PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — In the end, winning the regular season was like a consolation prize for the Philadelphia Union.
Despite having the best record in the MLS this season, the Union were knocked out of the playoffs in their first post-season match of 2020 when they fell to New England, 2-0. The same team that was the favorite among many to win the title came out flat and never got in sync.
After blazing through the regular season, head coach Jim Curtin says he saw a different Union squad on the field Tuesday night.
"We weren't ourselves tonight," said Curtin. "We didn’t get the job done. Again, it’s difficult, obviously, because in one-off games you have to be at your sharpest, but we weren’t. It's tough to swallow right now."
The Revolution netted goals at the 26th and 30th marks of the first half. It was like an early round knockout blow in a boxing match. The Union were never able to recover as New England smothered the Philadelphia attack the rest of the match.
After the game, midfielder Alejandro Bedoya could not hide his frustration with his team's slow start, even with over two weeks of extra rest.
"It just wasn’t us," Bedoya said. "I don’t understand what we were doing, but we just weren’t ourselves. Jim said it, too. We just were not ourselves. Our game is meant to transition quick, one-two touches, play pass and move, keeping it simple. We didn't do any of that in the first half. It was ridiculous."
In almost any sport, the playoffs require a higher level of play than the regular season. Teams can have impressive regular seasons only to easily be knocked out of the playoffs early if they can't adjust.
Bedoya says he hopes this loss will serve as a lesson to the players about what is required for a successful post-season.
"It’s one thing to be performing kind of at an elite level during the regular season," Bedoya said, "but playoffs are playoffs. They’re different beasts, and we just didn’t match, I guess, Rev’s effort, and we didn’t stick to our game plan in the first half, and we got punished for it."
The players admitted that, after this game, it will be quite some time before the sting of this defeat subsides. Curtin and his team can look back at 2020 and be proud of their regular season success, but the ultimate goal will have to wait at least another year.
"I think the club took another step forward this season," Curtin said. "But we came up short of that ultimate goal, which was MLS Cup.”