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Yankees’ loss a win for Union; David Accam has season-ending surgery

Had the Yankees advanced in the playoffs, the Union's regular season finale at NYCFC would likely have been moved out of Yankee Stadium

David Accam has only played a substitute in the Philadelphia Union's last three games.
David Accam has only played a substitute in the Philadelphia Union's last three games. Read moreYong Kim/Staff Photographer

The Yankees' loss to the Boston Red Sox in the American League Division Series had a major impact on MLS, and on the Union specifically.

New York City FC shares Yankee Stadium with the Bronx baseball team, which has an equity stake in the soccer team. Had the Yankees gone on a long playoff run, the Union's Oct. 28 regular season finale at NYCFC would likely have been moved out of Yankee Stadium to another venue.

The Yankee Stadium grounds crew lays sod over the infield for soccer games there. The sod needs three days to properly take hold.

In past Octobers, NYCFC has decamped to the Mets' Citi Field in Queens and the University of Connecticut's Pratt and Whitney Stadium in East Hartford.

While Yankee Stadium's narrower-than-usual soccer setup causes its own headaches, Curtin is happy to no longer face uncertainty about where the game will be. Staying in the Bronx will also benefit Union fans looking to travel to the game.

"I like when the Yankees lose at all times, but to know where you're going to play the game is good," Curtin said. "To have to go to another venue, it just makes it complicated. I think it's not the best look for the league aesthetically [to move the game]. It's probably not what New York City would have wanted. So I think it's good that they can lay the field [and] get things taken care of."

Accam has season-ending surgery

The Union announced that winger David Accam had surgery on Tuesday to fix the lingering effects of a sports hernia operation he underwent last November. Accam will be off the field for eight weeks, effectively ending his season.

Union officials knew about the surgery when the team acquired the Ghana native in January in a draft-day trade with the Chicago Fire. They presumed he'd recover properly, and obviously, so did he. But that didn't happen, which may explain why Accam had such a poor season. After registering 14 goals and eight assists in 2017, Accam had just one goal and no assists this year.

That looks even worse in the context of Accam's $1.25 million salary, which he got in a new contract signed before Chicago traded him here. The Union picked up the contract in the deal.

Curtin said it was Accam's decision to have a second operation.

"He's obviously pushed through and tried to give us everything he could," Curtin said. "It just reached the point where the best option for both sides was to go ahead and clean it up, and have it be a situation where we're proactive, get it cleaned up, get it back to 100 percent, and hope that everything can move forward."

Front office to hold town hall with fans

Some of the top figures in the Union's front office will hold a town hall with fans on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at Talen Energy Stadium.

Chief business officer Tim McDermott, sporting director Ernst Tanner and manager Jim Curtin will take questions. To the team's credit, the event will be streamed live on Facebook. Some past town halls were not recorded, and some were considered off the record.

Fans can sign up to attend the event on the team's website.