The Union’s woes mostly aren’t Jim Curtin’s fault, but a big piece of their latest loss is on him

Much of what ails the Union right now does not seem to be Jim Curtin’s fault, at least from the outside.

He didn’t place losing bets on depth players for the team’s roster or sign players for the first team who are still a ways from contributing. Sporting director Ernst Tanner did those things, and his yearslong propensity to win those bets has dried up this season.

Curtin didn’t set the rules on how much Tanner can spend on the roster — as Curtin has always been the first to say for the decade he’s been the Union’s manager. That comes from the owner’s suite, and it’s why there were “sell the team!” chants at the last home game two weekends ago.

The Union’s next home game is Saturday against its rival in the New York Red Bulls, revitalized this year by new big-money playmaker Emil Forsberg. Their 9-8-4 record is a mirror image of the Union’s 4-8-9 mark. One can only wonder what the crowd will do if Forsberg leads the Red Bulls to their first win over the Union in five years, and their first in Chester in six.

But Curtin bears a big share of the blame for Wednesday’s 4-3 loss in Chicago. His team took a 3-1 lead into the 82nd minute when Fire striker Hugo Cuypers started the hosts’ comeback. Curtin didn’t make a substitution to reinforce his defense at any point.

» READ MORE: Union blow late 3-1 lead to suffer another ugly loss, 4-3 at Chicago

Yes, the bench was thin, with Olivier Mbaizo and young centerback prospect Olwethu Makhanya as defensive options. But Curtin’s decision to do nothing instead of something bit him when Gastón Giménez tied the game in the 89th and Cuypers won it in the 92nd.

Want to blame goalkeeper Oliver Semmle instead? His fluffed punch led to the corner kick sequence where Giménez scored, after all, and Semmle stood on his line when a high cross came toward Cuypers in the six-yard box for the winner.

Opposing teams know as well as the Union’s coaching staff does by now that Semmle’s biggest weakness is dealing with balls in the air. So of course they’ll try to exploit it.

Still, there were seven Union field players in their 18-yard box when Giménez got the ball unmarked, and a lot of heavy legs running back toward Cuypers’ winner.

“We talked about keeping the integrity of the back four together,” Curtin said postgame. We changed last game, and right or wrong, it didn’t wind up working out when we conceded late.”

That was a reference to last Saturday’s 4-2 loss at CF Montréal, where Curtin sent in Mbaizo for Tai Baribo when the striker could no longer fight through back spasms that bothered him all day. It was 2-2 at that point, and, like Chicago, Montréal scored in the 89th and 92nd.

“So we wanted to trust the back four,” Curtin said. “Olwethu’s a kid that’s working hard to try to get minutes. Just didn’t think it was the game to put him in there.”

» READ MORE: Some advice for Jim Curtin as the Union’s season falls apart, from South Jersey-born veteran manager Peter Vermes

There was no José Andrés Martínez to turn to, and there might not be for a while. Venezuela is in the Copa América quarterfinals and is favored to beat Canada on Friday in Arlington, Texas (9 p.m., FS1, Univision 65, TUDN, ViX). Then would come a semifinal on Tuesday against Ecuador or (more likely) Lionel Messi’s Argentina in East Rutherford, N.J. (8 p.m., same channels).

And since there’s a third-place game on July 13 along with the final a day later, if Venezuela beats Canada. Martínez wouldn’t be available until at least the July 17 game vs. New England. (And he’ll probably be exhausted.)

At least Damion Lowe will be back soon, since Jamaica’s Copa run ended in the group stage. But he wasn’t available Wednesday because his young daughter had to have a surgical procedure. He surely would have played otherwise.

Curtin refused to blame fatigue, even though his bench Wednesday was two players short of being full. He preferred to blame poor marking on two of Chicago’s goals that came from set pieces.

“We have eight to 10 guys in the box, so that’s not, for me, on fatigue,” he said. “Are there moments in the game where guys are tired? Of course. You look all over the world, and guys [can] play 90 minutes in consecutive games, and they should be.”

It has long been one of Curtin’s few weak spots as a manager that he’s reluctant to make substitutions for their own sake. There’s always a balance between the drop in quality from removing starters and the increase in energy from sending in replacements, and Curtin bet wrong again Wednesday.

“We went with the guys that got it to 3-1,” Curtin said. “We didn’t get it done, so I have to answer these types of questions, and we got punished.”

» READ MORE: Julián Carranza’s departure from the Union to Dutch club Feyenoord is official

There is no sugarcoating this dreadful season, beyond knowing how forgiving MLS’s playoff format is. When nine out of the Eastern Conference’s teams make it, no one is out with 15 games to go.

But it’s so bad now that the Union have fallen below the perennially-awful Fire, one of the league’s worst-run clubs, in the standings. The Union’s 20-point total is tied for the East’s worst with D.C. United, but the Union are above the basement thanks to a better goal differential.

Curtin still doesn’t expect to get reinforcements this summer from new signings. Right now, the only glimmer of hope fans can hang on to is Tanner’s statement from Julián Carranza’s departure that the team will “look to make adjustments heading toward the summer transfer window.”

When Curtin was asked Wednesday night what moves he’d make if he could, he said that “answering that right now will just get me in more trouble.”

He knows, like everyone else, that his team is in enough trouble already.

» READ MORE: The Union have no All-Stars for the first time since 2018