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U.S. OPEN CUP: HOUSTON DYNAMO vs PHILADELPHIA UNION

September 26, 2018

Jim Curtin

Houston, Texas

Houston Dynamo - 3, Philadelphia Union - 0

JIM CURTIN: First and foremost, congratulations to the Houston Dynamo and Wilmer Cabrera, a deserved result on the night. Difficult for us. Obviously going from the emotion of thinking maybe we had scored a goal into conceding, never really rebounded from that. Our mentality maybe wasn't there on the night. With a team like Houston getting the first goal is key for them because it does open up another team a little bit, they're kind of built for it. Overall, again, thank you to the fans that came and made the travel. Apologies for letting them down. Starts with myself and just on the night it just didn't seem to be that we were clicking on all cylinders, not for lack of effort, the players put in and emptied their tanks for us, but it just seemed like a night where we couldn't, nothing would go in for us. Created a lot of chances, had a lot of shots on goal but maybe weren't able to put one past them.

Q. (No microphone.)
JIM CURTIN: Listen, we win as a team and we lose as a team. As hard as it is to lose a final, it doesn't dismiss the entire work that's been done this season. It's still a very good Open Cup run, it doesn't end the way we want, only one team is happy at the end of this thing, so it's not Austin or one guy, everybody has to stick together and in the hard moments. We had a couple mistakes all over the field tonight, every player made a mistake tonight and our response to those mistakes maybe wasn't strong enough as a group. And again, credit to Houston on the night. Over the course of 90 minutes, they outplayed us.

Q. What do you think was different in the response after Fafa's goal gets wiped out and Manotas scores his first. What do you think was difference in the response that maybe hasn't been there in recent games.
JIM CURTIN: It was a little bit chaotic. I think a few guys went towards the ref just to try to get an explanation. They played pretty fast and it was kind of a scramble from there. If I -- remembering it live now, I still haven't watched it back, but they almost kind of at least kind of scuffs across. It kind of bounces over Austin's foot. Manotas loses Jack and he almost heads the ball upwards and adjusts well.

From there we had a chance or two to get it to 1-1, we don't execute and again, second goal, we had a couple mistakes as well. So again it kind of got away from us, but again I can't say it enough, that Houston deserved the result and we obviously let ourselves down.

Q. Going into the second half you're down two goals, don't quite get the response early on in the second half. What was the rationale behind waiting to make subs?
JIM CURTIN: Yeah, we went to, we wanted to give the guys an opportunity to try to right the first half, give them 15 minutes to try to sort things out. It didn't really come, so we went with -- it wasn't Cory's sharpest night, but he's been excellent for us all year and was just a little bit off tonight so we made the change with Jay. Created some chances there a little bit, had some opportunities, but again, just wasn't meant to be tonight. We got outplayed.

Q. So this is the third time in five years you've gotten to the finals and haven't quite gotten over the hump, so what do you tell fans in a moment like this?
JIM CURTIN: Yeah, it's difficult. In a lot of ways winning a trophy validates the work that everyone at the club has put in and does and we have come up a little bit short of that. So while there is still a lot of good things going on and there's been a lot of praise of what we have done in recent weeks especially, we came up short. And I look at myself first and I'll take the blame for the group for not getting the result and not getting it done in a big match. So while Houston is a good team, it was a game where we were in pretty good form. I think we were the more fresh team and then we just didn't execute and didn't get it done. So I put my hand up.

Q. Do you think the playoff chase impacted your preparations at all and is there a case for the final to be home and away. Obviously your previous games were all at home and then you have to play away in the final?
JIM CURTIN: Are you specific to the Open Cup or specific to the playoffs?

