Union Takeaways: Loss to Inter Miami leaves Jim Curtin’s team ‘a little bit humbled’

Here’s our morning-after look back at the Union’s 2-0 loss to Inter Miami on Saturday night in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Miami’s Robert Taylor. It certainly wasn’t anyone on the Union, even with their statistical advantages in shots, shots on target, and expected goals.

The visitors’ best scoring chance of the night was Dániel Gazdag’s shot off a 34th-minute breakaway with Mikael Uhre, forced by Uhre’s interception of a bad goal kick by Drake Callender. Uhre and Gazdag mounted a 2-on-2 charge the other way, and Callender came off his line to block Gazdag’s shot.

There wasn’t another chance that was any good until the 69th, when Gazdag sprung Julián Carranza but the Argentine ended up too wide right to score. He shot off Callender and forced a juicy rebound, but Joaquín Torres couldn’t corral the loose ball.

So we’ll give the honor to the guy who scored a stupendous goal for Miami barely two minutes after coming off the bench. If Andre Blake could have done a little better on the Herons’ first goal, there was no stopping Taylor’s first-touch rocket after he trapped the ball with his chest just outside the 18-yard box.

» READ MORE: Union suffer first loss of season, 2-0 at Inter Miami

0.42. That’s the expected-goal figure on Gazdag’s shot that Callender saved. The way expected goals totals (xG for short) in a game work is that each shot taken ends up with a number that reflects the likelihood of it being scored.

So think of it this way: the Union totaled 1.05 expected goals for the game from 11 shots. That one shot accounted for 0.42 of the 1.05. Which means the other 10 shots combined were worth 0.63 expected goals … which means each of those 10 shots averaged an xG figure of 0.06.

That’s the best statistical way of showing what the eye test told you: while the Union recorded a lot of shots, few of them were good.

28. That’s how many clearances Inter Miami recorded in the game. It’s proof that this year’s Herons squad is a real team, not just a collection of big names like we’ve seen in the past. There’s still star power in Josef Martínez and Rodolfo Pizarro, and obviously if Lionel Messi shows up it changes everything. But for now, this was a statement win.

» READ MORE: Inter Miami’s Shanyder Borgelin is a Union academy success, even though he plays for a rival

“There was a couple of transitions that we had and usually we pull off a play or two. And we were just a little bit off tonight. Maybe when we should have passed, we dribbled, and when we dribbled, we should have passed, and we just kind of missed each other and didn’t have our sharpest night. … We got a little bit humbled tonight, and hopefully it’s a good wake-up call for the guys.”

— Union manager Jim Curtin

“We do feel like there’s a different feeling around this football club. I talk a lot about feelings and about sensations you have, and that smell in your gut. And more often than not, your gut’s not wrong.”

— Inter Miami manager Phil Neville

Seattle Sounders 2, Real Salt Lake 0. Last year, Seattle became the first MLS team to win the Concacaf Champions League in its current form. But the title run and some key injuries took such a big toll that the Sounders missed the playoffs.

This year, the Sounders’ preseason included playing in the Club World Cup in Morocco, which got them in game shape early. Now back on home turf, they’ve charged out of the gate with two straight wins — and three goals from U.S. national team veteran Jordan Morris.

» READ MORE: How to watch Union games in the new Apple MLS Season Pass streaming package

The Union kick off the second Concacaf Champions League campaign in team history on Tuesday, visiting El Salvador’s Alianza in the first game of the round of 16 (8 p.m., FS1, TUDN). The team flew straight there from Fort Lauderdale to prepare. The game will be played at the Estadio Cuscatlán in San Salvador, the stadium where El Salvador’s national team recently hosted the United States in World Cup qualifying and the Concacaf Nations League.

The next MLS game is Saturday against the Chicago Fire at Subaru Park at 7:30 p.m. It will be the first Union game behind the Apple MLS Season Pass paywall.