Mikael Uhre answers his critics with a goal vs. Atlanta, and is narrowly denied another

There had been a lot of criticism of the Union heading into Sunday’s game at Atlanta, from fans of other teams and from around here.

The chorus from elsewhere said that the last unbeaten team in MLS this year hadn’t yet played anyone really serious. Nashville is next-to-last in the East, Austin and Portland aren’t among the West’s best, and Minnesota isn’t either (even though the Loons were unbeaten until they left Subaru Park).

A big national TV game on Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s big stage sufficed to answer them, as it usually does. And just when it seemed Atlanta had buried the Union in the second half, the Union rallied for a 2-2 tie that could have been a win.

We’ll get to why it wasn’t a win in a moment. First, let’s spotlight the player who sparked the comeback.

Union fans rag on Mikael Uhre because he doesn’t produce as much as the team’s highest-player could. There are definitely times when he underwhelms, and he has often been the first to admit it. But on Sunday, he came off the bench and made two plays that might get the critics off his back for a while.

» READ MORE: Union stay undefeated with comeback for 2-2 tie at Atlanta United

The first was his team’s first goal of the day, scored in the 73rd minute. It came after Atlanta’s Tristan Muyumba smashed a backward pass so far that elsewhere in Georgia, it would have landed in pine straw. But Uhre had other ideas.

Up in Apple’s broadcast booth, former Union captain Maurice Edu was in the middle of talking about something else when he stopped himself with an abrupt “Uh-oh.” He knew what was at hand.

There was still plenty of work for Uhre to do, and he did it in stride. One touch settled the ball enough as it rolled on the artificial turf, then he blasted it past Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan from 18 yards. It was his fourth goal in 10 games this year.

“That’s a striker’s goal,” Union manager Jim Curtin said. “When another team makes a mistake, you have to punish them. You have to have that killer instinct to make them pay, and Mikael did.”

The game’s momentum changed in an instant, and everyone knew it — especially Guzan, who has a history of giving up dramatic goals to the Union. Four minutes later, Kai Wagner tied the score with a right-footed strike so rare that Edu’s colleague Keith Costigan presumed Uhre had shot it. (He promptly apologized, and is certainly forgiven. It surprised the rest of us, too.)

In the 79th minute, Uhre would have scored the game-winner if he hadn’t been ruled offside by a measly few inches. It was a very close call, and on another day the goal might have given. There are important reasons why it wasn’t.

MLS doesn’t use the computer rendering-based offside system we see in the World Cup and UEFA Champions League, and what the English Premier League will implement next season. Nor do video review teams get to superimpose a telestrator line on the field.

Instead, the officials have to look at the footage with their own eyes and judge whether to overturn the initial call. If the initial call was off and they aren’t convinced it was wrong, they leave it.

» READ MORE: How the Union became the last unbeaten team in MLS this year

From here, that’s a fine way to do it. A freeze-frame at the correct angle ought to be clear enough to make a call on, instead of having a computer tell you a player’s big toe was guilty. If you can’t see an offside infraction clearly on a replay, count the goal and say it was too close.

The problem is when it’s that close and the angle isn’t correct. That’s what happened Sunday. The replay shown on the broadcast was shot from an angle behind the play, which made it hard to tell whether the offside call was right.

A trained eye might be able to make an educated guess. I’ve seen this happen enough over time to believe Uhre was indeed off. But it’s harder for casual fans.

(By the way, the assistant ref who raised the flag in real time, Kathryn Nesbitt, worked last year’s women’s World Cup final and will be at this summer’s Olympics. No ref is perfect, but she’s as good as there is.)

“I always hear that we’re supposed to err on the side of the attackers and keep the flag down, and that’s why we have VAR, but you can’t blame Kathryn for thinking it was offsides,” Curtin said. “When we go to the video, we should have a clear view one way or the other that is in line with where goals are scored.”

» READ MORE: How the Union can play in next year’s Club World Cup

If you really want to complain about something, take note that MLS runs into this problem too often. Curtin spent a heap of time talking about it on Sunday, but he was right on one point: Apple has the money to pay for extra cameras closer to the end line to fix the problem.

It wouldn’t be “a 10-dollar camera” as Curtin jokingly claimed — but it can be done. And if it also takes a little construction work at some stadiums to install more camera decks, so be it.

“I’m not complaining about it because, it’s an even game that could go either way — we could have won it or lost it,” Curtin said. “Let’s have a view that’s just across straight across the 18-yard box where we can make these big decisions, because they’re game-winning and game-losing decisions.”

Until that happens, here’s another idea. The video review officials use the same cameras as the TV broadcast, but that doesn’t mean they always use the same angle fans see to make the call. If the video review crew makes a call based on a different angle from what’s shown to fans, put it on the broadcast and say that’s the one.

That happens at times, usually with the kinds of calls where the referee goes to the sideline monitor. There’s nothing wrong with doing it for offside calls, too.

Changes like that will leave us all talking less about the refs, and more about the team that’s still the last unbeaten one in the league this year.

» READ MORE: Bradford Jamieson IV was once a young phenom in Los Angeles. Now he’s a Union assistant coach.