto turned the resulting free header into a dramatic, last-gasp winner.

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John McCarthy came back to haunt Philadelphia Union, giving LAFC an MLS Cup shootout win

One of the heroes of MLS Cup got one over on his old club

You couldn’t script it any better for John McCarthy.

LAFC won their first-ever championship in no small part thanks to the former Philadelphia Union goalkeeper, who came off the bench in the 117th minute of MLS Cup. He would go on to stop spot kicks from José Martínez and Kai Wagner, setting the stage for LAFC to take the wildest MLS Cup of all time by converting three of their four penalty attempts after a 3-3 extra time draw.

“We know what he can do on penalties. We’ve seen it, we train them,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo told reporters after the match, indicating that the team at least considered sending McCarthy in for Maxime Crépeau even if the Canadian had not been both injured and sent off in a late collision.

“Couldn’t happen to a better guy. John is one of the heartbeats of this team,” added Cherundolo, who later referred to McCarthy as “the best number two in the league.”

A Philadelphia native who stayed close to home to attend La Salle University, McCarthy made his pro debut for the Rochester Rhinos, only to parlay that into a deal with the Union in 2015. He spent four seasons with Philadelphia, and while he generally backed up Andre Blake, he did develop cult hero status at Subaru Park for his penalty kick expertise during the club’s U.S. Open Cup runs.

However, the Union let McCarthy walk after the end of the 2018 season, and he had to dip back down into the USL Championship to find the right landing spot. He parlayed a strong season with the Tampa Bay Rowdies into a return to MLS with Inter Miami.

While he picked up a decent number of starts under Phil Neville, he never quite took hold of the job, and he joined LAFC as a free agent in January 2022. Before stepping into MLS Cup and becoming a hero, he hadn’t played a match since an August Leagues Cup Showcase match against Club América. His last competitive minutes, and only official LAFC appearance before Saturday, came nearly six months earlier.

Ilie Sánchez said LAFC “knew how good John is in goal,” bringing up that friendly against the Liga MX giants. On that day, McCarthy saved one spot kick and got his hands to three more attempts. This time, he had just a bit more luck.

Maybe the Union should have seen what was coming. After all, while playing for Philadelphia, McCarthy found himself in a penalty tiebreaker against his old club, Rochester. The result? McCarthy saved three penalties in a round of 16 match that the Union would win.

Later in that same Open Cup run, Jim Curtin was brave enough to bring McCarthy in as a last-second sub for Blake during the final against Sporting Kansas City. McCarthy did stop a Krisztián Németh penalty, but as was the case at the Banc of California Stadium, the Union would come up short.

“Look, soccer gods have a funny way of working,” said Union head coach Jim Curtin with a reluctant chuckle. “We didn’t have Johnny and Gareth Bale being the ones that did us in today. But again, soccer is a funny sport that way. And then, those are the guys that stepped up in a big spot.”

It was a stunning but appropriate end to a completely wild game. Maxime Crépeau’s stomach-turning injury brought McCarthy, one of the substitutes least likely to play on the day, into a match that had been unhinged from the jump. That’s not a recipe for a goalkeeper to have a great day at the office, given how much the position is about poise and composure.

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It doesn’t sound great for Alejandro Bedoya’s chances of playing MLS Cup

The Union captain may be forced to watch the biggest game in club history from the sideline

Philadelphia Union captain Alejandro Bedoya may be forced to watch MLS Cup from the sidelines.

Bedoya started against NYCFC in the Eastern Conference final, but he appeared to re-aggravate the hip flexor strain he’d been battling for more than a month and didn’t make it past halftime.

Speaking at a pre-match press conference on Friday, Union head coach Jim Curtin admitted that the 35-year-old, whom he described as the “heart and soul of our club,” faced an uphill battle to play against LAFC at Banc of California Stadium on Saturday.

“He’s doing everything obviously to be a part of the game,” Curtin said. “We talk about it all the time, you never know when you’ll get another opportunity like this.

“He’s not the youngest, but he’s gotten better and better with the years and he’s had an amazing season for us. So even if it’s for five minutes to close out the game, he wants to be a part of it and he’s going to do everything he possibly can to be prepared for it.”

Should Bedoya feature against the Supporters’ Shield winners, it will almost certainly be off the bench. Even if Bedoya doesn’t play, Curtin still said he’d have a role to play for the Union.

“I can say now it will be difficult [for Bedoya] to start the match,” Curtin said. “It’s literally going to go down to the last minute for him to be a part of the game.

“He’ll still do all the things in the locker room to help us out, to calm the guys down, to get them amped up when they need to get amped up. He’s the heart and soul of our club and if he’s not able to be part of it, I think the guys will have a little extra in there for Alejandro.”

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Jim Curtin says MLS can be the top league in the world by 2026, which as a reminder is only four years from now

Curtin says MLS “is a great place”

It’s safe to say Jim Curtin is high on MLS’s potential.

The Philadelphia Union coach, fresh off of winning the Sigi Schmid Coach of the Year award, told ESPN that he thinks it’s possible for MLS to be right there with the Premier League, the Bundesliga, and La Liga by the time the 2026 World Cup gets underway.

“The stadiums, the facilities, the players that are coming here, the coaches that are coming here, why is it so crazy that by 2026 this isn’t the top league in the world?” asked Curtin.

According to data Pro Soccer Wire has analyzed deeply, 2026 is soon. Becoming one of the world’s best leagues in that timeframe would require MLS to accelerate its progress at a rate beyond anything it has previously achieved.

