Ivan Perea

[Melissa Hassel]

PositivesA vintage come-from-behind Union win was a great start to the season. Spearheaded by braces from Julian Carranza and Daniel Gazdag, the Union ran rampant after going down 0-1. Offseason signing Joaquin Torres impressed on his debut with a dazzling assist seconds after coming on.

Negatives: The Union lost. As simple as that. Uhre and Gazdag had tremendous chances to put the Union on the scoresheet, but did not capitalize on them. Goals win games, and the Union did not have the killer instinct in this game to win. Lackluster defending from Flach gave Inter Miami their first goal, and a goalazo from Robert Taylor capped off a 2-0 Union loss.

Positives: Personally, I thought the Union played pretty well in this game. After almost conceding an early goal, the Union started to seize control of the midfield and cut out any passing lanes defensively. The Union generated many chances and put Inter Miami under a lot of pressure defensively.

Positives: The Union found a way to snatch a winner at the death. Towards the 50th minute, former Union player, Fabian Herbers received a red card. Around the 60th minute, Jack McGlynn was brought onto the pitch. These two events signaled a momentum shift in favor of the Union. Constant attacks (including a close chance by Bedoya), drew Chicago further and further into a park-the-bus mode. When no one closed Torres down, he unleashed a shot that had the whole stadium, including myself, absolutely buzzing.

Positives: Mikael Uhre was a bright spot in an otherwise dull day. He scored two goals, and I was very pleased with his runs in behind the Montreal defense. I enjoyed how the Union played coming out from the half-time break, but I knew that the Union were in trouble after Carranza committed a silly foul to earn his second yellow card.

Negatives: Slow starts continued to hurt the Union. Early goals from Martin Ojeda and Ivan Angulo propelled Orlando to a dream start. I was shocked at this opening from the Union, especially from Jack Elliott, who did not defend the goals particularly well. The Union tried and tried to come back, but without most of their offense, it was a no go from their depth. Union fans, myself included, were dispirited as they lost at home for the first time since 2021.

Negatives: Not getting the win at home. The Union dominated this game against a poor Sporting Kansas City side. With both teams needing three points, each team had to settle for one. Missing Kai Wagner due to a hamstring injury limited the Union offensively, as they did not contribute much forward. Flach was not great again, and Jack McGlynn for sure changed the game when he entered onto the field in the second half.

Negatives: The Union lose again on the road. Obviously keeping an eye on the Atlas game on Wednesday, Jim Curtin set forth an atypical Union lineup. This rotated offense was not very good, to say the least. Quinn Sullivan is not a true out-and-out striker and had minimal offensive success going up against three center-backs. Chris Donovan generated some chances, but nothing too serious. Once again, Flach made a ton of mistakes in the middle, the most notable of which led to the goal. He should have been taken off earlier.

Positives: Overall, I do not think the Union actually played that badly. When I saw the lineup, I knew that it meant that they were going for the draw. The Union defense was rock solid for most of the game. Martinez and Bueno looked lively on defensive structure and contributed to the attack. And Bueno almost scored a goal in the 52nd minute.

With plenty of the season left to play, the Union will rely on their depth and key players to push them forward. I am not that worried about the season, because I think the Union have ample time to turn these average performances into good ones. The question remains, will they turn them into the great ones we came to expect last year?

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