That acknowledged as a side-entrance variety of compliment, the last 12 months did include a Super Bowl, an MVP, an NLCS, plentiful star-level players and ownership willing to inside-out pockets to acquire talent.

Could have been worse. At least no one was willing to postpone winning in order to draft Jahlil Okafor.

So before it fades into the mist as another parade-free waste of parking-lot fees, here is the top 10 list of sports figures who made 2023 captivating on or around Pattison Ave. For the record, the individual who decided Craig Kimbrel deserved his own cockamamie light show finished dead last.

1. Jalen Hurts: While there is no printed rule for choosing the essential Philadelphia Sports Figure of the Year, having an MVP candidacy and leading a team to within a possession of a Super Bowl championship works. And while the Eagles’ quarterback finished the year performing as something less than the highest-paid footballer ever, as he was for a moment earlier this year, he still has the Eagles likely to finish 13-4 and contend in more games that end in Roman numerals.

2. Joel Embiid: Don’t remember who first declared in print six years ago that the center was the most talented player, skill for skill, ever to play for the Sixers — wait a minute, it was right here — but by 2023 there was no disputing Embiid was the best player in the NBA. Finishing as the leading scorer for a second consecutive season, Embiid was named the 2022-23 MVP, then went on a statistical rampage of historic proportion to help the 2023-2024 Sixers win 21 of their first 30 games.

3. Howie Roseman: After stitching together the Eagles’ second Super Bowl team in six years, the most effective personnel director in the NFL chased the achievement with a Draft Night for the ages, winding up with the player said to be the best in the draft in Jalen Carter and a linebacker he wanted in Nolan Smith, while rolling some capital to Detroit for D’Andre Swift to upgrade the running game.

4. Bryce Harper: It is one thing for a player to blabber about how hard he wants to play in order for a city to enjoy a championship. It’s another to insist on coming back from complicated elbow surgery in such record time that hair-combing still brings pain, then learn another position, then bang clutch, late-inning hit after clutch, late-inning hit to push a team into the postseason.

5: Tyrese Maxey: In addition to his continued rise to All-Star-level backcourt play, the 21st overall pick in the 2020 draft came to embody the reality that it takes scouting instincts — not lost games — to add franchise-changing talent. Nightly displaying breathless joy for his job, he’s made himself into a reliable three-point shooter and is maturing into a winning point guard.

6: Nick Sirianni: Only four coaches have led the Eagles to a Super Bowl, and he did so by winning 14 games in just his second season largely by committing to and benefiting from the development of Hurts as an MVP candidate. And even if he did take it one Sixers throwback jersey too far, he did exhibit an appreciation for the city and its sports history.

7: Dan Hilferty: After too many years of lost leadership and cheap, rarely to be delivered promises, Comcast-Spectacor finally turned to a proven business leader with a life-long grip on what works in Philadelphia to restore relevance to the Flyers. That, he did by trusting the institutional knowledge of Keith Jones and Daniel Briere while promising to rebuild without tanking. By December, the Flyers already had their image cleansed. To boot, the Saint Joseph’s grad breathed life into the wheezing Big 5 with a one-day, Wells Fargo Center tournament successful beyond expectation.

8. Jaron Ennis: At 26, he scored impressive victories over Karen Chukhadzhian and Roiman Villa — who were a combined 47-2 — to finish the year as the IBF welterweight champion. At 31-0-0, the North Philadelphia product was named Philadelphia’s Most Outstanding Pro Athlete by the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association.

9: Jim Curtin: As he has through his nine-plus seasons in charge, he did more with less and managed the Union into its sixth consecutive postseason, reached the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League and finished third in Leagues Cup play.

10: Zack Wheeler: He struck out 212 batters in 32 games, earned a Gold Glove and allowed six earned runs over three postseason starts, reinforcing his status as one of baseball’s more reliable and dominating starting pitchers.

Next up, 2024. Nick Nurse and John Tortorella already have their hats in the ring. Hats are never the problem, though. Rings are.

Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com.

Philadelphia will open the MLS season Feb. 24 against the Chicago Fire at Subaru Park. The only visit from Messi’s Inter Miami squad will be June 15, five days before Argentina is scheduled to open Copa America at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Union visit Miami on Sept. 14, on the heels of an international break where Messi and Argentina will play World Cup qualifiers against Chile and in Colombia.

