Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin has a good problem on his hands.
Homegrown midfielder Anthony Fontana impressed again as he scored the opening goal in the Union's 3-0 win over Inter Miami, after moving into the starting lineup with club captain Alejandro Bedoya suspended. The 20-year-old now has four goals in his last three appearances, spanning just 131 minutes on the field.
With a stacked midfield that includes the regular starting diamond of Bedoya, Brenden Aaronson, Jamiro Monteiro and Jose Martinez, Fontana is giving Curtin another selection headache.
"And as you saw tonight, he’s a very lethal finisher," Curtin said after the game. "We still missed a couple of passes but overall, (I'm) happy for Anthony, the kid continues to produce for us. Everybody’s contributing right now and that locker room is really excited, really happy and they’re really together which is probably the most important thing."
Fontana is just one of a handful of Union Homegrown talents continuing to impress. Aaronson and Mark McKenzie are stalwarts in the starting lineup, while Fontana and Matt Real continue to be hugely useful rotation options.
"It’s awesome. Every minute that us homegrowns step on the field, we always want to make an impact," Fontana said. "And as of late we’ve been killing it. It’s all down to the work we’ve been putting in and we’ve just got to keep it up, it's as simple as that."
Fontana slid into the lineup at the tip of Philly's midfield diamond, with Aaronson dropping deeper into Bedoya's role next to Monteiro. That meant Fontana would often be in direct competition against Miami midfielder Blaise Matuidi, the French World Cup-winning midfielder and former PSG and Juventus star.
"The fact that I was up one-v-one against Matuidi pretty much the whole night was just an awesome experience," Fontana said. "I was up for the test. I really wanted to test myself against him and I feel like I did well."
