Union takeaways: Too many shots made too little impact in a scoreless tie with D.C. United

Here are our day-after takeaways on the Union’s scoreless tie with D.C. United on Wednesday night at Subaru Park, the first time the Union failed to beat D.C. at home since 2014.

» READ MORE: Union and D.C. United slog to scoreless tie at Subaru Park

Leon Flach. Not for the first time this year, no one at the attacking end of the field deserves the honor. Flach gets it for a few reasons, one of which is that he wasn’t supposed to start where he did.

Union manager Jim Curtin revealed after the game that he improvised the 4-3-2-1 formation he rolled out because José Andrés Martínez said Friday he didn’t feel good enough to start yet. So Flach started in the defensive midfield spot instead, but it wasn’t set up the way it usually is.

While Flach’s attacking shortcomings have been exposed in the Union’s customary 4-4-2 diamond, Wednesday’s formation put players close by on each side of Flach. If the main aim of that was to jam D.C.’s wide attackers Mateusz Klich and Lewis O’Brien, there was also a side benefit of giving Flach more nearby passing outlets than he has in the 4-4-2.

The result of this was that while Flach had just 38 touches, he completed 27 of his 30 pass attempts. Just three of his attempts were long balls, which is a lot fewer than Martínez usually tries, but a completion rate that high deserves highlighting.

If someone wants to say Andre Blake should get the honor for his three saves (and it felt like unofficially there were more), fine. But Flach has taken a lot of criticism for his passing, so it’s fair to give credit when it’s due.

» READ MORE: Jim Curtin’s tactical tweak in the Union’s recent win at Colorado could be a sign of things to come

2: The Union’s total shots on target. They took 16 shots overall, and to put only two officially on frame is not good. A few attempts didn’t miss by much, including Matt Real’s header in the 54th minute and Andrés Perea’s last-gasp hit in the 92nd. But their teammates’ repeated attempts to chip Tyler Miller from long range when he strayed far off his goal line grew tiresome after a while.

9: The number of clearances by Jack Elliott, to go with two interceptions, one block, and six defensive recoveries. His biggest play wasn’t any of those, though: It was a lunge at the rebound of Russell Canouse’s close-range whiff after Christian Benteke put a header off the crossbar in the 69th minute. Elliott and José Andrés Martínez then combined to take up just enough space for Jakob Glesnes to step in and slam the ball away.

“Got in at halftime and spoke, and wanted us to create more, be a little bit more brave. I thought we were a little more aggressive in the second half — we changed back to the 4-4-2 diamond in the second half and had some chances, but not enough. So it’s your ugly 0-0 Wednesday game that at home always feels like a loss.”

— Union manager Jim Curtin judges the game.

“Everybody was expecting more today. Everybody was happy to be finally back in the stadium and just to play at home after a long road stretch. My mentality will always be higher. I think everybody saw it today; I was fighting until the last minute [to] block shots, try to create something, and stuff like this. But … I didn’t feel that was from everybody today.”

— Union left back Kai Wagner on the mood in the locker room after the game.

» READ MORE: The Union’s three Designated Players all got raises this year

FC Cincinnati 3, CF Montréal 0. Cincinnati extended its perfect home record this year to 7-0-0, becoming the first team since the Union in 2020 to win its first seven home games of a regular season.

It helped that Montréal’s Joel Waterman deposited an own goal in just the second minute, but Luciano Acosta and Brandon Vazquez made the game a no-doubter with goals later on.

The Union host the New England Revolution on Saturday at Subaru Park (7:30 p.m., Apple TV, paywalled). It might be the biggest regular-season home game yet this year, because New England is second in the Eastern Conference (7-2-3, 24 points) behind Cincinnati, and didn’t play a midweek game.

Wednesday’s tie left the Union (5-4-3, 18 points) in a three-way tie for fifth place.