CHESTER — Union coach Bradley Carnell has started a different forward pairing each of the last three games. Less than seeking out a permanent combination that works, the new Union coach may have found the frequency of rotation that instead will be the norm.
The design of this Union roster is to have three starting caliber forwards. Keeping them fresh with constant rotation may allow all three to produce like starting forwards. While the production has vacillated in the first 10 games of the season, they seem to have found a somewhat sustainable orientation.
Some of that is down to the quality of opponents, the Union on Saturday bludgeoning D.C. United for its second straight 3-0 home win. Six goals in two games is the latest upswing of a team prone to big changes in scoring – 10 goals in the first three games, then three goals in the next five.
But at least the rotation up top looks like what the front office would’ve envisioned in preseason.
Three weeks ago in New York, Bruno Damiani and Tai Baribo started for the second straight game, both shutouts. Against Atlanta, Damiani started next to Mikael Uhre, who assisted on Danley Jean Jacques’ goal, then Baribo scored the third off the bench.
Saturday against D.C., Baribo and Uhre were penciled into the lineup for the seventh time this season. Uhre, who has just one goal this season, assisted on Damiani’s clincher in the 77th.
That’s four goal contributions in two games, a rate the Union can live with it. And whatever else may be in question, at 6-3-1, the Union’s 19 points from 10 matches ties the franchise record set in 2022 for the fastest start to an MLS season.
“I think back in my country, we always say, competition in a good way is something positive for the team,” said Damiani, signed in February from Uruguay for a club-record fee. “We all push each other up. So last time, Tai went into the bench and then scored, this time it was me. So we are doing good.”
Carnell has dug deep into his bag of metaphors for the striking alignment this week. Wednesday, he described it like a track relay race, with the pace of pressure the club wants to maintain requiring the baton to be handed off at regular intervals, particularly when an opponent’s backline tires. Saturday, he likened it to picking up the slipstream of a Formula 1 car. If all goes well in managing minutes, goals should be there for everyone. To that end, both of Damiani’s goals have come off the bench.
Carnell added Chris Donovan to that mix, the Conestoga grad having played all 72 of his minutes in seven substitute appearances. He’s got a secondary assist against Miami and “plays exactly how we like him to play, and makes himself a nuisance and a menace for the defenders.”
The source of the Union’s goals was cast into doubt after trading away Daniel Gazdag, especially when Baribo’s start of six goals in the first three games cooled. Of the 19 goals scored this season, 10 have come from forwards. The midfield has contributed seven, two from Gazdag. Quinn Sullivan has just one, a rate you’d expect to pick up eventually. Each of their starting No. 6s, Jean Jacques and Jovan Lukic, has two goals; while that position gets more freedom to get forward in this system, they’re on pace to combine for 14 goals this year, a pace that is likely not sustainable. (The four goals have come on a total xG of 1.2, an overperformance that won’t hold.)
Without a significant midfield scorer – and even if the Union are likely to be above league average in getting other players on the score sheet via set pieces – the bulk of goals will have to come from the three forwards. The current arrangement seems conducive to that.
“That’s how it should be. You need the competition, and I think we’re playing good,” Uhre said after the Atlanta win. “We got some good looks today. Obviously, I would have loved to have a goal, but I got a good assist today. I felt like I was a lot involved. And that’s really what you can ask for, because if you’re keeping the ball, if you keep getting the chances then obviously the tide is going to turn.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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