Could Jim Curtin have a future with USMNT?
Philly Union's lauded gaffer spoke to the Coaches Convention this month. Curtin talked principles, philosophy, pizza, Bob Bradley's Chicago Fire. One question remains open: could he be a part of 2026?
Curtin is an understated, humble guy. You might already know that. He’s done a whole lot with his opportunities, though. He’s played no small role in the success of Philadelphia Union. And he conceded to JP Dellacamera at this months’ coaching convention, you stop growing if you stay too long in one place.
Now entering his tenth season with his Chester-based club, one wonders: what’s next? Could it involve the US?
Philadelphia Union
Like much else with his team, Jim Curtin is local to the Philly area, and got started (coaching) in the academy back in 2010:
“So I play my last game against David Beckham, we lose in the playoffs, and that was the last game I played in. And now I'm- fast forward six months- and I'm in Philly, playing a version of Red Rover getting balls kicked at me by 18-month-olds. And that was humbling, right. But it was also something that I fell in love with, working with young players.”
Curtin joined the senior team first as an assistant, appointed in November 2012. That’s a role he feels he did a flawed job of the first time. (Humility perhaps at play)
Jim, on the assistant’s “massive” role, and pressures facing a head coach we might not realize:
“The role of the assistant is massive. When I was an assistant though, I think back on some of the things I said to the head coach that I thought were easy and clear decisions. But I was completely wrong in hindsight because I didn't recognize that he had different stresses that I didn't have to deal with, like the media and different things. All the players come to him to deal with maybe off the field stuff, where I was just chiming in with easy solutions. I wasn't really helping him in a lot of ways when I look back and I was wrong a lot.”
When the manager was let go, Curtin stepped in as interim before securing the permanent role in 2014. He’s been there ever since. It’s worth emphasizing: Curtin’s long-running tenure in MLS is unique, surpassed only by Peter Vermes at SKC.
In that timeframe, he took a precarious program to a stable and consistent one, praised for its academy and clear identity. They picked up the Supporters’ Shield in 2020 (first trophy) and fell to LAFC in last year’s MLS Cup—maybe the most entertaining of all time.
At the convention, Curtin divulged the three pillars of the program he helped build:
Build from within: This will come as no surprise. Developing talent through the academy to the first team has been key to Philadelphia’s success. It’s an ethos that builds toward the first team and then beyond it, as players like Brenden Aaronson and Mark McKenzie have done. Importantly, it applies beyond the players:
“Our foundation is our academy. We want to build from within, that's not just players. That's also now our coaching staff, our scouts, our sports performance department. We want people internally to work their way up from the Academy to the first team. I was an example of doing that.”
11 cohesive players can beat superstars: the David vs Goliath mentality is strong with Philadelphia Union, and they don’t see themselves as Goliath. There’s some top talent on the squad, but they don’t spend their way into superstars. And truly, as multiple players have told me many, many times: no one is bigger than the team.
“A cohesive unit can beat any group of individual talent and a group of superstars. Right? That's something that's in all of our players DNA. Yes they might sign Zlatan or David Villa, but our guys together with a plan can beat anybody, we really believe in that.”
Leader in innovation: fitness, analytics, scouting.
As innovators emerge, observers take note and adapt those principles too. That happens within leagues as well as internationally. Heck, that’s what happens in any competitive field, including media.
Something Jim harped on a few times is an all important question: when everyone has access to all the information, what separates you?
This is where continued innovation comes in. For Curtin, relationships are the difference too. Beer and pizza, meet UPenn interns.
Curtin was flying through these slides. He didn’t touch on everything listed. But the “innovation and culture” slide included: drones, sports performance skills corner, scouting/mining untapped countries and markets, data companies, UPenn interns, talent recruitment/Villanova Hoops, and finally, beer and pizza.
Jim spoke at some length on the University of Pennsylvania students, who pore through data for the team, and help identify strategies to win:
“But the innovation ideas, again, we're finding unique ways to win. And I can look at all those things. We have geniuses at the University of Penn that come in and can actually break down- these kids are unbelievable- mathematically break down where the weaknesses of the opponent is. We look to them to find advantages on the field.”
More on beer and pizza later.
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