CHESTER, Pa. – The Philadelphia Union will get their leading goal scorer back for Saturday’s critical game against the Columbus Crew at PPL Park (7 pm ET; MLS Live).
Both of them.
After Sebastien Le Toux and Conor Casey were sidelined for last week’s 1-1 draw with the Chicago Fire, Union interim manager Jim Curtin said during his weekly press conference Thursday that it “looks like Sebastien and Conor will be ready to go” this weekend.
And with the team having scored just once in its past three games and desperately needing a win to stay alive in the playoff race, it couldn’t come at a better time.
“It’s big,” Curtin said. “Those are the two guys we rode during the course of the year in our best of times. Those guys have contributed with goals. Little injuries have kept them out lately and cooled them off a little bit, but you bank on those guys because they’ve done it for so long. They’ve done it forever in their careers, and they’re guys that score goals when they get opportunities. So we’ll lean on that.”
Le Toux, who has a team-leading 12 goals to go along with six assists this season, sprained his ankle early in the Union’s 1-0 loss to D.C. United on Sept. 27, forcing him out of the game and the next one.
Casey, who’s scored eight goals this year but none since Sept. 6, then had an issue come up with tendonitis in his left knee, forcing Curtin to start reserves Pedro Ribeiro and Fred as two of the team’s top attackers vs. Chicago.
Against the Crew, the Union boss now hopes to go back to starting Le Toux on the right wing that pinches into the middle beside center forward Casey – a formation that led to the team scoring a lot of goals over the summer.
“[Conor] is not a guy I like to bring off the bench,” Curtin said. “If he’s a ready, he’s a guy who I like to start, especially with his knee needing to get loose in a real warm-up as opposed to getting it warmed up to just play 20 minutes at the end of a game. That’s his strength – to be a guy who starts.”
- Find more Philadelphia news at PhiladelphiaUnion.com
Curtin still may still have to tinker with the lineup in other areas as he revealed that playmaker Cristian Maidana missed practice Thursday due to flu-like symptoms and that center back Ethan White, on the mend from a hamstring injury, now has “an unrelated back issue.”
But the manager added that right back Sheanon Williams, who missed last week’s game, is “fine” and that the team is generally far healthier than it was last week.
“We should have our full selection to choose from, which is a positive,” Curtin said.
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
