The Philadelphia Union may be in the midst of a rough season but that hasn’t stopped Jim Curtin from interacting with fans in a way that few head coaches do.
On Wednesday, that was taken to an even new level when, following his regularly scheduled press conference with the media, he fielded questions from a young batch of Union fans who were invited to PPL Park to watch practice with their parents.
And these kids may be putting me out of a job soon.
The first question was on formation and whether the Union will play a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 against New England this weekend. Another question was on the goalkeepers, always a hot topic in Union land.
But there were some softballs thrown in there, too. The “press conference” ended with one kid asking Curtin if the Union could play his team with the hard-hitting follow: “Can you come to my birthday party?”
Curtin said he’d be there, and he might not be lying. Remember, this is a coach who gave his 2014 U.S. Open Cup finalist medal to a young fan just because he saw a photo of him crying in the stands -- and then promised to replace it with a first-place medal as soon as he gets one.
He’ll get a chance to make good on that promise on Sept. 30 when the Union host the Open Cup final for a second straight year.
Oh, and he also promised Wednesday that he’d let another kid bring in the trophy to his school’s show-and-tell.
Here are a few more photos from the event: