Backup goalkeeper Joe Bendik is at the center of the Union’s losing streak

If you didn’t stay up late Saturday night to watch the Union’s ugly 3-1 loss at the Los Angeles Galaxy, you saved yourself plenty of angst.

Then again, even the fans who did stay up didn’t watch the whole thing, because Apple’s broadcast feed cut out twice in the second half — including during the Galaxy’s third goal. Those were surprisingly big blunders by the tech giant and its broadcast production partners, further upsetting those Union fans who still lament the disappearance of games from traditional TV.

It may be a bit of rose-colored glasses-wearing to believe that everything was better in the old days. (Feeds cut out plenty often when the Union’s local broadcasters called road games from a TV studio.) But there’s no way to put a halcyon spin on what happened on the field, especially the first two goals that goalkeeper Joe Bendik conceded.

On the first, Bendik was slow to react to a simple shot by Los Angeles’ Tyler Boyd, and let the ball slide under him. On the second, he barely moved off his line to go for a Galaxy corner kick, allowing the service to hit Olivier Mbaizo’s backside and redirect into the net.

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Normal starter Andre Blake, who is still away with the Jamaican national team at the Concacaf Gold Cup, would likely have saved both. He especially would have been much more assertive amid the crowd on that corner kick, which came with just seconds to go in the first half, and 11 minutes after Mikael Uhre scored an authoritative equalizer that should have given the Union momentum.

Bendik has given up eight goals in his four games as Blake’s stand-in so far this summer, after conceding five in three games when Blake was injured in March. Would third-string rookie Holden Trent, 24, do better than the 34-year-old veteran of five MLS teams? Plenty of fans are asking. But when Union manager Jim Curtin was asked Tuesday if Bendik would stay the starter, the answer was an emphatic “Yes.”

» READ MORE: Union start difficult stretch with a 3-1 loss to Galaxy, seek to regain winning identity

“Joe has earned the right to start, so we have to get behind him, we have to help him,” Curtin said. “We’ve had mistakes as a team that have left Joe in a bad position. Every week, we evaluate and look at each position, and have the mindset that we’re going to pick the best team to win — and right now, he gives us the best chance to do that.”

Curtin’s opinion is influenced by Trent having recently recovered from a broken finger.

“[He] has just kind of been playing through it over the last several months, and I don’t think it’s right to put him out there at this time,” Curtin said.

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He also returned to his time-honored turn of phrase that his group wins and loses as a team. It sounds cliché when heard too often, but Curtin is right in one way: His players put just two shots on target Saturday, after registering just one in the 2-0 loss at Atlanta the previous Sunday. The Union have won just one of their past five games overall.

Joaquín Torres has too often been ineffective, Quinn Sullivan didn’t play in L.A., and Chris Donovan — the only striker on the roster beyond starters Uhre and Julián Carranza — didn’t play in either game.

That those players are the Union’s best options on a limited bench is a sign the team needs to go shopping. Sporting director Ernst Tanner recently spent a long spell in Europe, and surely did some scouting while there.

But any signings would be for depth, not the starting lineup, with the team’s three Designated Player spots understandably taken by Uhre, Carranza, and Gazdag. Finding the right player for the right amount of money is the perennial trick in MLS, and this is the first year of Tanner’s tenure with more losing bets than winning ones so far.

» READ MORE: Julián Carranza continues to be the Union’s gain and Inter Miami’s loss

The Union (10-7-4, 34 points) are in danger of their first three-game losing streak since August 2021, and their first in just regular-season games since April 2017. And the next contest is one of the hardest of the year: a Wednesday visit to second-place Nashville SC (8:30 p.m., Apple TV, paywalled).

The men of the Music City (11-6-5, 38 points) boast MLS’s stingiest defense, just 17 goals conceded in 22 games, and the reigning MVP in playmaker Hany Mukhtar. He’s playing superbly again this year, with 13 goals and seven assists.

The players tasked with defending him, José Andrés Martínez and Alejandro Bedoya, are both a yellow card away from suspension for card accumulation — and referee Sergii Boiko will be officiating just his 10th MLS game, his first involving the Union.

» READ MORE: Jim Curtin defends the Union’s loan of Brandan Craig for the player and the team

Then comes New York City’s visit Saturday for the latest rematch between the rivals (7:30 p.m., Apple TV, paywalled). After dueling with the Union in the last two Eastern Conference finals, NYCFC is in lowly 13th place right now. But the sixth-place Union are well below where they should be too, and seventh-place Orlando trails only on the total wins tiebreaker.

It’s a gamble to assume Blake will be back this weekend, because his Jamaica squad is good enough to beat Mexico in Wednesday’s Gold Cup semifinal in Las Vegas (10 p.m., FS1, Univision 62, TUDN). So the Union will have to find a way to survive the week until the regular season pauses for the Leagues Cup.

“I know people are upset, because we don’t have many of these losing streaks,” Curtin said. “But I also see the positives in this group. I see the work that they do, and I know that we can get better and finish the season the right way.”

It might take benching Bendik. It might take trying a different formation that aims to create better shots, not just deny them to opponents. Whatever the answer is, it’s hard to avoid feeling that right now is a significant moment in the Union’s season.