The Union play their first game of the season in all competitions on Feb. 20, traveling to Costa Rico to face Deportivo Saprissa in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. The return leg is the following Tuesday in Chester.

MLS will break for the Leagues Cup from July 26-Aug. 25. Decision Day is scheduled for Oct. 19. MLS Cup will be played on Dec. 7.

The Union’s schedule is heavy on Western Conference opposition early, with all six inter-conference games before the end of April. The Union visit Sporting KC, Portland and Austin, the latter a first ever meeting with the three-year-old club. Seattle visits Subaru Park on March 9 for the first time since 2019, with Minnesota and Real Salt Lake also coming to town.

The Union take on reigning Supporters’ Shield winner FC Cincinnati in Chester on Decision Day. The club has three straight home games in the summer – Toronto May 29, Montreal June 1 and Inter Miami on the 15th.

Four days after that, the Union travel to Cincinnati for one of three national TV dates. (The others are April 14 at Atlanta and Sept. 22 against D.C. United.)

The Union visit MLS Cup winner Columbus on Oct. 5, the penultimate game of the season and after a midweek trip to Orlando City.

The Union selected Penn forward Stas Korzeniowski, Stanford midfielder Zach Bohane and goalie Francesco Montali of Boston University.

All three are longshots to make the first team, which the club last week bolstered with the signing of Homegrown midfielder Nick Pariano and left back Isaiah LeFlore. The Union have 27 players under contract for next year, which does not include the draftees, who are more likely to begin with Union II.

Korzeniowski came off the board at the 53rd overall pick, in the second round. He has the measurables, a 6-4, 193-pound forward. He led the Quakers with eight assists and 20 points to go with six goals, second on the team. The New Jersey native and Pennington School grad was first-team All-Ivy as a sophomore with 11 goals and seven assists. He was a second-team pick this year after being named second team All-American as a sophomore.

Bohane, the 63rd overall pick early in the third round, is a sophomore from Monte Serena, Calif. Part of the De Anza Force club, he traveled internationally in his youth. The 5-10, 150-pound midfielder played in 17 games as a freshman before a super sophomore season, with eight goals and 11 assists for the Cardinal, who made the Elite Eighth before falling to national champion Clemson.

Montali, picked No. 82 overall, is a 6-3 senior from powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida. The two-time Patriot League goalie of the year led the Terriers to their first league title in 2023, with a .737 save percentage and 0.83 goals against average. He started his college career at Florida International before three seasons and 47 games at BU with a 0.99 GAA. He’s spent time with the youth teams of the New York Red Bulls and Orlando City.

The Union made three selections in the 2023 SuperDraft, but only goalie Holden Trent made the roster, without appearing in a league game. The last player drafted by the Union who appeared in an MLS game for them was Jack Elliott, picked in 2017.

The Union traded their first-round pick to Inter Miami in the package that landed Damion Lowe. They acquired a third-round pick from Austin in exchange for Brandan Craig’s late-season loan, used on Bohane.

The Union’s more consequential move Tuesday was signing forward Chris Donovan to a new contract. The 23-year-old will stay with the club through 2025 with club options for 2026 and 2027.

Donovan had a goal and an assist in 18 MLS games (four starts). He played 29 games in all competitions with four goals, including the clincher to send them to the Leagues Cup semifinal and to advance from the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs.

He also had six goals and three assists in 11 starts for Union II.

The graduate of Conestoga and Drexel University was drafted 68th overall by Columbus in the 2022 SuperDraft and acquired by the Union on waivers.

The Venezuelan midfielder signed a deal stretching through 2026 with a team option for 2027.

Bueno made 24 league appearances in 2023, including 10 starts, after just 41 total minutes in the last two seasons. He made 34 appearances and 16 starts in all competitions, scoring two goals and three assists in the Leagues Cup and converting in two penalty kick shootouts in that tournament.

Along the way, Bueno earned a pair of callups to the Venezuelan national team.

“Jesus’ growth and development over the last two seasons is a testament to his work ethic and potential,” said Union Sporting Director, Ernst Tanner. “He has proven to be an important piece to our midfield; aggressive and advantageous in our transition on attack. We’re happy to be able to reward him with a new contract.”

Originally signed by the club in 2021 from Deportivo Lara, it took the 24-year-old time to adapt, but that patience has paid off.

