By one measure, the Union are struggling. By another, they’re on quite a run.
By any measure, the urgency has turned up.
Sunday night’s clash with New York City FC (6 p.m., FS1) is many things. It’s a battle for first place in the Eastern Conference. It’s a rematch of last year’s Eastern final. It is, per Opta Stats, the sixth match in MLS history and first since 2011 to feature two teams on unbeaten runs of eight or more games.
It’s also the Union’s ninth out of 17 home games this season. And with just three wins (though no losses) in the first eight, the halfway point is well past time to start maximizing points at home, of which no one needs to remind manager Jim Curtin.
“It’s a huge match,” Curtin said via Zoom Friday. “It’s the team that won MLS Cup last year. It’s the team that’s playing the best in our league in terms of the recent form. It’s a team that knocked us out of the playoffs on our home field the last time we were there, so it all plays into the game.”
Through Friday, the Union (6-1-8, 26 points) were third in the East. They haven’t lost in the last eight games, but seven have been draws, many of them maddening, five in which they’ve squandered leads. That includes a 3-0-5 mark at home, which to Curtin looks more like 10 points dropped than 14 gained. Last Saturday’s 1-1 stalemate with Cincinnati was of the frustrating variety.
“The reality is, we’re not happy with the amount of ties in recent weeks,” Curtin said. “But we do recognize that we can only look forward to the game against New York City FC where we will be playing for first place on national TV in our home stadium. It’s a good opportunity for us. … I think the players will have a good response to a disappointing performance at home.”
Curtin would like nothing better than to shake the struggles against the East leader. NYCFC (8-3-3, 27 points) is in first place, the Cityzen’s path to MLS Cup in 2021 taking them through Chester for a 2-1 win over a gutsy Union team decimated by COVID-19 protocols.
NYCFC hasn’t lost since April 2, while it was still chasing the semifinals of CONCACAF Champions League. That loss was a regrettable one against a since terrible Toronto FC side.
Since then, though, they’re 7-0-2, though the international break involved manager Ronny Deila being hired away by Belgian club Standard Liege. Nick Cushing – native of Chester (England) – had taken over as interim boss.
That might bring some changes, but in the early going, it’s likely more of the same for a club that has very little broken, and thus very little to fix.
The same can’t be said of the Union. Some things are just fine – the defense has allowed just 11 goals, tied with NYCFC for least in MLS. But the attack has scored only 20 in 15 outings, including no more than two in any game this season.
That contingent will be shorthanded again. The Homegrown core has been helping the United States U-20s reach the knockout round of the CONCACAF Championships in Honduras, Quinn Sullivan scoring a hat trick in a game and Jack McGlynn adding a stellar goal. Sergio Santos remains marooned in Chile, where he surrendered his passport as part of a green card acquisition process currently three weeks over the original one-week timeline.
That means the starters – particularly forwards Julian Carranza and Mikael Uhre – must find the chemistry that has been so sorely lacking. Only by them turning opportunities into finished products on the field can the Union do the same in the conference standings.
“The players this week have talked openly about some of those relationships – when do we want our strikers to come back to get the ball? When do we want them to go in behind?” Curtin said. “Just so that the timing of those movements is a little sharper, a little better. Unfortunately, we haven’t had that stable of strikers working together consistently at all this year.”
