Refereeing controversy mars Union’s collapse in 3-2 loss at CF Montréal

MONTRÉAL — After Mikael Uhre’s first goals of the season sparked a Union rally in the second half, a red card and a stunning plot twist by the referees contributed to a late collapse and a 3-2 loss at CF Montréal.

Things couldn’t have gone much worse for the Union (2-2-0, 6 points) than how they did just 72 seconds after kickoff. Mathieu Choinière’s shot from 17 yards hit Jakob Glesnes’ outstretched left hand, everyone saw it, and referee Nima Saghafi promptly blew the whistle. Glesnes earned a yellow card, Montréal (1-3-0, 3 points) earned a penalty kick, and Romell Quioto slammed it in.

It was the first goal Joe Bendik conceded since stepping into the net for the injured Andre Blake.

Bendik came up big in the 40th with a low save on Choinière, and that gave the Union momentum. They registered two very good chances in the next three minutes, a Mikael Uhre shot just over the crossbar and an Alejandro Bedoya shot that forced a jumping save from Jonathan Sirois.

In the 45th, Sirois stopped Julián Carranza from close range, with Carranza taking a shot to the back along the way. It produced a corner kick that Uhre shot low and Sirois barely saved.

By halftime, the Union had a 6-5 edge in shots, including 3-2 in shots on target, and 55% of the possession.

The momentum carried so well into the second half that you might not have been back on your couch yet when the Union scored.

Fifteen seconds after play resumed, Leon Flach intercepted a short pass from Rudy Camacho to Nathan Saliba and tapped the ball forward to Dániel Gazdag. He passed to Uhre with his first touch, and Uhre spun and shot as three Montréal players closed in on him.

While Uhre’s first goal was a work of power, his second was a work of art. Gazdag chipped a pass over the midfield line, and the big Dane sprinted between Camacho and Joel Waterman into the wide-open space behind them. Uhre took one touch to settle the ball as he kept running, and his second was an arrow fired low to the far post.

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Carranza drew two yellow cards in eight minutes midway through the second half, earning himself a red card. He will thus miss next Saturday’s home game against Orlando City.

Because MLS is playing through a FIFA window next weekend, the Union were already going to be quite shorthanded, with seven players gone on national team duty. Now they will be even more so.

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After the red card, Union manager Jim Curtin sent in three defensive reinforcements to try to close the game out: Chris Donovan for Uhre and Andrés Perea for Gazdag in the 74th, and Damion Lowe for Alejandro Bedoya in the 87th. That left the Union in a 3-5-1 as they tried to close out the game.

The moves were sensible, but the Union couldn’t hold the lead. Yet as bad as that was, the manner in which it happened was barely believable.

Nnamdi Chinonso Offor tied the game in the 90th minute by heading in a rebound of Choinière’s shot, but a video review overturned the goal for offside. Then, before the play restarted, referee Nima Saghafi was summoned back to the sideline monitor, watched the play again, and gave the goal.

Indeed, Offor was not offside, but he did shove Glesnes down as Joel Waterman’s cross went over him toward Choinière. Saghafi evidently thought nothing of that.

“After the initial review occurred, prior to play restarting, the VAR discovered an angle that clearly showed that MTL #9 [Offor] was in an onside position when the ball was last touched by a teammate,” Saghafi said in a written statement to the pool reporter at the game. “Therefore the correct decision was to allow the goal.”

In the 98th minute, after what had originally been planned as four minutes of stoppage time, Choinière launched another big cross from the right side. Quioto broke free of Olivier Mbaizo to head in the winner.

At the final whistle, the crowd of 23,352 erupted yet again. So did the Union, but for a very different reason.