The Union get back to winning ways, defeating New England Revolution by a score of 3-0.
Dániel Gazdag and Julián Carranza become the first duo in MLS history to score in 16 different games as the Union defeat New England Revolution by a score of 3-0.
Foxborough, MA — After being winless in their last six games, the Union are finally back in the win column with their 3-0 win over New England Revolution. Dániel Gazdag scores a brace, while Julián Carranza also gets on the score sheet. With both players scoring, that marks 16 times that the duo has scored in the same game, passing Toronto’s Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore for the most in MLS history.
The Union were desperate for another clean sheet and wanting to make sure that they don’t concede first yet again, something they’ve done eight out of thirteen times this season in league play. Jim Curtin opted for more of a defensive approach in the midfield with José Martínez at the base of the diamond, with Leon Flach and Alejandro Bedoya as your two eight’s. 14 minutes into the game, New England’s Ryan Spaulding was sent off for a last ditch tackle on Mikael Uhre, who was in on goal after a poor touch from Spaulding. New England manager Caleb Porter opted not change his defensive shape with Spaulding off the field, which left right back Nick Lima, and centerback’s Xavier Arreaga and Henry Kessler as the only defenders on the field for the Revs. The Union were forced to make an early change in the 28th minute after José Martínez had picked up a chest injury in the game. Jim Curtin said after the game that Martínez indicated to the medical staff that “something didn’t feel right internally”, so the Union wanted to be proactive and get him off the field, which lead to Jack McGlynn replacing the Venezuelan.
38 minutes into the game we saw the Union take advantage of New England’s defensive shape, with Kai Wagner winning a 50/50 ball against Nick Lima, which meant New England only had two defenders in the back. Wagner finds Jack McGlynn in lots of space on the left hand side, McGlynn is able to lift his head and pick out a beautiful cross towards the back post to Julián Carranza, who head’s home his sixth MLS goal this season. That play was a perfect example of the Union transitioning from defense to offense, something that the team has struggled with at times this year. As soon as McGlynn was on the ball, we saw the Union’s front three of Mikael Uhre, Dániel Gazdag and Julián Carranza attack the space well. Uhre and Gazdag made runs in between the two centerback’s, which allowed Carranza to be free on the back post.
Two minutes after halftime, Dániel Gazdag added to the Union’s lead to make it 2-0 after poor defending by New England inside their 18 yard box. Nathan Harriel whipped in a cross towards Mikael Uhre at the near post, Uhre’s attempt had hit off the right post, with the ball falling to an unmarked Gazdag on the back post. That would mark Gazdag’s eighth goal of the season, and sixth goal in his nine games.
In the 80th minute, Dániel Gazdag would put the cherry on top for the Union, scoring the final goal of the game, making it 3-0 for the Union. The Union would put seven passes together going from left-right, keeping New England pinned down in their own half. Gazdag would play a through ball into Quinn Sullivan, who checked into the game in the 67th minute for Mikael Uhre. Sullivan would whip a first time shot at New England goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic, who punched the ball towards the center of the goal, where yet again an unmarked Gazdag was able to take a touch and finish with his left foot. With that goal, Gazdag now has nine goals on the season, which see’s him tied for fourth most in MLS with New York Redbull’s Lewis Morgan. Real Salt Lake’s Cristian "Chicho" Arango leads the league with thirteen goals.
Remaining undefeated on the road
The Union have been a solid team over the last five years on the road, going 6-8-3 in 2019, 4-4-4 in 2020 (covid year), 3-5-9 in 2021, 7-5-5 in 2022, 5-8-4 in 2023, and they are currently unbeaten in eight road games this season, 4-0-4. The Union currently average 2 points per game on the road compared to the .67 they average at home. They have also scored more goals on the road, 15, compared to the 10 they have scored at home. With the Union losing four straight home games for the first time in club history, Jim Curtin spoke after the game about the tension to club has been feeling.
“Sometimes it is good to go away,” said Jim Curtin. “I’m not saying there’s less pressure when you’re on the road, but you’re not expected to dictate the game and be on top of teams like we usually are at home, so maybe it was good for the guys. And I think you saw tonight that we’re still a really good team. I said it to the guys before, we're at our best to when we're having fun, we're smiling, we're happy. And that tension was kinda gone tonight. So I think you saw a lot of good plays, I think you saw a lot of good possession, good attacking moments, good defensive moments, and a clean sheet.”
What you saw from the Union against New England was probably their most complete performance of the season, where they had key saves from Oliver Semmle (3), which will instill believe in this team that when they do give up chances, they have a goalkeeper behind them that can bail them out of trouble. The midfield was super compact, winning 12 out of their 13 tackles, and also playing 10 out of the teams 17 key passes, according to whoscored. You also saw this team hit 45% of their shots on target, up 13% from their average of 32% per game. Of course being up a man for 76+ minutes helps, but there’s still a job to do and the Union executed that perfectly.
Leon Flach’s big performance
Leon Flach started his second consecutive game of the season, his third overall, and he showed why he still has a spot on this team. Flach played all 90 minutes in this game, completing 36/43 passes (84%), creating one chance, winning two tackles, intercepting two passes, six ball recoveries, and winning six out of his eleven duals. Jim Curtin spoke after the game about how the Union planned on using Leon Flach, but with José Martínez’s injury, that plan changed.
“The plan was to use him on the left side of the diamond because Carles Gil drifts over to that area all the time and he's; let's be honest, the best player that's on the field tonight,” said Curtin. “So Leon was around him from the start, I think he did a good job on him. What people maybe don't see, I don't know if it always comes off on TV, but I see it every day in training. He closes the ball down and takes the last step quicker than any player I've actually ever seen. His ability to get pressure to the ball, make a deflection, a block, a steel is really impressive. So big night for Leon, he did a great job.”
When you’re conceding goals like the Union have been recently, it’s important to have a player like Leon Flach out there to do the dirty work. So much of Leon Flach’s game is the work he does when he doesn’t have the ball, it’s the pressure, the tackles, the interceptions, and all of that was on display against New England.
Jack McGlynn difference maker off the bench
Would the Union’s offense have broken out like it did once Martínez went off injured? Good question, because it’s clear as day that Jack McGlynn made a huge difference in the 62 minutes that he played this game. McGlynn registered the assist to Julián Carranza on the opening goal, created two more chances after that and played fourteen passes into the final third of the field. McGlynn was super active on the night, and it’s clear the Union wanted to make him the focal point of the attack with his 80 touches, which was the second most behind Kai Wagner’s leading 100. Jim Curtin mentioned that McGlynn was mad that he didn’t start the game against New England, but when he played 205 minutes the last two games, Jim and his staff thought it was best for fresher legs in the midfield. Still, when called upon, McGlynn made all the difference.
“He did a great job of controlling the tempo of the game, he's excellent at when does the game need to be sped up? When does it need to slow down, [and] you can give him the ball under pressure,” said Curtin. “He's got, three or four outs now where he's very deceptive to get the ball from one side of the field to the other. Players can't just sprint at him to steal the ball because now he is a little deceptive and can kind of dribble around them and get out of trouble, so incredible player.”
What’s next
The Union head down to Charlotte next Saturday, May 25th to take on Charlotte FC at 7:30 pm. Charlotte played LA Galaxy to a 0-0 draw on Saturday night, and currently sit in 6th place in the Eastern conference with a record of 6-5-3.