CHESTER — Mikael Uhre’s 2025 season hasn’t gone as he would’ve liked. For just about the opposite reasons, the Union’s strike force hasn’t worked as envisioned this season.
So Saturday night, what may prove to be a silverware-winning result came tinged with irony. The striker that the Union thought they had upgraded from was required to save a result, Uhre replacing his replacement with a match-winning turn.
Uhre’s two goals late in a 3-1 win over Colorado Saturday saved the Union blushes in a game they dominated but couldn’t find the back of the net. That’s been a theme, even as the Union have climbed back atop the Supporters’ Shield standings, the first MLS club to 50 points this season.
Uhre’s goals ended droughts both personal and collective. In the last months of a four-year contract with the Union, “relieving” was the first world the came to Uhre’s mind.
“It’s obviously very relieving,” he said. “That was lovely just getting a win and helping the guys out. That’s something I always strive to do, but it hasn’t really fallen my way this year, but today it did.”
The goals in the 89th and 90+5 cashed in a season-high xG tally of more than 4, the Union strafing Colorado with 27 shots. Uhre entered in the 73rd minute with the game tied at 1, Colorado converting its solitary shot on target in the 37th thanks to Rafael Navarro, after Cole Bassett hit the crossbar.
“We knew structurally we were thinking through all the scenarios just to change something,” coach Bradley Carnell said. “But when something is working so well, why change it? So you just need a spark of energy.”
Uhre delivered that spark.
When Indiana Vassilev, active if not always fruitful in the final third, dribbled into a cul de sac on the edge of the area in the 89th, he passed a square ball to Uhre. The striker took an assertive touch to his left, then lashed a perfectly placed strike across the face of goal that nestled just inside the right post, past a diving Zack Steffen.
The second goal was vintage Uhre, the Union creating a turnover and blasting a ball into space for Uhre to get in behind the defense. Uhre has thrived in those moments, so much that opponents know to compress the spaces to mitigate that danger, particularly when grappling for a road point against a Union team that will control possession.
But with Colorado pushing for an equalizer, Alejandro Bedoya sprung Uhre first time down the right flank after pressure applied by fellow sub Sal Olivas. A couple of touches and a blasted shot through the wickets of Steffen gave Uhre his first multi-goal game in more than two years (April 22, 2023 vs. Toronto) and tied him for third in franchise history with CJ Sapong at 36 MLS goals.
The season has been a struggle for Uhre.
He’s started just 12 times and been out for most of the last two months after an adductor strain in Dallas in late May. His role was already slated for diminishment when the Union signed Bruno Damiani in the offseason for a club record fee north of $3 million.
Uhre stepped onto the pitch Saturday with two goals and four assists on the season, off a significant injury rehab in which questions about his future unavoidably cropped up.
“I would lie if I say it didn’t affect you, going into the last four or five months of your deal,” he said. “Of course, it’s something that lingers in your mind. Also I have a family, so you have to think about them as well. But I have an amazing wife who’s always there for me, even when the days are gray. You take your job home. So it’s really important to have her and my two kids.”
Uhre is one of only three Union players with more than two league goals this season. Fourth on the team in scoring remains Daniel Gazdag, traded to Columbus in early April. The club has both gotten admirable goal-scoring diversity from 17 players but also missed a second, dependable scorer behind Tai Baribo’s 15 goals.
That hasn’t been Damiani. He has four goals but has mostly squandered his chances, underperforming his xG (8.6 on the season; three non-penalty goals on an open-play xG of 7.0) at one of the largest rates in MLS. Over more than 1,400 minutes, it’s gone from small-sample oddity to genuine concern.
So Saturday night, when the Union needed a striking savior, they turned to Uhre, who himself was looking for something to rebuild his season.
“We’ve challenged Mikael, and we’ve challenged every player in terms of stylistically, what we expect and how we want to go about things,” Carnell said. “And he was due, for sure. But he never dropped his head. He worked his butt off, and he got a little injury and came back.”
The two players he’s joined in the mid-30s on that list, Sapong and Kacper Przybylko, provide useful parallels.
Double-digit goalscorers in MLS don’t grow on trees. The Union’s failed search for one to complement/replace Sebastien Le Toux defined the franchise’s first decade of existence.
Uhre had at least nine goals in each of his first three seasons with the Union. Damiani’s acquisition was a needed attempt to upgrade the position while getting younger, but the perception that he would make Uhre completely redundant hasn’t borne out.
Scoring like Uhre’s isn’t easily discarded, particularly for a franchise like the Union that once used Chris Donovan as the final role of the dice in an MLS Cup final. Like Sapong and Przybylko, he’s an occasionally frustrating figure, if only because you expect more than what he actually produces. But for the Union to reach the expectations they’ve set for themselves this season, Uhre has to play a role.
Saturday reaffirmed that he can still do that.
“Obviously it’s frustrating. You want to help the team,” he said. “Even though you maybe don’t score, sometimes you contribute in other ways. And I feel like I’ve been doing that this year, but the goals haven’t really fallen in my way.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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