Union suffer first loss of season, 2-0 at Inter Miami

The Union lost for the first time this year, 2-0, at Inter Miami on Saturday, starting a stretch of five games in 15 days on the wrong foot.

Corentin Jean opened the scoring in the 32nd minute and substitute Robert Taylor finished it in the 77th. Both goals were outstanding plays. But the Union (1-1-0, 3 points) will be frustrated that while they out-shot Miami, 11-10, few of their chances were genuinely good.

After a first half-hour full of fouls and arguments, Jean’s blast gave Miami (2-0-0, 6 points) a deserved lead.

The Union responded with Mikael Uhre leading two big pressure moves. The first could have drawn a penalty kick in a collision with Inter goalkeeper Drake Callender; the second led to Uhre feeding Dániel Gazdag on a two-on-two that Callender charged out to stop. Those plays and a Uhre shot over the bar in stoppage time were as close as the Union came to scoring in the first half.

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As the Union turned up the pressure further early in the second half, Apple analyst Brian Dunseth sensed momentum turning in the visitors’ favor.

“I think after what they’ve been through in the last couple of years, there is a self-belief that they can overcome any deficit that they’re facing, no matter how much time’s remaining,” he said.

But it didn’t come to pass this time. Miami’s Jean Mota could easily have made it 2-0 in the 67th when he hit the crossbar unmarked from 20 yards; and in the 75th, Taylor chested down a Mota pass and blasted it first-time past Blake from 18 yards.

Taylor had been on the field for barely two minutes, part of a Miami double-substitution that changed the Herons’ setup from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2.

The Union had some OK chances, including a Julián Carranza shot at Callender in the 69th minute and a Jakob Glesnes header out of a corner kick in the 90th. But none of them were of the quality that the team usually produces.

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Union manager Jim Curtin rolled out the same starting lineup he deployed last Saturday. The team’s lineup announcement noted that it was Glesnes’ 75th consecutive start in MLS play, making him the fifth non-goalkeeper to reach that milestone.

But it might not be totally worth celebrating.

It’s been said here repeatedly, and it’s still the case: Curtin’s reluctance to rotate his starting lineup is his biggest weakness. Heading into this game, he said he’d do it in Tuesday’s Concacaf Champions League round of 16 opener at El Salvador’s Alianza (8 p.m., FS1, TUDN). Now we wait to see if it will be done.

The good news is that Curtin was decisive when he did make substitutions in the 62nd minute: Jack McGlynn for Leon Flach and Joaquín Torres for Uhre.

Quinn Sullivan replaced José Andrés Martínez in the 78th, a signal that Curtin knew it was time to move on. Andrés Perea subbed in for Alejandro Bedoya in the 85th.

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The Union had 52% of the possession, completed 295 passes to Miami’s 283, and had a strong advantage in the expected goals metric of 1.05 to 0.47. It was strong at halftime, too, 0.72 to 0.30.

It’s a reminder that possession and passing statistics often don’t predict a game’s winner. Indeed, a team with a lead will often cede possession to an opponent in order to focus on defense.

And the expected-goals advantage is a reminder that while quantity of chances sometimes makes up for quality, it didn’t in this game.