Union Takeaways: Julián Carranza is the king of Queens in another big win over NYCFC

NEW YORK — Here are our day-after observations from the Union’s 3-1 win at New York City FC Saturday. The Union extended their regular-season unbeaten streak to seven games and have now won four straight over NYCFC.

Julián Carranza. An easy decision. The Argentine striker scored two superb goals: perfect positioning to read the long balls he received from Jack Elliott and José Andrés Martínez, and thunderous finishes right in front of the large section of traveling Union fans.

» READ MORE: Julián Carranza’s goals spark the Union to a 3-1 comeback win at New York City FC

Carranza registered four shots in all, and it would have been five had he not been offside with a finish a few minutes before his first goal. He also had four defensive recoveries, one interception, one tackle, and one block, and he won the penalty kick that Dániel Gazdag scored for the Union’s third goal — even if it was questionable whether the foul happened inside the box.

At the end of the night, Union manager Jim Curtin said it was the best game he’d seen Carranza play for the team.

5: The number of interceptions by Union centerback Damion Lowe. The Union sat back a little too much for their own good in the game’s early stages, and Lowe was stuck having to chase NYCFC star Gabriel Pereira and other attackers. But after Pereira scored NYCFC’s goal in the 30th minute, the Union started to put the clamps down defensively.

Along with those interceptions, Lowe tallied seven clearances, 13 defensive recoveries, and won seven of 10 duels. He also completed 28 of 35 passes and drew two fouls.

Honorable mention goes to Andre Blake’s six saves, four of which came in the first half — three of before Pereira’s goal. Even though the Union entered halftime with the lead, New York topped them in expected goals in the period, 0.92 to 0.68. (That also tells everyone Carranza’s finishes weren’t easy.)

3: The number of scoring chances created for teammates by Mikael Uhre, including the assist on Carranza’s second goal. Uhre had just 17 touches in the game, but he completed 10 of his 11 pass attempts. He also drew two fouls, and that just counts the ones that got whistled.

“When we’re down 1-0 going into halftime, I already start[ed] to think what I’m going to tell the team. And I was going to tell them that we’re better in every position, so stay with it, stick with it. We made a mistake on the goal, but we’re going to get our chances and it’s going to come. They make me look good by scoring two goals in that four-minute extra time period, so we go in 2-1.”

— Curtin on his mood on the bench late in the first half.

“The group, I think, when we went down 1-0, started to press proactively on their own. And we talked at halftime and I gave them ownership. I said, ‘Guys, you want to high press?’ Because in my mind, I felt like they had energy off of it. And to a man, everybody shouted at the same time, ‘Yes, let’s go.’ And they dictated that in the second half.”

— Curtin on how his halftime team talk actually went. (He also said he told them what he originally planned to say.)

“We always know what we can do. We got off to a slow start this year for a few different reasons. But we’re kind of starting to get our foot in, kind of starting to re-establish ourselves, if you want to say that. We know what we’re about, and we like just going about our own business.”

— Blake on the Union’s seven-game unbeaten run in regular-season games.

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Toronto FC 2, D.C. United 1. After TFC star Federico Bernardeschi publicly criticized manager Bob Bradley last weekend, Bradley benched him for this game. And on Friday, The Athletic published a scathing piece full of details from across the Reds’ locker room on the many problems of the league’s biggest spenders on salaries by far.

This win will help calm the waters, not just for the score but the manner of it. Lorenzo Insigne, Toronto’s biggest star of all, assisted on both goals. The scorers were 20-year-old attackers developed in-house, Deandre Kerr on the first and Kosi Thompson on the second.

The Union return home to host Charlotte FC on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., a game that will be streamed free of charge on Apple TV. Next Saturday will bring another home game, against CF Montréal at 7:30 p.m. That contest is also set to be free on Apple — as are all the games leaguewide that night.

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