Dániel Gazdag and Julián Carranza score to lead Union’s 2-0 win over Minnesota United

The Union beat Minnesota United on Saturday afternoon at Subaru Park, 2-0, for their second straight win and first regular-season shutout of the year.

Dániel Gazdag opened the scoring in the 16th minute, and Julián Carranza capped it off in the 84th.

Not all the news was good, though, as goalkeeper Andre Blake had to leave the game during the second half while dealing with what may have been the impact of a head injury suffered in the first half.

It wasn’t just a rare 2 p.m. kickoff that livened up the crowd. Gazdag cashed in the Union’s first big scoring chance of the game, getting the last touch on a Kai Wagner corner kick at the far post. Jack Elliott claimed the assist with a redirection in the crowd.

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Though the halftime score was just 1-0 and the shots total was 5-4 to the Union (2-0-3, 9 points), the home team’s overall dominance of the frame was a better show in the expected goal sums: 1.29-0.30.

Blake was on the receiving end of big hits in the fifth and 34th minutes. He kept playing, and made two saves in the first half. The second was a highlight-reel play, shutting down a breakaway by Minnesota’s former Norwich City and Celtic striker Teemu Pukki.

In the 70th minute, Blake sat down on the field without anyone near him. A long medical inspection ensued, including a concussion assessor. After nearly five minutes, the decision was made for Blake to be subbed out, and he didn’t seem to object. Oliver Semmle entered to replace him.

Union manager Jim Curtin said after the game that Blake “just started to feel a little, he described it as, lightheaded at the end of the game. In that instance, credit to our medical staff and doctors for being proactive and doing the right thing.”

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Semmle was beaten by Minnesota’s Bongi Hlongwane in the 82nd, but got bailed out by Tani Oluwaseyi being offside in the buildup. It took a VAR review to confirm, but it was the right call.

Minnesota (3-1-1, 10 points) then made a double-substitution, and play resumed with the clock reading 83:08. A mere 13 seconds after that, the Union had their second goal.

Semmle booted the restart kick long up the field, Alejandro Bedoya got his head to the ball and flicked it on, and Carranza ran through Minnesota’s back line to score his seventh goal of the season.

Between Blake’s injury, the VAR review, and other matters, there ended up being 10 minutes of second-half stoppage time. At least this time it felt merited.

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While there weren’t many goals to talk about, there were occasionally other highlights. One came in the 53rd minute, when a Wagner corner kick was cleared straight to the Union’s Quinn Sullivan just outside the 18-yard box. He took an acrobatic swing at the ball and volleyed it off the crossbar.

Last weekend in Portland, Curtin improvised a flat 4-4-2 formation to make the best use of the 14 field players he had available.

It obviously helped in the 3-1 win, and Curtin seems to have decided to keep it in his playbook. When he made his first substitution of the day — Bedoya for Mikael Uhre — he brought back the flat midfield. Sullivan stayed on the right flank, Gazdag pushed up to the front line next to Carranza, and Bedoya took a central role next to José Andrés Martínez.

» READ MORE: How the Union pulled off one of their most unexpected wins ever, 3-1 at Portland

With the lockout of top-level unionized referees now over, this part of game stories can now be retired. Sergii Boyko took charge of what was the league’s first game since the lockout ended. He called 20 fouls, eight on the Union and 12 on Minnesota, and didn’t give out a yellow card until booking Martínez in the 64th minute for dissent.

Five minutes after that, Boyko booked Minnesota’s Hassani Dotson for swinging an arm into Martínez’s mouth. Dotson might not have meant it, but he landed it too squarely to not be whistled.

The last yellow card of the day went to Nathan Harriel for obstructing Minnesota goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair in the 96th.