Union

Union on First Losing Skid of the Season, Largely Due to Their Inability to Play 11 vs. 10

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 7th, 2025 · 12:29 PM EDT

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The Union’s 13-game unbeaten streak is now a two-game losing streak, their first skid of the year. They were woefully undermanned in a tough 1-0 loss against Columbus last week, but dropped points Saturday night in Nashville when they went up a man in the second half, conceded an appalling penalty, and lost in stoppage time:

First things first, that’s a brutal header from Olivier Mbaizo, who knocks a throw-in right into the path of a Nashville player, which results in Olwethu Makhanya being caught off guard and ultimately going to ground while trying to catch up. He had played well up until that point, Makhanya. But Mbaizo is 27 years old, has been with the Union since 2018, and continues to be good for one backbreaking defensive lapse per game.

Noteworthy is the fact that he is currently the third-string right fullback for Bradley Carnell, who was missing Frankie Westfield to injury and Nathan Harriel to international duty. Quinn Sullivan was again unavailable because of USA detail and the Union haven’t rolled out a full-strength team in what feels like aeons now. But they went 13 games unbeaten getting contributions from guys like Markus Anderson and Jesus Bueno, so this was really a continuation of the “next man up” thing and not necessarily an outlier.

What’s really killed this team twice in the last six weeks is the inability to play up a man. In Dallas, they couldn’t break down a low block and settled for a scoreless draw after managing 23 shots and only one on goal. They had 11 corners and 28 crosses and nothing to show for it other than a flat road point.

In this game, you couldn’t even tell that they were playing up a man, and sure, the red card took place in the 63rd minute and legs were probably starting to tire at that point, but it looked like the same frenetic 11v11 that we had watched in the first half. It was end-to-end action with hectic scrambles and a ton of physicality and looked like both teams had the same amount of players on the field.

Both cases are different, but the problem is the same. The Union just aren’t built to play this way. They thrive when they’re pressing and moving in transition and thumping in crosses from Sullivan and Kai Wagner. They just don’t have a midfielder who can slow the game down when it’s 11v10, knock the ball around, and/or create chances against a team that’s putting nine or ten players behind the ball. Jovan Lukic isn’t that guy, nor is Danley Jean Jacques. They’ve both been very good this year but they are box-to-box bruisers and they aren’t going to pick out a pass or control the tempo or unlock anything through the middle. They aren’t going to dribble anybody 1v1. Same thing with Indiana Vassilev, Bueno, Ben Bender, Cavan Sullivan, and everyone else who serves as a plug-and-play midfielder in this car crash Red Bull system. You can’t high press and turn over a team that doesn’t have the ball, and when the game changes, they have little of the required finesse to adjust to the new situation. These are positions where you really need a Haris Medunjanin or Ilsinho to come in and strangle the other team with midfield control and some creative flair.

The FBREF stats back up what your eyeballs already confirm with this team. They lead MLS with 60 crosses into the penalty area. That is actually more than one-third (33.7%) of their 178 total passes into the penalty area, which is 9th in the league. Coincidentally, they have 687 passes into the final third, which is 12th in MLS, while holding the worst passing percentage overall at 73.3. They also have 59 dead ball passes leading to shots, which is #1. They are the 7th-lowest possession team in the league, at 47.4%.

So it’s not an issue of getting the ball into danger areas, or putting shots on frame, it’s that they do it with a high frequency from crosses and free kicks while playing a majority of each game without the ball. They’re happy to concede possession and try these early-transition passes. But now the opponent is down to 10 and you’re not turning teams over and bombing the flanks and firing in early crosses at retreating defenders who are facing their own goal. The situation calls for something different entirely, and that player just isn’t on the roster.

Maybe they can figure something out on the training ground, or else the solution is to waive an opponent red card, and request that the player stays on the field instead. That doesn’t exist in the FIFA laws of the game, but perhaps we can request it be added.