Jim Curtin played nice in the locker room, then the Union played angry in a five-goal second half vs. New England

Union manager Jim Curtin was in a bad mood as he left the field at halftime Saturday night, and for good reason.

A few minutes earlier, his team had given up an ugly tying goal to the New England Revolution, the worst team in MLS’ Eastern Conference. The Union’s defense was all out of sorts on that play, and for substantial stretches of the game up to then.

So Curtin gave himself a choice.

“I thought about losing my mind and doing the old - because I don’t go to it too often - throw something, get a reaction, go negative on them,” he said. “But I didn’t think that was right. I thought it was important to stay positive and stay calm. I think we already had lost our minds a little bit on the field, and on the sidelines as a staff, with our frustration with the referee. ... We just kind of emotionally checked out and got a little flustered.”

It turned out that he didn’t need to raise his temper. The players were in a plenty bad mood already.

“The players knew,” Curtin said. “That’s a sign of a team with great veteran leaders, because they knew I didn’t have to come in and scream at them. They knew they were poor in the first half - and the response speaks for itself in the second half.”

Centerback Jack Elliott had the same view.

“Oh, yeah,” said Elliott, who scored the game’s opening goal. “I had to calm myself down a little bit, being on a yellow card and conceding the goal that we did. Everyone was definitely riled up, and that helped coming out into the second half. We didn’t go over the top and go rash, but we changed the way we played a little bit and the quality shone through.”

That quality turned a 1-1 tie into a 6-1 final score. It started with Ilsinho, who scored just 64 seconds into the second half to give the Union the lead back. It was a statement goal from the player and the team.

“We knew we had to score as soon as we could to control the game again," he said. "We decided to play fast ... We were able to score the second goal fast, control the game, and then at the end of the game we scored the other goals.”

Elliott and fellow defenders Auston Trusty and Ray Gaddis were among six players who played every minute of the three-games-in-eight-days stretch that the Union just wrapped up. It’s a big ask of any position, but especially the back line. So it wasn’t surprising when Elliott admitted that fatigue was a factor Saturday night.

“Any time you play three games in a week, there’s going to be a little bit,” he said. 'But it’s one of those things you deal with. ... [New England] may have had a bit more in the tank if it was a bit of a closer game, [so] it was good that we finished it fairly early."

At the final whistle, the Union had delivered a 6-1 rout that showed they aren’t just winning, they’re playing good soccer.

“I think we’ve got a lot of really good footballers in our team,” Elliott said. “You see in the first half [that] if we don’t bring the energy, the football doesn’t really shine through, but in the second half we brought both, and you see what happens.”