The Union got off to a great start with a 4-2 win in Orlando on Saturday night. They are 1-0, undefeated, and currently ahead of Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami team. Hurray!

This game was the classic case of “more than one thing can be true.” On one hand, the Union were focused and determined and brought a high work rate to Florida. On the other hand, Orlando looked like a minor league team and played a hideous atrocity of a game.

Here are the four goals that were scored:

Goal #1 is just the Union outworking Orlando. The ball is bouncing around in the box and they show the persistence to finish the sequence. Kai Wagner slides a ball across the box and Orlando players stand there, ball watching. Goal #2 is a far post cross from Quinn Sullivan, a really nice close-angle finish from Daniel Gazdag, but Pedro Gallese should make that save and it’s a save that Andre Blake makes 9,999 times out of 10,000. Gallese looked like he was on another planet all night long. The third goal is as bad of a defensive miscue as you will ever see, and with the fourth goal there’s an off-ball collision because the Orlando defender was on the wrong side of the Union player, which results in no rotational coverage and another open look in front of the net.

So that’s the one thing, Orlando playing an appalling game of soccer. It was one of the worst defensive and goalkeeping efforts you will ever see. But defensive errors don’t mean anything if you’re not in a position to take advantage of them, and that’s exactly what the Union did in the season opener. They ran and worked and pressed and kept plays alive. They finished sequences while Orlando players were standing around, waiting for a teammate to clear. They put balls into the danger area and the other team did a poor job dealing with it. These were greasy goals in the same way that Scotty Hartnell used to park his butt in front of the net and clean up the slop.


Doesn’t matter if it’s a world-class volley or a punished mistake, because they count just the same.

The hallmark of Jim Curtin’s successful Union teams is that they made opponents pay for their missteps. You screw up against the U, you’re probably down 1-0, taking a yellow card, or facing a set piece. Bradley Carnell’s team is going to do much of the same. I don’t know how many games they win this season, or if they make the playoffs, but they’re gonna come at you in waves and if you’re sloppy in the back, well, you see the result.