Stoppage-time goal by Ibrahim re-draws Union’s winning plan

At halftime, Kai Wagner admitted, he would’ve signed for the point.

Down a goal, pinned into their own end for long stretches, missing four key players and drenched by a driving rain, the Union would’ve taken a singular point from Saturday’s matinee in Montreal and made for the border.

When they entered stoppage time trying to protect a one-goal lead, though, that sentiment flipped.

That’s how the Union, thanks to Sunusi Ibrahim’s goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time, can return home stewing over what is, objectively, a good result.

Ultimately, manager Jim Curtin assessed the 2-2 draw with CF Montreal as a “just result,” for the way the hosts bossed the first half and the way the Union surged in the second half to go up 2-1. But when Ibrahim flew into the box and planted his head to a magnificent Mustafa Kizza cross, Curtin engaged in the mental gymnastics that an MLS season enforces.

“It hurts, but at the same time now, as shorthanded as we are, what we’re demanding of our players this season, in a lot of ways, I’m still OK with the result,” he said. “But it feels empty. When it gets that late in the game, you’d like to close it out.”

The Union (12-7-10, 46 points) missed a chance to jump into second place in the East. But they extended their unbeaten streak to six games (4-0-2). They notched a third straight result on the road. And they moved further from the playoff line, now six points to the good. They maintained a five-point bump on Montreal (11-10-8, 41 points), which entered in the seventh and final playoff spot.

That came courtesy of a second-half own goal and Wagner’s free-kick strike to build a lead. Considering that the Union were without Jose Martinez (international duty), Andre Blake (back) and a second healthy striker, the result looks better and better, even if it doesn’t feel that way.

The Union struggled to find the game in the first half, with constant pressure from the hosts yielding a 7-1 edge in shots and six corner kicks. Montreal cashed in the 33rd minute when no one marked Matko Miljevich, starting as the false nine, on a second ball off a corner. With free space 14 yards out, he ripped a hard and low shot through a tangle of bodies past goalie Matt Freese.

But the Union adjusted at half, coming to terms with Montreal’s fluid front line and raising their defensive line to get the ball in better positions. The tweaks were less formational than in effort.

“Everybody was just more aggressive,” Wagner said. “I think everybody took a step forward, everybody took that last step and we won the one-against-one battles. In the first half, we completely lost all of our positions and nobody was in the right place to win the ball and all 50-50 balls went for Montreal. … In the second half, we changed everything, we showed a completely different face and we turned everything around.”

The Union’s first goal was suitably hideous for a rock fight of a game. Jamiro Monteiro’s 63rd-minute free kick from 35 yards sailed near a cluster of bodies. Maybe it got a nick off Montreal defender Joel Waterman near the penalty spot, but it certainly kissed off the post, then the back of goalie James Pantemis’ leg for an own goal.

Montreal nearly got it back four minutes later when Jack Elliott sliced a clearance goalward, but Freese made a scrambling save. He stood in for Blake, who returned from duty with Jamaica with exacerbated back soreness. Curtin doesn’t believe it will be a long-term issue with rest; Blake finished a 2-0 win in Honduras Wednesday, though he couldn’t take goal kicks.

Freese made three saves, including an elite tip over the bar on a 70th-minute curler from Joaquin Torres. Given the wet conditions and constant traffic, leaving Blake home proved prescient.

While the opener was greasy, Wagner’s follow was superb. Alejandro Bedoya won a free kick on the edge of the 18 via a high boot from Samuel Piette. Wagner whipped in the cross toward the back post, the traffic in the box parting to give him a lane, with Pantemis just another spectator.

“A position like this fits me really well because I can shoot,” Wagner said. “It’s more like a shot, more like a cross, I can do both. I saw that they really controlled the first post and the wall was just going to the first post, and the goalie was also really going to the first post. I was just trying to hit the goal near the second post, and it want really good in and I was happy to score.”

The Union seemed to be ably repelling threats late, Jesus Bueno taking a strong shift in midfield. Ibrahim fired a warning shot in the third minute of stoppage time, whistling a header high. More importantly, he took out two defenders like bowling pins, leading to a delay that gave Montreal time for one last charge.

When he connected with his fellow sub Kizza on the last action of the game, it left the Union with the point they hoped for, but having dropped the two points they truly wanted.

“The second half, we just completely played them out,” Wagner said. “We played our style, we played how we want to play and how we want to press, and it was a completely different turnaround. And at the end, it felt like we lost the two points.”