Union finally earn first win at Yankee Stadium over NYCFC

NEW YORK — Seven years and eight games after their first trip to Yankee Stadium, the Union finally have their first win on New York City’s home field.

Alejandro Bedoya scored in the 12th minute, Dániel Gazdag doubled the lead in the 33rd, and the defense made the lead stand up from there for a 2-0 win. The Union go in to the international break still undefeated through four games (3-0-1, 10 points).

The start was ragged, to no one’s surprise given the afternoon kickoff and the always-unusual nature of playing at Yankee Stadium. Talles Magno really should have scored in the fifth minute when he was wide open on the left side of the 18-yard box, but he shot right at Andre Blake.

While that was surprising, it wasn’t surprising that the opening goal came from a set piece. In the 12th minute, Kai Wagner served an inch-perfect set piece from the left wing into New York’s 18-yard box and Julián Carranza knocked it down on to a platter for a wide-open Bedoya. The Union’s captain delivered a smart first-time finish.

Bedoya had made a smart run, too, staying on the left side of the action after all of his teammates — and almost all of New York’s defense — had moved to the right. New York’s Santiago Rodríguez, who was supposed to be marking Bedoya, was ball-watching instead. By the time he got moving, the Union’s captain was long gone.

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Nathan Harriel played another great game at right back: 45 touches, 5 interceptions, 4 clearances, 3 recoveries, and a superb cross to Gazdag for the Union’s second goal.

“That’s three great games in a row for Nathan,” Curtin said, another sign that the starting job is Harriel’s now.

“He’s still a very young defender, but the one thing that I love about him is how brave he is — he always defends forward, and he does it an aggressive way,” Curtin continued. “I think there’s even another level he can go to in the attacking third, but he’s a defender first and foremost, and he’s a damn good one.”

“He’s giving [Olivier] Mbaizo a run for his money, right?” Bedoya said. “I think that’s always good in a team like us. You always want to have depth, you always want guys competing, and when you have two guys of their caliber fighting for [the starting job at] right back, that’s just going to make us better as a team overall.”

Bedoya also gave Harriel a strong endorsement, though he was careful to not have it come off as criticism of Mbaizo, the former starter.

Mbaizo is going to have to work hard to overtake Harriel after Cameroon’s final World Cup qualifying playoff games this month. The Indomitable Lions host Algeria, led by Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez, on Friday; then play at Algeria on March 29.

Though New York (1-2-1, 4 points) had far more of the possession in the first half, the Union’s lead was big enough to move New York manager Ronny Deila to make a double-substitution at halftime, and put four forwards on the field at the same time: Rodríguez, Magno, Valentín Castellanos, and Héber.

Add attacking midfielder Maxi Moralez to the mix and you get a … well, it might not have been an official “formation.” Call it a 3-5-2 if you want, but wingers Rodríguez and Magno weren’t out there to play much defense.

Whatever it was, the Union not only survived it, but did so without conceding a goal. While New York had 73% of the possession and an 18-13 advantage in total shots, the Union had a higher expected goal figure, 1.79 to 1.12.

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Jack Elliott is lucky that Rodríguez clearly handled the ball on the first-half play where Elliott pushed Rodríguez over and was initially shown a red card. There was no doubt Elliott made enough contact to deny Rodríguez a goal-scoring opportunity after Rodríguez had dribbled past Blake.

But there was also no doubt about Rodríguez’s handball. Because that happened before everything else, the red card was overturned and Elliott was able to stay on the field.

That was just one sequence from a busy afternoon for referee Ted Unkel. He called 24 fouls, 12 on each team, and gave Carranza his third yellow card of the season — just 14 minutes into Carranza’s return from a red card suspension.

The second half went mostly without incident until the 70th minute, when a fracas erupted on Blake’s goal line after a save. Castellanos was one of the principals, escalating things by getting in Blake’s face then shoving Wagner as he arrived to try to calm things down. Things did not calm down at all, and it took a while to break up the gathering.

In the end, a yellow to Castellanos was the only card given out of all of it.

Once he was cleared to stay on the field, Elliott had a huge game at centerback: 13 clearances (of which 11 were headed), 6 duels won, 4 recoveries, 2 interceptions, and 4 shots at the attacking end.

Jakob Glesnes was also terrific, with 6 recoveries, 5 clearances (3 headed), 5 interceptions, and 1 block.