CHESTER, Pa. — After the Union’s season-opening 2-0 win over the New England Revolution, head coach Jim Curtin said Cory Burke played like he was “possessed” and that he “turned the heads of the entire technical staff.” Burke also surely turned the heads of many fans at Talen Energy Stadium who watched the Union newcomer showcase speed and skills they may not have realized he had.

Perhaps the least surprised person in the stadium during the March 3 opener was Brendan Burke (no relation), smiling and cheering as he watched the 26-year-old Jamaican’s dazzling display that included a second-half assist following a pretty move near the endline.

“We know what Cory can bring in a game,” Brendan Burke said. “We’ve seen it quite a bit over the last two years.”

Over those last two years, Cory Burke was a member of Bethlehem Steel FC, the Union-owned club affiliate coached by Brendan Burke that plays in the second-division United Soccer League (USL). The Steel — who open their third season of play Sunday vs. the Richmond Kickers — are largely catered to helping and developing three kinds of players: the ones signed to USL contracts like the 26-year-old Burke; academy players who need professional experience before making the leap to MLS; and first-team players who don’t make the 18-man gameday roster for MLS games but need live minutes.

And for all three categories, Union sporting director Earnie Stewart thinks the Steel have been a success — with more successes on the horizon.

“Cory’s an example of what can happen when we do this in the right matter, the right way, and provide an environment where they can just get better all the time,” Stewart said.

Former youth academy standouts Auston Trusty and Anthony Fontana are two more examples, starting in their Union debuts earlier this month after gaining valuable experience with the Steel because, as Stewart notes, it’s “almost impossible” to go directly from the youth ranks to MLS.

“Our goal is to have a great deal of players come from the academy and transition through the Bethlehem Steel to our first team,” the Union sporting director said. “That’s what we’re looking to do, and that’s coming closer and closer every single year.”

From the development standpoint, then, Bethlehem Steel FC is doing what it’s supposed to be doing, providing a rung in the ladder that had previously been missing in the club’s pathway to the pros model. (The Union previously had a productive partnership with the USL’s Harrisburg City Islanders but didn’t really have a say as to how much players would play when they were sent there for games.)

But has the Steel been a success when you look at other benchmarks like attendance? How viable has it been to train in Chester, so they can be near (and often practice with) the first-team players, and then play games in Bethlehem? Are they recapturing any of the history of the previous Bethlehem Steel, who won a record five U.S. Open Cups in the early 1900s?

And since developing players is the primary focus, how much does any of that matter?

For starters, things appear more stable heading into the 2018 season than they might have seemed at the end of 2017, when rumors circulated that the Steel could exit the league with the Union forming a partnership with a different USL team. In response, the Union issued a statement in October that expressed their commitment to a long-term future in the Lehigh Valley.

Still, there are some reasons for concern. Brendan Burke acknowledged that playing in Bethlehem “almost feels like away games at times” since they practice more than 60 miles away and that they “aren’t able to be in the community as much as we like.” Playing at Lehigh University’s 16,000-seat football stadium is also far from ideal since it makes the crowds feel small and it doesn’t have lights to accommodate night games — the latter of which the club knows has to be corrected (which, at least in the short term likely means evaluating other available sites rather than building their own soccer-specific stadium).

But the Steel coach has grown to appreciate the city of Bethlehem — he often stays there the night before games with his wife and kids — and has been told that ticket sales are up for the team’s opener this weekend. And while trying to live up to the championship tradition of the previous Bethlehem Steel FC — as former Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz alluded to when the team was first announced — is probably not really possible, the club is trying hard to capture the spirit of the city.

“They were the pinnacle of the game in this country for a while, and we’re in a very different position,” Burke said. “So carrying that flag and trying to relate it to the modern game and modern structure is a really tough transition to make.

“We talk more about the identity of the city — as a steel town, a blue-collar environment, as a place where community was important, as a place where people grinded for what they got. And it’s a grind for our guys. I do think that’s more relatable.”

The Bethlehem Steel name still means a lot, to be sure. The Union have paid homage to the historic club — called by one historian “the New York Yankees of their era” — by wearing jerseys in their honor, including in the 2014 U.S. Open Cup final. But considering they folded almost 90 years ago, Burke’s point makes sense — especially considering his team, like all MLS-owned USL teams, isn’t even allowed to compete in the U.S. Open Cup, the tournament in which the old Steel made their name.

Winning, though, is still important because as Burke says, “We don’t want to develop players who have a weaker and soft mentality.” So making the USL playoffs last season was a positive step, even if the Steel did get bounced in the first round with a 4-0 loss to eventual champion Louisville City FC.

Growing the fan base and getting more embedded in the community is important, too. The average announced attendance last season was just over 3,000 fans per game, having increased from 2,573 the previous season. That’s about middle of the road for the USL — significantly more than other MLS-owned teams but far below USL teams like FC Cincinnati and Sacramento Republic that are trying gain entry into MLS.

The “crazy dichotomy” in USL, as Burke calls it, should only grow with the addition of future MLS side Nashville FC and other teams joining the fray after leaving the North American Soccer League, which canceled its 2018 season. The Steel may not be able to keep up attendance-wise with the MLS expansion hopefuls but the head coach said “every indication I’m getting is that we’re getting bigger gradually year after year.” And while the 33-team league will likely be even more competitive this season, he’s ready for that challenge too.

“The bar got raised in a big way,” Burke said. “But our job is to reach the bar.”

In the end, though, everything the Steel coach does runs through a Union prism, which means that Burke’s roster for training could look different than his roster for games given the first-team needs on a given week. Perhaps that’s why, at his press conference this week, Curtin praised the Steel coaches for “being adaptable” and for doing a “great job of developing kids” for the Union in the face of such uncertainty.

Burke, to his credit, enjoys that part of it, sitting with Curtin at the franchise’s training facility every morning to ensure that they’re on the same page in terms of training methods and personnel. Sometimes, Bethlehem’s rostered players will even participate in Union practices, which are usually held right before the Steel’s on the same field.

Cory Burke was one of those players last year, which only helped show him — and the coaches — that he had MLS potential. That was an especially meaningful connection for him to make since, according to Brendan Burke, the Jamaican sometimes fell out of the Steel lineup when Union players were dropped down — which the forward always handled in a positive manner.

“When I was in Steel training sometimes, I would train with the first team and talk to the guys,” Cory Burke said. “They always pushed me that I had to stay focused and work hard, and I would be here soon. And now I’m here.”

Yes, now he’s here — along with five other players who played for the Steel before signing for the Union: Trusty, Fontana and fellow Homegrowns Derrick Jones, Matt Real and Mark McKenzie.

The question now: who’s next?

“I still think we have a lot more to do,” Brendan Burke said. “So when you see a guy like Cory or Auston Trusty, who’s probably played 50 games for us, and Anthony Fontana, that’s a really exciting night for us because I think it gives everyone a sense of what could be. I think we’ve barely scratched the surface.”

Top photo: Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports