Union Welcome Seattle To Town In Open Cup Title Match
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The Philadelphia Union are waist deep in the MLS playoff race in the Eastern Conference. But tonight, the focus is on the U.S. Open Cup as Philadelphia hosts Seattle in the finals, looking to win the first trophy in franchise history.
The U.S. Open Cup is an American soccer knockout tournament in the style of the NCAA basketball tournament, open to soccer teams from across the country.
Philadelphia has been red hot since Jim Curtin took over as interim team manager, regardless of whether its been in Open Cup or MLS regular season play. In 16 matches under his leadership they are 10-2-4. That includes a hard fought, 2-2 draw with rival New York on Saturday. in MLS action. So tonight represents a a pretty quick turn around for Philadelphia with a lot on the line, but Curtin says they are ready.
"It's certainly a tricky one, but luckily we have a really deep team," Curtin tells KYW Newsradio. "We have competition at every spot. We were able to rest some of our key guys, our key starters (on Saturday). So we'll have them all ready to go, full of energy. You know Seattle played also, on Friday (3-2 victory over Real Salt Lake), so they will have some heavy legs. They had the flight all the way across the country and they had a really hard fought game against a rival team as well. So it's all fair right now."
Seattle is both very good this season and very experienced in U.S. Open Cup play. The Sounders have the most points in MLS this season, 54, thanks to a 17-7-3 record. The franchise won three straight Open Cups from 2009 through 2011 and they were the runners-up in 2012.
"They are dynamic as can be with (forwards) Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey up top," Curtin says. "They score a ton of goals. They'll be our two main focuses out there. To the casual fan, they're probably the Miami Heat, we're more San Antonio Spurs, we're more the team, where they have the superstars. So we'll see how it goes. We respect them very much, but we don't fear anyone. So we're ready to go."
Curtin is very happy that this match will be played in front of the Sons of Ben and the rest of the Union faithful.
"Home field in the Open Cup is huge," Curtin says. "I played in this competition several times and was lucky enough to play in finals, so lets put it this this way - the two finals we had a home we won, the one on the road we lost."
These two teams met in MLS play back on May 3rd, Seattle grabbing a 2-1 decision.
Jim Curtin
The Union and the Sounders get underway tonight at 7:30pm. Purchase tickets here.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
