Union’s historic comeback win over New York another sign of team’s culture change

If your gut told you Saturday night that you’d never seen anything like the Union’s 3-2 comeback win over the New York Red Bulls, it was right.

Never before had the Union overcome a two-goal deficit to win a game. Only once before had they done anything close, and you have to go back to 2011 to find it: a rally from 4-1 down at halftime to tie the New England Revolution, 4-4.

None of the Union’s current players were on the team back then. Manager Jim Curtin wasn’t even an assistant yet; he was still a coach in the then-nascent youth program.

But there are some old heads around the locker room who’ve experienced a lot in Chester. For players like left back Fabinho, this game really was different.

“I’ve never seen anything like today, no,” he said. “This happens when you have a good group. Jimmy, he has a great group in his hand, all the players. For sure, Ilsinho, he had a great day — for sure, he made a difference — but I think you have to give credit for all the group, all the team, in the second half."

Right back Ray Gaddis, the Union’s all-time leader in minutes played, saw it as more proof of how far this team has come this year.

“There’s a sense that if we go down, we can come back, especially with this team,” he said. “I think that’s the thing that’s changed, and that’s the reason why you haven’t seen something like it in the past or felt that way.”

Gaddis credited sporting director Ernst Tanner for helping to build that belief.

“I think there’s a sense of belief within the whole organization, from the top, from Mr. Tanner, all the way down to Coach Curtin, to our coaching staff, to the players,” Gaddis said. “Everybody believes it can happen. We know we have the quality.”

Fabinho praised the Union’s young players — “the youngs,” he called them — for their contributions.

“The old guys — Haris [Medunjanin], me, Ilsinho, Ale [Bedoya] — they try to push these youngs every day, and you try to say and to show for them,” the 34-year-old left back said. “These youngs get what Jim says, what we the old guys say, and that’s why I think we are strong now."

A 2-0 halftime deficit can test any team, especially one that played the better soccer but got burned on counter-attacks. There was no panic in the Union locker room, though.

“No one was down. Everybody knew that we needed to pick it up,” Gaddis said. “We just got caught on two simple plays that we could have easily prevented, and then we made some adjustments. … That’s good not only on the coaching staff for alerting us and giving us a game plan for the second half, but also the players for responding.”