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PHILADELPHIA UNION MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 28, 2017

Jim Curtin

Harrison, New Jersey

New York Red Bulls - 1, Philadelphia Union - 1 (5-3 P)

JIM CURTIN: Obviously a devastating loss for the guys. I thought they put a ton into the game. Credit to the fans that showed up and really pushed us on.

Couldn\'t be prouder of the group in terms of the effort that they put in. I thought we had a lot of young players really grow up tonight. Jack Elliott, Adam Najem. Marcus Epps came into the game. That\'s a real fast-paced game, a game that\'s played at a very high tempo.

I thought for the second half and obviously the extra time when we had 13 shots, we showed a lot more fight, heart, grit, whatever your adjective is, balls, guts, we had more of it on the evening.

Again, it\'s tough to come out on the wrong end. Penalty kicks, once it goes there, it\'s a bit of a crapshoot. Had them on the ropes in their building and just didn\'t quite finish them off.

Again, happy with how we played. I think it\'s something to build on. If we\'re able to bring that intensity, I think the second half of the year we could have a very good team.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. (Question regarding chances.)
JIM CURTIN: Meara is a great goalkeeper. He\'s been one of these guys, these young goalkeepers, they kind of have to wait for their shot. Their position is unique in that you need a break here, a red card, an injury, whatever it might be to get your chance. He\'s a guy I\'ve always been high on, and in the past have tried to encourage him to come this way.

He\'s a great goalkeeper. He played excellent. Again, give him a lot of credit. A couple big saves. Obviously in the PKs, he made a big one on Fafa.

A good goalkeeper. When he gets his chance, he did a great job.

Q. (Question regarding how the team responded.)
JIM CURTIN: They\'ve worked their tails off, everybody. Roland Alberg put in an incredible shift in terms of work rate and effort. To a man, you could go through every guy. After the first half, they come out in almost a 3-6-1, a unique formation, took us a little while to get the feel for it. Once we did, I thought we were able to punish them, turn them over. Just disappointed we didn\'t get to finish off the chances.

Character, can come back, this group has that. The Open Cup is a great competition. It needs to be said, these games are wild. Unfortunate not enough people come to watch them, different media outlets or come to the stadiums. Every time we\'ve got together with Red Bull, is been a wild one.

We came out on the wrong end this year, which is difficult. We have to pick ourselves up quickly and get ready for New England.

Q. (Question regarding C.J. and Derrick.)
JIM CURTIN: C.J. got a knock on his knee. Get checked out tomorrow. I think he\'s okay. He was tired at that time, cramping a little bit. He\'s a warrior. Put a ton into the game. I think he\'ll turn around and be ready to go against New England.

Derrick landed awkwardly on the knee. He said it hurt, like a sharp shooting pain at first. As he walked longer on it, it started to dissipate and go away. At the end, he said he probably could have gone back in. I said, That\'s useless to tell me that now.

Again, young players learning how to handle games, manage games. Again, I can\'t stress enough, we had a lot of young kids out there. Bedoya, Andre Blake, two of our best performers aren\'t here. The performance these young kids put all over the field, to be honest. I think a lot of them will take a lot of valuable lessons from this.

Yes, losing is difficult, but you learn the most from tough situations. That was a fast-paced game. Again, we created enough certainly to win. For anybody that watched the game, they will know that. So I don\'t sound like the old complaining coach after the game. We should have won tonight.

Q. Update on Andre.
JIM CURTIN: Andre first and foremost has a rib injury. X-rays were negative. He\'ll be fine. He\'ll be okay. Bothered him enough we held him. Will be available for the weekend.

Fafa put in a great shift. His pressure, ability to run in behind, scares the defense. You could tell their whole back line was cramping up. Just one more ball to bounce our way, he could go at somebody one-on-one.

We had a lot of opportunities where a couple times we shot when we should have passed and we passed when we should have shot. Again, I can\'t fault the guys for their effort, their ability to pin Red Bull in on their home field, take it to them for the better part of, what, 75 minutes, the whole second half, and extra time.

Q. What is the message heading into the weekend?
JIM CURTIN: We\'ll have to regroup, get fresh as quickly as we can. This is why our sports department earns the big bucks. They\'ll have to get guys turned around, ready to go. Lucky it\'s a Sunday game. That helps a great deal.

We\'ll get prepared for Sunday. New England is a tough team, conference opponent. We\'ll be ready to go.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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