“I’m going to be the guy that’s going to get in trouble for saying this, but what if this is the league?” wondered Curtin about his future. “People say to me, ‘do you want to go to Europe?’ Europe’s a broad topic,” noting the differences between the world’s biggest clubs and the far more common experiences at the hundreds of top-flight clubs that are not in that select list of a dozen or so behemoths.

“It’s not all as glamorous as Man United or Chelsea.”

Curtin adds context

Curtin expanded on that idea while speaking to reporters during his press conference the day before MLS Cup.

“What I was getting at, I was talking about what this league has the potential to be, a top league in the world, not ‘this league is the top league in the world,'” explained Curtin. “I do believe, with the ownership groups that are here, with the men and women that are in charge that are winners in all their endeavors, with the facilities like you see here, with the locker rooms, the training facilities with the players that are wanting to come here, with the coaches that want to come here, this is a great place.”

Curtin’s experience with the Union makes it easy to see why he’d take that stance. Philadelphia has in recent years built a stadium in Subaru Park, which is right next to the club’s training ground and the home of their top-tier youth academy.

While the Union are routinely mentioned as a model of success on a budget due to their low-end salary spending, Curtin highlighted that money put towards infrastructure and other less heralded aspects of the club can be just as important.

“We spend in a smart way,” said Curtin, citing the pitch at Subaru Park as an example. “The surface that we have, they bought some new, innovative hybrid grass that plays a lot faster. It takes teams, to get used to it, a little while. You look at our goal record at home, like these little things, we are spending a million dollars for that surface.”

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Jim Curtin wins incredibly close 2022 MLS Coach of the Year race

Curtin has claimed the award for the second time in three years

Jim Curtin is the 2022 Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year, but only took the prize by the narrowest of margins.

The Philadelphia Union boss, for the second time in three seasons, was the winner in polling involving players, media, and club general managers. He’s the fifth coach to win the award multiple times, and at 43 is the youngest to do so.

Curtin guided the Union to the top of the Eastern Conference, with his side picking up 67 points and missing out on the Supporters’ Shield only via the games-won tiebreaker. Philadelphia finished the year with by far the best goal difference in the league, a +46 mark resulting from setting club records in goals scored (72) and fewest goals conceded (26). Both marks were best in MLS this season.

He also seemed to find a new gear this year for the Union, who had previously been characterized purely by their pressing tactics and defensive organization. In 2022, those aspects remained intact, and were augmented by a far more dangerous attack that saw Dániel Gazdag, Julián Carranza, and Mikael Uhre each manage to produce at least 19 combined goals and assists.

Despite all that, Curtin won the award by just 0.1% of the vote. While the player and GM votes both leaned towards him, the media ballots broke heavily towards CF Montréal coach Wilfried Nancy. LAFC’s Steve Cherundolo (who won that aforementioned Shield) also ran Curtin close in all three categories. The breakdown gave Curtin 23.57% of the total vote, besting Nancy’s 23.47% mark by less than one percentage point.

Curtin and the Union will be busy this weekend, as they host the Eastern Conference final on Sunday night against NYCFC (8:00pm Eastern, FS1/Fox Deportes).

Watch Curtin get the news at Subaru Park

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MLS can’t let the Philadelphia Union keep playing D.C. United

Stop! Stop! They’re already dead

The Philadelphia Union must be prevented from playing D.C. United any more this year, just for common decency’s sake.

The Union already beat United 7-0 at Subaru Park back in July, a defeat so resounding that it seemed to hasten D.C.’s choice to hire Wayne Rooney and find some sort of path forward in a dismal season.

United got to play host Saturday night, and they suffered an only marginally less catastrophic 6-0 loss. The Union rode some luck to get to halftime up 2-0, but ripped United to shreds in the second half, and in truth could have scored more.

Philadelphia manager Jim Curtin was diplomatic after the match, opting not to rub it in after his team finished the season series with a 13-0 goal difference.

“(United) put a ton into the first 20 minutes of the game. A ton,” Curtin told reporters following the match. “Credit to them, they came out really, really fast, caught us off-guard quite a bit… A couple of plays or bounces here or there, and we’re picking the ball up out of the back of our own net.”

That was a stark contrast from United’s captain Victor Pálsson, who stood in for the suspended Steven Birnbaum at center back.

“Absolutely embarrassing… Individual mistakes, it all goes back to mistakes,” said Pálsson to reporters before taking responsibility for the Union’s first goal. “We just completely collapsed.”

Pálsson called the defeat “one of the worst days of my career” before summing up how United felt about the game. “It’s not acceptable. It was f—…ashamed. I’m ashamed to be captain today.”

The Union got a hat trick from Julián Carranza, and one each from Mikael Uhre, Daniel Gázdag, and Cory Burke. For Carranza, it’s his second hat trick against United in 2022, and Philadelphia has scored over 25% of its 51 goals this season against United.

Rooney was unsparing in his analysis.

“Second half was just not acceptable,” Rooney told reporters. “We lost every second ball, we had players not wanting to take the ball, giving the ball away cheaply. It was completely unrecognizable from a team I manage.”

Rooney said he “purposefully stayed quiet” on the sideline rather than berating his charges. “I wanted to see which players were gonna take responsibility and show some leadership, and the only one was Chris Durkin.”

Mercifully for United, their schedule no longer contains any more Union games.

Watch the Union dismantle United again