Union’s winless streak grows to five games in ugly home loss to Orlando City

The Union’s winless rut is now at five games after a 3-2 loss to Orlando City at Subaru Park on Saturday, the team’s third straight loss on home turf.

Newly-signed young phenom Cavan Sullivan got the fans going as the pregame drummer, but the 14-year-old couldn’t stop his teammates from another awful defensive performance. After Mikael Uhre opened in the scoring in the 12th minute, Orlando’s Duncan McGuire scored in the 21st and Luis Murriel scored in the 42nd and 47th.

The Union (3-3-5, 14 points) started to mount a comeback when Dániel Gazdag scored a penalty kick in the 66th, and Gazdag got another penalty kick attempt in the 88th. But Orlando goalkeeper Pedro Gallese saved it, and Gazdag shot the rebound high into the stands.

It was the first time in Gazdag’s Union career that he failed to score from the spot after a foul, after 27 consecutive makes.

» READ MORE: Union owner Jay Sugarman believes Cavan Sullivan can be a long-sought homegrown breakout star

After Orlando (3-5-3, 12 points) half-cleared a Union corner kick, Quinn Sullivan intercepted a loose ball and headed it for José Andrés Martínez to play to Jack McGlynn. He cut in from the right side and fed Nathan Harriel, who slipped a pretty short pass for Uhre to shoot past Orlando goalkeeper Pedro Gallese.

It was Uhre’s fourth goal of the year, and his first since April 14. It also gave the Union their first lead in any game since April 6, when Gazdag scored a 90th-minute winner at Nashville. That was a span of over 380 minutes of action — officially 372 of regulation plus various stoppage time.

The Union were the better team for much of the first half, but it didn’t matter. Just eight minutes after Uhre’s opener, Nicolás Lodeiro, who joined Orlando this year after many years in Seattle, got way too open on the left and crossed for McGuire to slam in with a header near the goal line.

McGuire’s aerial prowess showed why he’s a candidate to join McGlynn and Harriel on the U.S. Olympic team in two months. That said, Damion Lowe’s defensive marking on McGuire was pretty lax.

» READ MORE: Mikael Uhre was in Jim Curtin's doghouse heading into the weekend

The Union narrowly escaped surrendering a penalty kick in the 40th minute after José Andrés Martínez clearly used the top of his right shoulder to help bring down a ball in the air. The video review officials took a long look, but surprisingly decided to not call a foul.

Perhaps the soccer gods disagreed, because Orlando took the lead just 17 seconds after play resumed. Martínez gave the ball away with a poor pass, and it went from Iván Angulo to Lodeiro to Murriel for a 20-yard rocket into the far top corner of the net.

It was the first goal in Lions colors for the former star of Italy’s Atalanta, who played often in the Champions League and Europa League before joining Orlando in February.

No team should give up a goal 20 seconds into the start of the second half, and no team should give up a goal with as poor team defending as the Union offered on Murriel’s second.

Lodeiro was the provider again, springing Murriel with a through ball right up the middle of the Union’s back line. Kai Wagner raised his hand to appeal for offside, but he was clearly the player keeping Murriel onside — another cardinal sin — and Murriel raced away to shoot past Oliver Semmle.

To make matters worse, Union manager Jim Curtin had few attacking options on his bench to try to turn the game around with: just Chris Donovan and almost-never-used Tai Baribo and Jeremy Rafanello.

» READ MORE: Union fans should treasure watching Jack McGlynn, because they might not be able to for much longer

The Union got a flicker of hope in the 61st minute when Lodeiro committed a handball in his own 18-yard box, and a video review at the next stoppage caught it.

Referee Tim Ford gave the penalty kick, and in doing so made a piece of Subaru Park history: the first video review announcement over the public address system under a new MLS rule where decisions made at the replay monitor are announced to the crowd.

It took a long time for the soccer world to come around to that, but once FIFA made it common at last year’s women’s World Cup, MLS was quick to get on board. The league was supposed to start having announcements at the start of the season, but because of the referee lockout, the implementation was delayed until the regular refs came back on the job.

» READ MORE: Andre Blake is still out injured, and is in talks over his next Union contract

Ford was back on the mic again in the 76th, this time overturning his own decision. He had given Lowe a straight red card for clattering into a sprinting McGuire from behind just outside the 18-yard box, but a look at the monitor showed Lowe got the ball first. It was quite a reprieve for a player who frankly had a poor game overall — including a yellow card five minutes later for elbowing Murriel.

Gazdag’s second penalty kick came after César Araujo fouled Harriel. It was followed by a whopping 18 minutes of stoppage time.

Curtin made just one substitution before stoppage time started, Chris Donovan for Martínez in the 80th. In the 99th, Baribo finally got on the field for the first time this year as a throw-the-kitchen-sink replacement for Lowe.

For all that, the Union barely produced a real scoring chance until the very last play, when Harriel headed a redirected corner kick over the crossbar.