The Union have yet to announce end-of-season roster decisions. Kai Wagner, Joe Bendik and Alejandro Bedoya are among those out of contract. Bueno had been entering his final option year. Several other players, including Damion Lowe, Olivia Mbaizo, Leon Flach and Julian Carranza, are in that same position.

The Union thought that a goal by Yerson Mosquera in the fourth minute of stoppage time would be waved off, with defender Ian Murphy, who headed the pass to Mosquera, in an offside position.

Video review did not concur, though the evidence presented on the broadcast offered little definitive proof. While the broadcast hinted at a “definitive angle” that showed Murphy onside, a club source said the Union had not been provided with that.

A spokesperson for the Professional Refereeing Organization, which comprises MLS refs, confirmed no such footage exists.

“While no angle was available to the VAR that showed definitively that Ian Murphy was onside, the standard in MLS has always been that the on-field decision is correct unless there is clear evidence that an error has been made,” a spokesperson said in response to questions.

Mosquera’s goal powered a 1-0 Cincinnati win, sending the Supporters’ Shield winner to this week’s Eastern Conference final, where it will host in-state rival Columbus. Despite both teams missing several regulars, the Union managed to stalemate the game and won the expected goals battle, but they couldn’t find a breakthrough.

It looked like they would be spared on a coverage breakdown on Cincy’s late free kick. MLS MVP Luciano Acosta squared the ball to an uncovered Alvaro Barreal, and the late response from the Union warped the team’s defensive structure. It allowed Murphy to receive Barreal’s service unmarked and Mosquera to be afforded too much space to take it down and blister a shot into the far side netting.

But Murphy looked like he had drifted into an offside spot.

“We have an iPad, obviously, on the bench,” Union manager Jim Curtin said after the game. “Every player that saw it, every coach that saw it said, don’t worry it’s offsides, it’s offsides, it’s coming back, (Murphy) is offsides. It’s also why we didn’t have a change up immediately, because it was so clear to everybody that was telling me. Again, I think the word that we got from the center referee was that they did review it and it was deemed onside.”

A brief check by video assistant referee Kevin Stott saw nothing amiss, and referee Ismail Elfath allowed the game to restart. Crucial for the moment is that Stott was tasked by the video review interpretation less at onside or offside than at if there was an error in the original ruling by assistant referee Cameron Blanchard.

“Since the decision by the on-field officials was that the attacker was in an onside position, the VAR needed to find conclusive evidence that he was offside to recommend a review,” continued the PRO statement. “With the angles that were available to the VAR, there was nothing that was able to clearly demonstrate this. Therefore, the VAR confirmed the on-field decision, and the goal was awarded.

“If offside line technology was available to the VAR, it would show that this was an extremely tight decision. With no camera directly in line, it is impossible to say definitely that this is onside or offside.”

The offside decision was narrow, which left broadcasters Steve Cangialosi and Danny Higginbotham wondering how it wasn’t called back. Cangialosi mentioned on that broadcast that VAR had access to angles that the Apple TV broadcast did not, but that appears not to be the case.

It’s another dour season ending for the Union. They fell in penalty kicks after Gareth Bale scored an equalizer in the 120-plus-8 minute in last year’s MLS Cup final and lost an Eastern Conference final at home to New York City FC in 2021 after the club had 11 players ruled out with a COVID-19 outbreak.

The Union lost in the semifinals of three competitions this year, losing a two-leg tie in the CONCACAF Champions League to LAFC and to Inter Miami at home in the Leagues Cup.

What he did know, as he sat in the locker room in Cincinnati, was that his Union’s season was over, a 1-0 loss in the Eastern Conference semifinals thanks to a Yerson Mosquera goal that looked to everyone on the Union sideline like it should not have counted.

The visual evidence didn’t move either referee Ismail Elfath or video assistant referee Kevin Stott, who ruled Murphy at least even with the final Union defender when he rose to deaden Alvaro Barreal’s cross into the path of Mosquera, leading the Supporters’ Shield winners into next week’s Eastern Conference final. Whatever definitive proof the Professional Refereeing Organization had, it wasn’t shared on the game broadcast, or with the Apple’s announcers who were less than convinced.

