Jim Curtin rules José Andrés Martínez all but out of the Champions League semifinal decider at LAFC

The Union will be without crucial defensive midfielder José Andrés Martínez for Tuesday’s concluding game of their Concacaf Champions League semifinal at Los Angeles FC (10 p.m., FS1, UniMás, TUDN), manager Jim Curtin confirmed Monday.

Martínez suffered a hamstring injury in the middle stages of the second half of last Wednesday’s 1-1 tie in the series opener at Subaru Park. He left the field with the training staff, returned a moment later, tried to play through it, and ultimately had to be subbed out after a few minutes.

“Unfortunately, he’s not with us on the trip,” Curtin said in a news conference in Los Angeles. “He’s working hard back at home to rehab and get better.”

Asked specifically if Martínez has been ruled out, Curtin said: “He’s out — unless he flies in later tonight.”

From all indications, that was not going to happen. Leon Flach (though he isn’t fully healthy either), Jack Elliott, or Andrés Perea are the candidates to start in his place. Curtin could also deploy a different formation to have multiple players cover the central midfield area.

» READ MORE: Union largely out-play LAFC in Champions League opener, but give up late goal in 1-1 tie

“His ball-winning is world-class, and he’s a big part of our success,” Curtin said of Martínez. “But at the same time, we are a team — we win as a team and we lose as a team. We know this is a big opportunity for another guy to step up, and throughout our history, we’ve had guys step up in big ways. We have a lot of different things we can go to, a lot of flexibility we can have in our group, because we have such a strong squad.”

Goalkeeper Andre Blake called on his teammates to take up the next-man-up mentality Curtin has long preached.

“That’s what makes a good team a really good team,” Blake said. “Missing him would be big, but it is what it is, and if we have to go without him, we can’t use that as an excuse. The next guy just has to step up and do what we have to do to survive and advance.”

LAFC manager Steve Cherundolo called the Union “predictable,” even without Martínez on the field. But he meant it as a compliment of coach-speak.

“It’s 100% a compliment,” the Hall of Fame former U.S. national team right back said. “Every player knows what to do in every moment of the game, and that makes them amongst themselves very predictable ... They have a clear way of playing and they’re quite good at it, and they feel comfortable in that.”

For all the laments from the Union’s locker room and complaints from fans about the late goal conceded at home, the Union really are not in a bad situation in the series.

A win by any margin and the Union advance. A tie by any score of 2-2 or higher and they advance, because the first tiebreaker is goals scored on the road. A tie by 1-1 and the series goes to penalty kicks.

If the game ends scoreless, LAFC advances. But it’s very hard to believe that will happen, since the teams have never played a scoreless tie — and their last three meetings in L.A. have ended 3-3, 2-2, and 3-3.

“To come here, where the games are always crazy ... I think we still have a really good chance,” Blake said. “Even though if this game ends 0-0, they go through, I think all the pressure is still on them, because we’re always close to scoring a goal. If we score a goal or two, then all of a sudden, it’s a different game.”

» READ MORE: Union Takeaways: A 1-1 tie vs. LAFC isn’t as bad as the late goal makes it feel

The most Philadelphian-like result would be the Union scoring but losing by one goal, such as 2-1 or 3-2. That would mean a 1-0 home win would have advanced them.

Instead, an attempted clearance by Elliott in the 90th minute hit Dániel Gazdag in the backside, LAFC capitalized on the turnover, and went on to score a late equalizer.

That it happened to Elliott specifically is awful luck. He scored twice in last year’s MLS Cup final and was seconds away from winning the game’s MVP award, only to be posterized by Gareth Bale for a tying goal that sent L.A., the British tabloids, and MLS’s TV broadcasters into rapture.

“My group is great, because we know when we’re a favorite, we know when we’re an underdog,” Curtin said. “And regardless of that, we go into games with no fear, and we feel we can beat anybody. ... The fact is that we have to score in this game [Tuesday], in this 90 minutes [of regulation].”

» READ MORE: Even after breaking the Union’s heart, LAFC goalie John McCarthy is the ‘same dude’ from Mayfair