CHESTER — The battle for the Union, first and foremost, over the last few months has been to look more like themselves, especially at home. That and a fortuitous break here or there goes a long way toward changing a season’s fortunes.
The Union got two first-half goals from Daniel Gazdag, who completed the team’s second hat trick of the week late in a second half in which they weathered steady Nashville pressure in a 3-0 home win.
After just one win in 18 games and none in nine outings at Subaru Park, the Union (6-10-9, 27 points) have two in four days, though they’ve come against the last two teams they’ve beaten before that horrid stretch.
They also hopscotch Nashville in the standings, temporarily above the playoff line into ninth, with momentum just in time for league play to halt for a month for the Leagues Cup. The club has in two games rectified their goal differential from minus-4 to plus-3, now ranked sixth in the East in that category.
Gazdag’s goals take him to 14 on the year, level with last season’s tally. His is the 11th hat trick in the Union’s MLS history and 13th in all competitions.
The play to unlatch the defense on the opener came from an unlikely source in Leon Flach.
After Mikael Uhre and Quinn Sullivan connected passes between the lines in the 10th minute, Flach’s ball forward found Gazdag in behind. With right back Shaq Moore keeping him onside, Gazdag chipped one delicately over Joe Willis and in.
Willis would touch the ball near a dozen times in the first half, between deflected passes, blocked shots and three credited saves. One came in the 19th minute when Jose Martinez blistered a long-range effort at his cage, the Venezuelan looking typically feisty in clamping down on 2022 MLS MVP Hany Mukhtar.
But Willis had no shot in the 39th minute. Uhre this time connected the final ball, Moore again at sea to keep Gazdag on and Uhre tapping one forward with the outside of his right boot. The finish was more power than finesse, lofted into the far side netting over Willis by Gazdag to extend his franchise record of eight multi-goal games in MLS play.
Gazdag added the third on in the 89th when a bewildered Brent Kallman got the ball lost in his feet. Gazdag stripped it, rounded a marooned Willis and popped it into the gaping cage.
It was fortunate that the Union got to that point still two goals to the good. Anonymous in the first half, Nashville finally started to tip the game in its favor after the break.
Andre Blake waited until his 125th minute back for his first save, gloving a looping header from forward Forster Ajago off a Mukhtar service that might’ve been sailing high off the bar in the 35th. Blake, who had no saves Wednesday in the win over New England, hit the turf a minute later, with the trainers coming out, but he remained in the game, though he didn’t take long goal kicks.
The Union got breaks to go their way after the break. A glancing header by Mukhtar off a corner kick in the 49th bounced off Blake, off Kallman in front and past two pairs of Nashville legs to go out harmlessly.
Sub Anibal Godoy rung the crossbar with a header in the 67th minute off a corner. A goal-bound shot by former Union draft pick Taylor Washington was blocked away fortuitously by Ajago in the 79th. Blake tallied three saves, including a stunning flash denial on Teal Bunbury in the 83rd from a sharp angle.
The Union should’ve been up multiple goals by that point, Willis twice stoning sub Jesus Bueno, one in the 77th minute a point-blank denial with his right hand. Samuel Adeniran, making his Union debut, spurned three chances, with a header saved by Willis, one of his seven shots, and an attempt from the center of the box after Gazdag’s third skied over the bar.
Nashville is in its final game under interim coach Rumbani Munthali before former Union assistant BJ Callaghan takes over. Mostly recently an assistant for Gregg Berhalter at the U.S. national team, Callaghan is an Ursinus grad who was an assistant at Villanova and St. Joe’s before serving on Curtin’s staff from 2014-19.
Source: Berkshire mont
Be First to Comment