“We have an iPad, obviously, on the bench,” Curtin said. “Every player that saw it, every coach that saw it said, don’t worry, it’s offsides, it’s offsides; it’s coming back, (Murphy) is offsides. It’s also why we didn’t have a change up immediately, because it was so clear to everybody that was telling me. Again, I think the word that we got from the center referee was that they did review it and it was deemed onside.”

It adds another heartbreaking postseason loss to the Union’s painful collection. The fourth seed went to Cincinnati, in a matchup of two teams missing significant contributors, and played even with the best team in the league. The final stats show 16 Union attempts to Cincy’s 11, six Cincinnati shots on target to the Union’s four, and a slight expected goal edge to the Union. But a result wasn’t to be.

They weren’t bailed out on a tactical breakdown on the final free kick, taken by Luciano Acosta 40 yards out. Instead of playing it into the mixer, he squared to an open Barreal, who had no one pressuring him and could pick his pass. Murphy, potentially straying over the offside line, was in that space. And Mosquera, his fellow center back, controlled the ball and beautifully finished into the far side netting.

It builds on the Union’s recent heartbreak. Despite leading MLS in regular season points the last four years, the Union lost their first playoff game in 2020 after winning the Shield. They lost an Eastern Conference final in 2021 on home turf when 11 regulars were ruled out by a team-wide COVID outbreak, then lost MLS Cup final in 2022 when Gareth Bale scored the latest goal in MLS history in the 120-plus-8 minute and then were blanked in a penalty kick shootout by Philly native John McCarthy.

The phantom offside won’t be alone in the haunting annals.

“That’s what pro sports are,” Curtin said. “It only ends perfect for one team. There’s 29 teams in our league, so it’s really difficult to win and get over that final hump. Our group punches above our weight. My players give everything, they absolutely give everything for the badge, give everything for the fans. And we’re underdogs in the majority of our big games.”

Curtin felt his team had done enough to earn extra time. Cincinnati played without suspended center back Matt Miazga. Starting right back Santiago Arias and central midfielder Obinna Nwobodo failed last minute fitness tests, leaving former Union players Ray Gaddis and Alvas Powell to start.

The Union mainly muted Acosta, the presumptive MLS MVP. Andre Blake made five saves, the most difficult a dipping drive from outside the box from Aaron Boupendza in the 34th minute. Boupendza hacked down Jose Martinez in the second half, causing his exit.

Nathan Harriel, deputizing for Kai Wagner at left back, gave the Union their best chance, stinging the hands of Roman Celentano with a drive from the top of the box in the 86th.

“Overall, I think we created enough on the road to get a result,” Curtin said. “I thought it was going to be a situation where a 0-0 gets you to extra time and we go from there. I thought we had a little bit of momentum toward the end of the game, but the play, the restart changes things, and it hurts.”

The Union head into an offseason of uncertainty. They do so having played 51 games over nine months in 2023, with 23 wins in five competitions with no trophies to show for it … save for one last instance of knockout soccer disappointment.

“It’s hard to be the champion,” Curtin said. “I’ll sign up to be playing in the big games over being at a club in complete disarray that has no chance to ever compete for anything. There’s about 25 of those in our league. I prefer to be where we are and playing in these games and winning.”

The last two MLS defenders of the year and the league’s best left back will be among the missing.

But ever the hard-won optimist, Jim Curtin chose to see that as opportunity. Playoff wins, his team has proven, are rarely sealed by the most likely of faces. And absences, viewed in one particularly rosy manner, clear the way for unlikely heroes to emerge.

“While yes, there are a lot of players that will miss this game, there’s still good depth on both teams,” Curtin said Friday. “Oftentimes in playoffs, you need someone to step up, someone to surprise you. Maybe it’s a timely goal off a restart from a guy you don’t expect. That’s just how playoff runs go.”

The fourth-seeded Union and Supporters’ Shield winning Cincinnati will look different when they take the field than either coach would prefer for a game of season-defining magnitude. Pat Noonan, the former Union assistant named MLS Coach of the Year this week, will cope with changes on the Cincinnati backline after MLS Defender of the Year Matt Miazga’s frivolous red card in the first-round clincher at New York. Already with Nick Hagglund done for the year, Noonan has only two true center backs to work his preferred 3-5-2, a system so effective that he’s unlikely to deviate.