Q. Open Cup.
JIM CURTIN: Listen, I think the rest of the world has a system where the final is at home. We have benefited from having two home matches as well, so there is a benefit there certainly to play a final in your home stadium. Maybe that's more the American way. Could they put it in Las Vegas or some neutral site that people could get to? Obviously, it costs a lot of money to do that, but that's an interesting point you bring up. Obviously we're juggling a league schedule and a Cup run. I'm still proud of the Cup run that we went on. Again, only one team's going to be happy and we came up a little bit short tonight. It doesn't discredit the work that our players put in during this Open Cup run and what they have done in the league. We have used a lot of our squad during this entire season. And then we do have a deep team, we have to bounce back now from adversity, no time to really feel sorry for ourselves. We'll get on the plane right now and get some rest. As hard as it is, the sun will come up tomorrow, we'll have training, we'll have to work on some things and we have another huge game against Columbus on the weekend. So focus now fully shifts to the league. This is heart breaking. This is hard for me to do, I feel sick. But at the same time I have to be a leader about it. It hurts. I apologize to the fans, again, because they came out in big numbers for us to support them, and we let them down. That's part of soccer. You learn from everything. I still think you can learn from these moments, get better from them and move on.

Q. When did you know Ilsinho wouldn't be in the side and what was it like crafting that bench where I know Warren and Derrick have earned a place on the bench, but to only have two attacking options really the way this game progressed, I guess it didn't help probably.
JIM CURTIN: Yeah, listen, Ilsinho wanted to play, he's a competitor. He was disappointed in the decision that the staff and I made. Obviously you want to have fully fit and able bodies. Unfortunately we weren't able to get him minutes leading into the final, so that was a challenge. And we just went with Jay, who had just put in a good 90 minutes and had scored some goals. So it was down to Jay or he Ilsinho. Decision went against Ilsinho. And the main thinking is having not played minutes, his last performance was the five, six-minute shift against Orlando where he had to be pulled, with the potential of overtime and also Borek's kind of ankle being iffy. The ability to now have fully fresh bodies on the bench, fully healthy bodies with he Ilsinho out as tempting as it is to have him because he can change a game, just a question of if now, yeah, you put him in the 70th, he's good for 20, but what if the game goes to extra time and there's another 30. A lot of things were thought about, a lot of things were discussed, it's a hard decision and now in hindsight, yeah, it would have helped to have him. But at the same time I think it was still the right move and we got beat tonight.

Q. (No microphone.)
JIM CURTIN: Yeah, 20 minutes or so. He would probably say a little longer, the medical staff would say 20 to 25. And then at that point you're worried about the extra time, the extra 30 minutes now if he gets stuck on the field or if he goes on the field and injures it, reinjures it right away. It just wasn't tested enough for us to go with it. Hard decision against him but at the same time, not the reason we lost tonight.

Q. I know you already mentioned it, you have a what essentially is a Cup final for a home playoff spot on Saturday. How do you, what do you tell the guys to rebound and how early is that message delivered? Is it on the plane, is it tomorrow morning?
JIM CURTIN: Yeah, we'll get back and still look at the tape, as hard as it will be. Listen, the one thing this group has shown is resiliency. They have bounced back from difficult losses. A final is again, as hard as it gets, but we have to stick together in a tough time and bounce back against a really good Columbus team that is fully rested, waiting for us to go into their building. It will be difficult, but if you look at our last eight games, they have all been really, really difficult, and I think our group will have a good response.

Q. Seemed like uncharacteristically tough game for the back line. We talked about Austin, but Jack, Ray, what do you tell, what do you see from those guys that you want to work on?
JIM CURTIN: Yeah, again, as a team we lost a lot of balls in bad spots tonight, kind of played into what Houston's strength is is crowding the middle, counterattacking you. So we just weren't sharp enough. It's not just the back line, not just the midfield or just the front line, we're all 11 and again we have stressed and our guys know it, all 11 have to be good on the night and tonight we just weren't sharp enough as a team. So it's not any one line or any one player, when we're collectively not all 11 together, it looks like tonight and that wasn't good enough and I know we'll bounce back though from a tough game.

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