CHESTER, Pa. — Before the season began, Union head coach Jim Curtin told winger Chris Pontius that he thought he was capable of reaching 10 goals and 10 assists in 2016.
Considering Pontius had only hit double digits in scoring once in his first seven years in MLS and never logged more than five assists in a season, those goals were, well, lofty to say the least.
But clearly, Curtin knew something most people did not.
And following a one-goal, one-assist game in Saturday’s 4-0 pasting of New England, Pontius already has 10 goals to his name while matching his career high with five assists.
“Chris and I, when we sat down at the beginning of the year — it’s going to sound like B.S. now because he’s at the 10-goal mark — but we said 10 and 10, that was our goal for him,” Curtin said. “And we talked about him getting back into our national team’s picture. I think that’s a realistic goal — I think he’s that talented.”
Pontius has never earned a cap for the U.S. national team but was a top prospect called into camps around the time he enjoyed his breakout 12-goal season in 2012.
Returning to U.S. camps will naturally be difficult for the 29-year old. But if USMNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann is paying attention, he’ll see that Pontius is currently the top American goalscorer in MLS and tied for eighth in the Golden Boot race.
Following Wednesday’s practice, though, Pontius downplayed the achievement.
“I mean, there’s a lot of talent in the league,” he said. “Some things have fallen my way this year and I’ve just been able to put them away. There’s a lot of guys who have big numbers in terms of goal-scoring around the league, so it’s cool to be up there with them.”
Pontius will see some of those guys Saturday when the Union host Toronto FC at Talen Energy Stadium (7 p.m., TCN). Leading the charge for Toronto is reigning MVP Sebastian Giovinco, who leads MLS with 15 goals, and longtime USMNT striker Jozy Altidore, who's scored three goals in the last four games.
Is it fun for Pontius to take the field against those kind of players?
“It’s nice to see the league growing with great players in it,” he said. “It’s gotten better every single year I’ve been here. But I’m just trying to win.”
One big sign of that growth is the Union’s recent acquisitions of Alejandro Bedoya and Charlie Davies, two players all U.S. national team fans know well.
A good friend of them both, Pontius also knows them quite well. And he’s excited to play with them in their home debuts this weekend.
“Alejandro is a guy that’s comfortable on the ball in the midfield,” Pontius said. “He gets his head up and for me, it’s a player I can look to combine with and get in behind, especially when he gets space in the midfield. He’ll push the ball pretty hard in the midfield and make backs make decisions where they’re caught flat footed and that’s where us wingers and forwards can make runs.”
“And Charlie can stretch defenses when he comes into games. Especially the last game he came in, he faced a tired defense willing to run into corners and put in the work — that just opens up more space with both of us.”
Pontius added that the additions of Bedoya and Davies will certainly be a huge boost for Philly’s playoff run because they’re “winners that they want in the locker room.” It may also help him set a career high in goals and possibly even contend for the MLS Golden Boot as his career renaissance continues after a few injury-plagued seasons with D.C. United.
“It needs to be said that Chris is a great professional, a great person, and he has fit in very nicely with this group,” Curtin said. “Now, down this last stretch of 10 games, he can even surpass what the goals were from the beginning of the season. That’s what I want him to do.”