That means either of a pair of former Union right backs, Alvas Powell or Ray Gaddis, could be drafted into the center. The other may start anyway if veteran Santiago Arias doesn’t pass fit, as he and midfield destroyer Obinna Nwobodo battled for fitness in the 21 days since Cincy last played.

The Union’s 18-day hiatus has served to restore some fitness, though little tactical work with six players on international duty. Kai Wagner will serve the second of his three-game suspension for a racial slur in the first leg of the New England series. But Jakob Glesnes could be back, the 2022 MLS defender of the Year making the most of recuperation time from an Oct. 24 sports hernia surgery.

“Jakob’s a warrior,” Curtin said. “He wants to be on the field. He wants to help the team in any way possible, whether it’s as a reserve, whether it’s in the locker room to help the guys to keep them motivated. He’s a great leader.”

Falling to a similar procedure is Leon Flach, who exacerbated his core muscle in an eight-minute stint in Foxborough two weeks ago. Since missing eight games for treatment in Germany to ward off surgery, he’s played 33 minutes in the last three. Curtin said his procedure is less intensive than Glesnes’ and didn’t rule out Flach, whose goal decided a 1-0 playoff win over Cincinnati last year in Chester, from taking part in MLS Cup in three weeks.

The Union’s internationals returned from their duties without issue. All arrived Thursday, which gave the club a singular training session Friday to prepare tactically. It’s the final indignity of the MLS playoff slate, a lengthy break where little can be actually accomplished in the way of game-planning.

“We did our best to send video clips, to remind them while they’re away with their national teams that we have a big game coming up with Cincinnati, just to keep that in their minds and give little things to work on,” Curtin said. “…  It’s not so much the length of time between games, it’s not having the human beings physically here to prepare.”

Fortunately, the meeting with Cincinnati is simple on paper, boiling down to well-worn matchups. Both teams will use two forwards to occupy the center backs. Both teams have an MVP-caliber No. 10 who will match wits with an elite No. 6 (Luciano Acosta vs. Jose Martinez, Daniel Gazdag vs. Nwobodo). The Union midfield, likely Alejandro Bedoya and Jack McGlynn on the outside of the 4-4-2 diamond, must account for late runners in the box, either Nwobodo’s midfield mate (probably Junior Moreno) or an underlapping wingback. All of it requires being steady on set pieces, and for the Union, not fouling near the box where Acosta’s dead-ball ability can punish them.

Curtin knows his team has to stay disciplined, not letting what promises to be a physical encounter boil over.

“I think both groups, and I think it’s a healthy thing, are really competitive guys, both players and staff,” Curtin said. “We want to win, and sometimes that can teeter right on the edge. The key is not taking that too far and picking up silly yellow cards. You still want good hard challenges in midfield. You still want big plays in both boxes. But you have to be right on that edge of not hurting your team.

“Finding that right balance of intensity, keeping a level head, yes having it be chaos for sure and trying to create chaos, but having it be a controlled chaos where we’re still disciplined and playing within ourselves, that’s a very fine line. It’s what both teams will be trying to execute.”

The games between them have generally lived up to that standard.

“I think we all have the same preparation in wanting to win against them,” Union defender Jack Elliott said Tuesday. “There’s a little extra, too, because I think it’s slowly becoming a rivalry. It’s always intense and can always have big moments and explosive moments. I think it’s about having the right start, being up for the game and not letting it boil over too much.”

Cincinnati enters Saturday’s Eastern Conference semifinal (8 p.m., AppleTV) as the top seed and Supporters’ Shield winner. General manager Chris Albright and newly crowned MLS Coach of the Year Pat Noonan, both Union alums, led the perennial bottom-feeder to the playoffs last year and to its first trophy this year.

Their games have often been memorable. Last year’s playoff game was won in the 59th minute by Leon Flach’s only goal of the season. Cincinnati drew in Chester, 2-2, on Sept. 16, the Union squandering a 2-0 halftime lead to kick off a stretch of five straight draws. The Union lost to Cincinnati, 1-0, on April 8, a game sandwiched between legs of the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals against Atlas in which the Union didn’t have their strongest squad available but piloted a 3-5-2 formation that became a viable alternative in the second half of the season.

Cincinnati avoided defeat in its two meetings with the Union in the 2022 regular season, tearing them apart, 3-1, at TQL Stadium on Aug. 6. The Union drew with Cincinnati on June 18 in Chester, 1-1.

