CHESTER — Time will tell in the 2025 MLS season if the Union turn out to be a good team.
D.C. United most definitely is not. And the Union treated them accordingly Saturday.
Jakob Glesnes volleyed one home in the first half, Danley Jean Jacques scored for the second straight game and Bruno Damiani added a third as the Union ran over D.C. United, 3-0, Saturday at Subaru Park.
Once the Union (6-3-1, 19 points) adapted to D.C.’s countering tactics in the first half, they put the game squarely on their terms. Play was destined to be, as Bradley Carnell termed it, a “very choppy, scratchy game,” with two coaches cut from the Red Bull coaching tree. But the Union adjusted to Troy Lesesne’s approach, which let the Union’s superior talent win out over a transitional D.C. side missing leading scorer Christian Benteke.
“Very tough first half for us, and we had to weather a couple of storms,” Carnell said. “We kind of knew exactly what they were going to offer us. And it played out exactly according to that, but I don’t think we dealt very well with it in the first half. So we just corrected a few things in the second half and showed a little bit of film of how we can mitigate it.”
Glesnes opened the scoring in the 15th minute, pushed up for a long throw-in by Frankie Westfield. He ended up with the ball at his feet and teased a cross into the box.
Glesnes, emboldened by what he accurately described as an outstanding training-ground goal in practice Wednesday from 35 yards, called off Quinn Sullivan under the flight of the ball and scissor-kicked it home on the volley.
“I didn’t believe it,” Glesnes said. “I saw coming a good ball from Frankie, and I was thinking Quinnie was going to take it, so I was screaming loud to let him leave it. So I’m happy that he left.”
Jean Jacques picked up his second goal in as many matches, cutting past a defender and firing home from 22 yards, off the post to the left of goalie Luis Barraza and in. More importantly, Jacques dictated the spaces in midfield in his first start with Jesus Bueno, thanks to the red card for Jovan Lukic last week. Carnell’s halftime message was to remain compact and connected and to maintain the space between lines, which the Union did better after the break.
“I thought in the first half, there was too much space between those lines, and that’s one of the things we corrected,” Carnell said. “But then the tighter we are, the closer we are, the more compact we are, we can create mistakes and force turnovers and transitions. And then our 6s, 10s, they get rewarded.”
“You saw it in the first half, they were waiting in the same way that we were waiting,” Glesnes said. “When we played it out to Frankie (at right back), they were jumping on us. So we had to figure it out a little bit. We knew if we were bouncing it back to the 6 and back again, it would open it up again.”
D.C. (2-5-3, 9 points) had chances in the first half. In the 25th minute, Jacob Murrell hit a volley that was slightly behind him, the effort soaring over the cage. Dominique Badji’s was more clean-cut, the Union sliced open by a through ball from center back Kye Rowles through the space Jean Jacques should occupy in the 28th. Badji, the cagey MLS veteran, outfoxed Nathan Harriel with his curling run to latch onto it, and fortunately for the Union blazed his effort high.
Badji also had a header two minutes later from 16 yards off Murrell service, but he was leaning back, and Andre Blake had plenty of time to catch it. Blake came up with a big save on Murrell in the 42nd in a fleeting danger moment in transition, one of five denials on a relatively easy day at the office.
The Union held a 12-11 edge in shot attempts and 6-5 in shots on target. Damiani got the third when Glesnes played a free kick from inside his half forward. Mikael Uhre nodded it on, and Damiani walled off a feckless defensive effort from Lucas Barlett, whom Damiani spun on his back before swiping his left foot though the shot. It’s Damiani’s second goal, both coming off the bench.
The Union are doing what they need to in an easier stretch of the schedule. They travel to winless Montreal next week after back-to-back shutouts and just one goal allowed in four matches. They have five clean sheets in 10 games, Saturday the 101st of Blake’s career.
Consecutive home victories after a run of one win in five speaks to their fortitude. But even in that stretch, they were rarely beaten by an opponent.
“Even taking it back to New York City, not a great performance – we lose the game, but I felt like we could’ve walked away with a tie,” Carnell said. “… We haven’t been outplayed, I would say. We’ve always remained competitive with each of the opponents that we’ve faced.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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