Julián Carranza leads the Union’s 3-0 rout of CF Montreal

The Union ran their unbeaten streak in regular-season play to nine games on Saturday with a 3-0 win over CF Montreal at Subaru Park.

Julián Carranza opened the scoring in the 12th minute with his 10th goal of the year, and Mikael Uhre doubled the lead in the 36th with his sixth tally of the campaign. Carranza then scored again in the 61st to confirm the rout.

The Union (9-4-3, 30 points) launched 23 shots at Montreal (6-9-1, 19 points), their second-highest total of the regular season and the second time this year they’ve taken more than 20.

Union manager Jim Curtin stayed with a 3-5-2 formation to start, but made multiple player swaps after using the same starters in the last two games.

The biggest move was at centerback, where Damion Lowe was rested after dealing with a minor knee issue that led to having fluid drained a few days ago. Kai Wagner started at the left centerback spot, and Matt Real started on the left flank, creating a tandem where either player could get forward and have the other stay back.

At right back, Nathan Harriel stepped in for Olivier Mbaizo. And at the base of the three-player central midfield triangle, Jesús Bueno made his second career MLS start to spell José Andrés Martínez.

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If Curtin’s decision to run a 3-5-2 out again was surprising, there was one reason why it maybe shouldn’t have been. He hinted in his Friday news conference that he expected Montreal to also play a three-back setup, and the visitors proved him right.

“That weighs into it, how we think maybe we can get at them,” Curtin said. “Do we want to have a situation where it’s basically clear matchups against them, or do we want to maybe tweak something and go into the [4-4-2] diamond that baits them into doing some different things as well? I’m not going to reveal that, but we’ve certainly gained confidence, and we’re comfortable in both formations.”

That the Union can now play more than one way easily matters a lot, because too many teams had figured out how to stymie the 4-4-2 diamond.

The opening goal was as well-placed a shot as you’ll see. After taking a feed from Real, the Argentine danced past Bryce Duke and hit an inch-perfect curler past goalkeeper James Pantemis to the far post.

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Uhre’s goal was less thrilling, a close-range deposit of a rebound after Pantemis spilled a Carranza attempt. But they all count the same.

At halftime, the Union had a 12-4 advantage in shots, notably including four shots taken by Harriel from right back. Between that and Montreal playing in Canada’s national cup final on Wednesday, visiting manager Hernán Losada made a triple-substitution of attackers at halftime.

Carranza’s second goal came in unusual circumstances. Just 63 seconds after Montreal’s Joel Waterman inadvertently hit an attempted clearance into Carranza’s left leg from point-blank range, Carranza shook it off and hit a shot that deflected off Gabriele Corbo’s right leg, then Waterman’s back, and looped over Pantemis into the net.

With the score run up, Curtin was able to make four substitutions in the last half hour: Martínez for Bueno, Lowe for Wagner, Andrés Perea for Leon Flach, and Joaquín Torres for Uhre.

Unfortunately, Martínez’s cameo had a bad ending. He earned a yellow card for a retaliatory shove on Montreal’s Matko Miljevic in the 88th minute, and he’ll be suspended from next Saturday’s game at San Jose because of yellow card accumulation.

Coincidentally, Martínez will depart the Union for a few days after that to play for Venezuela’s national team in friendlies against Honduras on June 15 in D.C. and Guatemala on June 18 in East Hartford, Conn.

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Brandan Craig, Jack McGlynn, Quinn Sullivan, and the rest of the United States under-20 team face Uruguay on Sunday in the quarterfinals of the under-20 World Cup (5 p.m., FS2, Telemundo 62, Universo), hoping to propel the Americans to their first semifinal since 1989.

“It’s a big opportunity for all of us to make history, and we’re just taking it one game at a time,” Craig said in a news conference from Santiago del Estero, Argentina, the site of Sunday’s game.

The U.S. has won its four games so far by a combined 10-0 margin, and Craig has been at the center of the outstanding defensive effort.

“Everybody helps to keep a clean sheet — it’s not just my job, it’s not just the backline, it’s not just Gaga [Slonina, the team’s starting goalkeeper],” Craig said. “It’s the entire team and we take real pride in that. And I know it’s so obvious, but if we keep a clean sheet, then the odds of us winning are much, much higher because I know the attackers are going to do their job and finish their chances.”

If the Americans win, they’ll face surprising Israel in the semifinals on Thursday (1:30 p.m., FS2, Universo). Israel upset Brazil, 3-2, in extra time, in the round of 16 on Saturday. It’s the first time Israel has played in an under-20 men’s World Cup. The nation hasn’t reached a senior World Cup since its lone appearance in 1970.

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