The teams share plenty of personnel connections. Albright acquired Sergio Santos from the Union, though the Brazilian forward has slid to fourth on the depth chart. Either Ray Gaddis or Alvas Powell will likely play a major role in Saturday’s game, with Cincinnati down two center backs in Nick Hagglund (injury) and MLS Defender of the Year Matt Miazga (suspended).

In addition to being two of the best teams in the East since the beginning of last season, the clubs are also two of the most secure in their on-field identities. Noonan’s personnel has flourished in the 3-5-2, allowing MVP favorite Luciano Acosta free rein to pull the strings beneath of a forward pairing of Brandon Vazquez and either well-traveled MLS veteran Dominique Badji or talented but volatile DP striker Aaron Boupendza. The latter changed the last meeting between the teams when he was subbed on at halftime.

The Union have returned to principles with the 4-4-2 diamond. They pride themselves on being tough to break down, and Saturday’s affair will come down to the individual matchups the tactics dictate. Jose Martinez will be shadowing Acosta. Elliott and center back partner Damion Lowe will be responsible for neutralizing the forwards. Daniel Gazdag will have to push his way past the defensive midfield presence of Obinna Nwobodo, who is working back from an injury.

“At this point, most every team knows how every team plays,” Elliott says. “I think it’s all about just winning individual battles all over the field. I think that’s what decides the game. It’s most likely going to be one moment that wins it. I think that’s what we always have to keep in mind.”

Both teams enter this round of the playoffs having swept their best-of-3 first-round series, the Union over New England, Cincinnati over the Red Bulls. Consequently, they’ve endured lengthy layoffs through the November international break, 21 days for Cincy and 18 for the Union.

Jim Curtin’s stock response about Cincinnati, in addition to fondness for his work with Albright and Noonan, is that both teams bring out the best in one another. For all the mysteries that the MLS Cup playoffs bring – the new formats, the layoffs, the international-break challenge – both teams have the power to deliver consistency in their performances. That’ll be the hope of both coaches for Saturday’s encounter.

“It’s always the height of an athlete’s career to test themselves against the best,” Elliott said. “I think these sorts of games always bring the best out of our players. Hopefully we can match up to that this weekend.”

“Everywhere he’s been, he’s been a winner,” Curtin said Tuesday at Union training, ahead of matching wits with his former assistant in Saturday’s Eastern Conference semifinal. “He brought that here to Philadelphia, and now to see him do it in Cincinnati, I’ll just say I’m the least surprised of anybody.”

Noonan, in his second season in charge of FC Cincinnati, led the team to the Supporters’ Shield with a league-best 69 points. He received 41.32 percent of player votes and 56.1 of the club vote. Only in media balloting did he finish second, and only marginally to Bradley Carnell of St. Louis City, 39.88 to 37.57.

Noonan took home 45 percent of the total voting. Carnell, who led St. Louis City to first place in the Western Conference in its expansion season, finished second with 27.78 percent. Third was Columbus’s Wilfried Nancy, who finished second last year with Montreal.

Noonan and FC Cincinnati sporting director Chris Albright, another Union alum, have orchestrated a monumental turnaround in the Queen City. Cincinnati was dead last in MLS in each of its first three seasons. Then Albright and Noonan brought it to the playoffs last year – where it won a first-round game before losing to the Union, 1-0 – then sealed a first piece of hardware with little drama this season.

For perspective on the job Albright and Noonan have done, FC Cincinnati had 60 points combined in its first three seasons (even though 2020 was a shortened schedule). It had 49 last year and 69 this year.

“Incredible season for Pat,” said Curtin, who won Coach of the Year in 2020 and 2022. “In a quick amount of time, you see how great of a leader he is in Cincinnati in really turning that whole franchise around with Chris. They’re a sleeping giant, and I think it starts always at the top with the leadership of Chris. And Pat, now, for him to get the recognition for his team’s success is something that makes me really, really proud. It’s as proud as I get for any of my players. It’s as proud as I get for any victory.”

Noonan played 188 MLS games over a decade with five clubs, mostly New England. The forward was capped 15 times by the U.S. national team. He ended his career with the LA Galaxy in 2012, where he served as an assistant through 2016. After a year as an assistant for the U.S., the Union hired Noonan in 2018. He was with the club through 2021, helping win the Shield in 2020.

