Union’s attack goes dry again in scoreless tie with Sporting Kansas City

While the Union finally put a stop to their defensive woes on Saturday, the attack sputtered for too much of the night in a scoreless tie with Sporting Kansas City at Subaru Park.

Though the home team registered 16 shots, just four were on target. A few boos rang out at the final whistle, probably more for referee Victor Rivas than anyone else — but there clearly was dissatisfaction on and off the field.

The night started with an abundance of negative omens. In the hours before kickoff, a car caught fire on the off-ramp from the Commodore Barry Bridge to Subaru Park’s parking lots. Then came the big thunderstorm that slammed the Philadelphia region, delaying kickoff by an hour.

And right before the heavens opened, the Union (2-3-1, 7 points) announced Kai Wagner would miss the game because of a hamstring strain that flared up a few days ago.

But this team had suffered enough bad twists of fate in recent games to have enough on its mind already. So the players stuck to the simple things in the first half, with a resolute focus on defending first.

They certainly did that, recording four blocks, seven interceptions, and 16 clearances. Just two of Sporting’s nine shots went on target, and Andre Blake saved both easily in his return from an adductor strain.

But there wasn’t much action at the other end of the field. The Union nominally took four shots, but none were on target — or even all that threatening.

It took until the 54th minute for the Union to really threaten Sporting’s defense: Julián Carranza sprung Mikael Uhre down the left side for a breakaway, but Tim Melia charged off his line to make a big stop.

Six minutes later, Matt Real got his head to a well-served Dániel Gazdag free kick, but Melia caught the attempt without much trouble.

» READ MORE: The Union-Kansas City game matched MLS’s longest-tenured managers, Jim Curtin and Peter Vermes

Union manager Jim Curtin moved to open up his team’s attack by sending in Jack McGlynn for Leon Flach in central midfield. But Sporting (0-3-3, 3 points) manager Peter Vermes played a strong card of his own, subbing in striker Alan Pulido for the big-money Mexican player’s first minutes since a knee injury in late 2021.

McGlynn promptly got to work, serving up a corner kick in the 67th minute that Jack Elliott headed just over the crossbar.

Quinn Sullivan subbed in for Uhre in the 71st as the Union kept seeking a goal — marking yet another night in which Uhre didn’t play a full game.

Carranza came impressively close to scoring on a bicycle kick attempt amid a broken play in the 85th, but it went wide.

Right after that, Curtin made a double substitution: Olivier Mbaizo for Nathan Harriel and Joaquín Torres for José Andrés Martínez. That shifted the Union’s setup into an attack-minded 4-2-3-1, with Torres, Gazdag, and Sullivan from left to right behind Carranza.

» READ MORE: Nathan Harriel played with star USMNT prospect Folarin Balogun, and remembers it well

Having Blake back in net undoubtedly was a confidence boost. A 14th-minute jump to catch a corner kick in traffic was one of a few moments that stood out. So was a low save on a hard shot by Kansas City’s Johnny Russell in the 61st.

But Blake noticeably didn’t boot the ball long often. In fact, Jakob Glesnes took a goal kick on Blake’s behalf in the 75th minute. That was a sign Blake isn’t fully healthy yet.

A side effect of the lack of long passes was something we don’t often see from the Union: playing the ball out of the back with short passes instead of over the top of at least one opposing line of players.

With Wagner out, Matt Real got the call for his first start of the year and just his second appearance overall. He did a commendable job: 47 touches, 18-of-26 passing (including eight passes into the attacking third), three clearances, and six defensive recoveries.

Curtin said after the game that Wagner has a grade 1 strain, at the light end of the scale. That probably points to being out a week or two.

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The other change to the usual starters wasn’t because of injury. With a quick turnaround to Tuesday’s Concacaf Champions League quarterfinal home game against Mexico’s Atlas (8 p.m., FS1, TUDN), Harriel started at right back instead of Mbaizo.

Had the Union not been stuck in their losing rut, we might have seen more changes to the starters. But this game needed a result for psychological purposes as much as standings purposes, so Curtin rolled out most of his top lineup.