Union lose to Columbus Crew, 1-0, in resumption of MLS regular season

The Union lost to the Columbus Crew on Wednesday at Subaru Park, 1-0, in the first regular-season MLS game after a 39-day break for the Leagues Cup.

Yaw Yeboah scored the goal in the 75th minute, leaving the Union (6-11-9, 27 points) still in 10th place in the Eastern Conference. Columbus (13-4-7, 46 points), now the reigning MLS and Leagues Cup champions, sits in third with games in hand on the field because of its deep runs in this year’s Leagues Cup and Concacaf Champions Cup.

New Union midfielder Danley Jean Jacques earned his first start after two substitute appearances in the Leagues Cup.

Wearing No. 21, the Haitian lined up next to Alejandro Bedoya in the central part of a flat 4-4-2 formation, an unusual setup for the Union. Leon Flach played wide left and Quinn Sullivan played wide right, with Dániel Gazdag and Tai Baribo up front.

» READ MORE: The Union are shorthanded at centerback as they resume their regular season

Columbus manager Wilfried Nancy rested most of his stars who won the Leagues Cup title on Sunday, the same day the Union lost the third-place game to Colorado. But Diego Rossi, Juan “Cucho” Hernández, Darlington Nagbe, and Christian Ramirez were all on the bench to come in later.

Jean Jacques showed some of his athleticism in the sixth minute when he jumped impressively high to head a corner kick wide. Also, the Union had five corner kicks in that early span, putting the Crew under some early pressure.

Nathan Harriel went down without contact in the 17th minute after appearing to grasp at his back. The Union’s medical staff came on the field and attended to his leg muscles, which seemed to signal that there wasn’t previous contact to cause the pain either.

Harriel was officially subbed out in the 22nd for Olivier Mbaizo.

» READ MORE: Union fall to Colorado following a dismal shootout performance in Leagues Cup third-place match

We’ll have to wait to see exactly what the cause was, and how bad the effects will be. But since Damion Lowe’s departure makes Harriel effectively the No. 3 centerback on the depth chart, if Harriel is out for any extended time, it could be a big problem. The Union’s next game is Saturday at the rival New York Red Bulls (7:30 p.m., Apple TV).

There wasn’t much to write home about in the rest of the first half. The Union’s best chance came in the 38th minute, when Mbaizo got high up the right flank, cut in, and had a low cross blocked toward Sullivan, who shot off the crossbar from 7 yards.

Kai Wagner had a half-chance in first-half stoppage time after latching on to a long cross-field pass from Jakob Glesnes, but Columbus’ Sean Zawadzki ran over and took the ball away. Wagner then slid into Zawadski as he tried to clear the ball out, and earned a yellow card for a clearly rash challenge.

» READ MORE: Damion Lowe departs the Union for a team in Saudi Arabia

Nancy won his lineup bet when he was able to bring Rossi off the bench in the 62nd minute with the game still scoreless, as part of a triple-substitution. In the 72nd, Nagbe and Hernández came in after a hydration break amid the high heat and humidity.

Union manager Jim Curtin made his first substitutions at that point too, sending in Jack McGlynn for Jean Jacques and Mikael Uhre for Bedoya. That shifted the Union to their usual diamond-shaped 4-4-2 setup, with Flach at the base and McGlynn on the left.

Columbus’ moves quickly livened up the Crew’s attack, and Yeboah — who was also part of that triple-sub — found the net in the 75th. Max Arfsten, who was the other entrant in that move, floated a cross that Yeboah was able to knock down with a header and send through the converging Union defense to the net.

» READ MORE: The upside of the Union not winning the Leagues Cup is their young talent now knows what it takes