Noonan and Curtin will meet in the postseason for the second straight year Saturday when the fourth-seeded Union visit TQL Stadium (8 p.m., AppleTV).

John Tortorella should be Coach of the Year in the NHL.

Nick Nurse should be Coach of the Year in the NBA.

Jim Curtin is the sitting MLS Coach of the Year.

All right, it’s early, even in an NFL season with 41 percent of the games still to play. At that level, all coaches are one losing streak away from a plane dragging a banner demanding that so-and-so must go. But on a weekend set aside for the purpose, Philadelphia sports fans should be thankful for such a rare convergence of coaching wisdom on Pattison Ave., west of Broad.

Not that Doc Rivers didn’t win games, but Nurse has bettered the locker-room atmosphere, defensive commitment and ball-movement to set the Sixers on an early pace to win 63 games.

Not that the Flyers are ready to inspire the placement of tin-foil Stanley Cups on every lawn in the region, but Tortorella has taken less than two years to rid his roster of players otherwise assumed to be special while pushing his club close to the front of the Metro division race.

Sirianni wins all the time and, with a victory in Kansas City, has shown his team is championship-ready.

Curtin has done more with less for 10 years than any other coach in his league and in modern Philadelphia sports history.

A title from one of them would not be rejected. But that takes a little luck. All that has been proven recently, though, is that Philadelphia has assembled enough sports brainiacs to preserve that hope.

• • •

You get the lion up on his hind legs featured in every family crest?

• • •

Unless the NFL forgets why it exists, the tush-push will become illegal by next season.

Nothing against the Eagles, who have run it to near-perfection for two years, but the short-yardage endeavor has robbed fans of a genuine football treat: A tense, evenly matched, fourth-and-inches defensive stand.

If the rule is not changed, every coach will find a way to run the play as successfully as the Eagles. It’s just how natural selection works in sports. But the NFL – and all pro and high-level college sports – exists to provide entertaining suspense. Once that begins to be chipped away, there is less reason to charge admission.

Free the goal-line stand.

• • •

John Middleton this week invested $172,000,000 in a 30-year-old 12-9 pitcher with a 4.46 ERA who just surrendered 32 home runs in 32 starts and has a history of fading late in seasons.

Aaron Nola is a good teammate with strikeout stuff who would not be out of place in any championship-level rotation. So good for him – and good for Phillies fans – that ownership will overspend for a pitcher inching closer to No.3 status than to re-establishing himself as an ace.

• Mere days after the Phillies were ousted from the NLCS because Rob Thomson wouldn’t budge from his agenda, Johan Rojas was essentially demoted to the bush leagues and Craig Kimbrel was effectively told to schedule an Uber.

That’s the same Rojas who Thomson refused to pinch-hit for in Game 7, and the same Kimbrel he insisted on using in late-season, high-leverage situations to disastrous results.

In related news, Thomson will be allowed to wander into the 2024 season on an expiring contract.

• • •

If you have to promote yourself in the process, giving away Thanksgiving turkeys is not an act of generosity. It is an over-played publicity stunt.

• • •

Head coach Jim Harbaugh was suspended for three games after the Big Ten ended an investigation into an alleged University of Michigan football signal-stealing scheme.

But no matter what allegations strike certain college sports programs, the boosters will demand more. That is, whatever Michigan – for instance – is accused of doing, 107,601 will show up at the next game, buy overpriced swag and make fun of the losing team that didn’t steal any signs.

The only way bad deportment will end is if it proves to be humiliating, not worthy of celebration. As if.

• • •

If there is no traffic around the airport on a holiday travel weekend, that’s a story. TV stations have it backwards.

• • •

As the uncomfortable front man for a weird rebuilding endeavor, former 76ers coach Brett Brown routinely promised that by the time Ben Simmons was 26, he would be a useful distance shooter. Simmons is 27 and had not attempted a three-pointer all season through last weekend.

Time’s up.

Shot clock violation.

• If the Sixers are better this season – and they are – it is largely because Daryl Morey was able to rid his roster of a certain player early in the season. Now, P.J. Tucker – you were thinking someone else? – is averaging less than two points a game in Los Angeles.

• And how long before someone points out that one team scored 124 points in the paint and the other had 120 in an NBA game on one of those colorized in-season tournament courts?

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Charging shoppers for a bag to carry home the items they just purchased … I don’t get it.

Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com