Union routed by Mexico’s Pachuca, 6-0, the biggest loss in team history

The Union’s run in this year’s Concacaf Champions Cup ended in the heaviest defeat in team history, a 6-0 blowout loss at Mexico’s Pachuca in the concluding game of the round of 16 series.

Prolific veteran striker Salomón Rondón scored the first three goals, a 7th-minute penalty kick and decisive finishes in first-half stoppage time and the 53rd minute. Nelson Deossa and Oussama Idrissi added to the pile in the 57th and 63rd, and Alan Bautista finished it off in the 85th.

The unplanned short night earlier in the week courtesy of the storm that ended the Union’s game against Seattle early allowed Union manager Jim Curtin to start a full-strength lineup, and he did.

Curtin’s only major decisions were starting Alejandro Bedoya in midfield, moving Quinn Sullivan higher up, and picking Nathan Harriel over Olivier Mbaizo at right back. All of those moves gave the team more defensive reinforcement. Also, Damion Lowe started over Jack Elliott at centerback to bring his continental experience to the field.

» READ MORE: The Union hoped to repeat last year's Concacaf heroics in Mexico

Fox’s broadcast crew of Luis Omar Tapia and former Union captain Maurice Edu wondered if the Union’s lineup might have had more big-game experience than Pachuca’s, which qualified for the Champions Cup by winning Mexico’s 2022-23 autumn half-season title.

But that experience didn’t matter. Pachuca came into the series with the better talent and showed it off with force in this game. Rondón is a beast, Érick Sánchez is a Mexican national team stalwart, and Idrissi was a menace throughout both games.

Kai Wagner’s foul on Miguel Rodríguez in the fourth minute wasn’t much, but when the referee goes to the video review monitor, one can usually guess what’s coming.

In this case, it was ignoring Rodríguez making a sales job of Wagner’s light shove and looking at the players’ feet. Wagner’s right caught Rodríguez’s left, and that was the infraction.

Rondón stepped up, and while Andre Blake guessed correctly, the shot was unstoppable.

Pachuca got a little lucky again on the second goal. Rondón received a long ball over the middle, played a give-and-go with Sánchez, then shot past Blake from close range.

The video review officials took a long look at the play, presumably to see if Rondón was onside when that long ball was played. The TV broadcast didn’t show the full pass live or on replay, but the officials judged it a good goal.

When the signal came down, Dániel Gazdag slammed the ball on the turf before taking the kickoff. It ended up as the last kick of the half.

» READ MORE: Union game vs. Seattle postponed because of waterlogged field at Subaru Park

The Union’s best chance of the half came at the start of stoppage time when José Andrés Martínez pinged a cross onto Gazdag’s head and he put the ball straight at Pachuca goalkeeper Carlos Moreno.

There was also a decent look in the 42nd minute when Jack McGlynn cranked a long-range shot that forced Moreno into a diving save.

It made some sense that Curtin had hoped to save Julián Carranza’s return from a thigh injury for the second half. Until Pachuca’s second goal, the game was close enough that the Union was still in OK shape.

But that second goal made the hill too big to climb, especially at Pachuca’s 7,843-foot altitude.

When Carranza arrived at the start of the half, Curtin notably took Martínez out. That gave the Union an attack-minded lineup, with Bedoya the most defensive-oriented player in midfield. If the Union were going to go down, they were going to go all-out to get goals first.

Alas, the next goal came from Pachuca, and that was the series. Miguel Rodríguez broke past Wagner on the right wing, swung in a cross, and Rondón completed his hat trick by posterizing Jakob Glesnes with a close-range slam.

» READ MORE: Nathan Harriel led a noble defensive effort in the opening game of the series

That goal and Deossa’s came from high pressure that looked pulled from the Union’s playbook, but it’s also long been Pachuca’s style. Damion Lowe hit a bad pass out of the back that was easily intercepted. He headed to Sánchez, who fed Deossa, and he ripped a shot from 25 yards that Blake could only deflect into his own net.

The Union were clearly exhausted and out of sorts, and Pachuca kept piling on. Sánchez coasted in behind Rondón’s hold-up play and was wide-open when he shot.

Curtin’s other second-half subs were only to save the starters’ legs for the return to the regular season on Saturday at Austin FC (8:30 p.m., Apple TV, free). Jesús Bueno replaced Bedoya and Markus Anderson replaced Mikael Uhre in the 56th, then Mbaizo replaced Harriel and Elliott replaced Gazdag in the 69th.

Pachuca, meanwhile, subbed in a fleet of young prospects who’ve made the club’s development pipeline one of Mexico’s best. Bautista was one of them. He and Idrissi did a little dancing to make the sixth goal happen, ending the night with one last serving of Union misery.

» READ MORE: Markus Anderson is quickly making a name for himself with the Union