PHILADELPHIA — When Chris Pontius joined the Philadelphia Union in 2016, he was at a point in his career when he needed a team to take a chance on him. Before scoring 12 goals that year, Pontius dealt with injuries during the back end of his tenure with D.C. United, which kept some teams away from signing the American midfielder.
“They were something that always kind of hampered me,” Pontius said of the injuries.
But Union head coach Jim Curtin, sporting director Earnie Stewart and technical director Chris Albright put their trust him, he said, and all played a part in keeping him healthy and on the field.
“Those were the two most healthy years I had as a professional,” Pontius said.
Now, Pontius is no longer in Philadelphia, but he will return to the city Saturday night as a member of the LA Galaxy. His familiarity with the Union’s style of play should help the Galaxy prepare for the intraconference clash, scheduled for 7 p.m. ET at Talen Energy Stadium, a place that holds a special spot in Pontius’ memory because of the career resurgence he enjoyed there.
“They helped pave the way for me to play this year in LA and stay healthy,” Pontius said. “I’ve thanked them for giving me that opportunity, because there were a lot of teams that — once you get deemed a player that gets injured often, a lot of teams stay away from you, and they didn’t shy away from me at all. They welcomed the challenge and knew what I could bring as a player.”
The first of Pontius’ two seasons with the Union was admittedly the better one, as he produced 12 goals and six assists, both career highs.
“The first year was the one that I really enjoyed, and I thought you could see that in my play,” Pontius said.
“At one point, even though we had a real young team, we were in first place in the East and got into the playoffs, even though I’d like to have finished the season better with how we went about those last 10 games.”
The 2017 campaign didn’t treat Pontius as well. His production dropped off and he ended up with two goals and six assists.
“Last year, I didn’t feel comfortable in front of the net and that’s on me,” Pontius said. “I had chances to score and just for whatever reason I lacked that finishing quality last year. It was tough for me, especially because I wanted to help the team and I wasn’t doing my job.”
After moving on from the Union during the offseason, Pontius signed as a free agent with the Galaxy. There, he’s achieved success in an underrated role on a roster chock full of superstars, headlined by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
With Ibrahimovic, Giovani and Jonathan dos Santos, Ola Kamara and Romain Alessandrini in the lineup as attacking threats, Pontius doesn’t receive a ton of attention — which has led to some huge goals, including the game-winner against the New England Revolution a week ago.
“It’s quite nice, because a lot of teams forget about me because they focus on all the other talented players we have,” Pontius said. “I fly under the radar a bit, which makes things easier. We’ve got a plethora of options and it makes [Galaxy manager] Sigi [Schmid]’s job hard choosing a lineup week in and week out, but that’s what we’ve got.
“We’ve got that many attacking options and guys that can play a couple different positions and hurt you in a couple different ways. It’s nice. As a coach, it’s a tough decision trying to figure out who to play, but that’s a good problem to have.”
The Galaxy come into Talen Energy Stadium in sixth place in the Western Conference and on a six-game unbeaten run. Despite their recent form, Pontius knows the plan of attack has to be better against the Union than it was a week ago for the Revs at Gillette Stadium.
“This last game against New England, we didn’t have our best stuff there,” Pontius saud. “We did not play our best. If you ask any of our guys, we were horrible. We found a way to win.
“We know we need to play a lot better against Philly if we want to get a result. Philly’s a tough team to play against. They have a good system and they know their roles within it. We have to be a lot more intelligent with how we prepare for this one.”