What Happened To The Union Midfield? A Postmortem Of the Collapse Against NYCFC

The heartbreak doesn’t sit easier even after a night’s sleep.

The clock seemed to move so much faster in this game, especially after NYCFC scored the opening goal at the 30-minute mark. The clock ticked away, and it turns out that those seconds ticking away were the sands of the Union season slipping to the bottom of the hourglass. Somehow, losing that game felt like more of a shock than anything else.

This was supposed to be the next rung on the ladder to winning the MLS Cup and closing out a dream championship season. The last game at Subaru Park was not supposed to be for another month, but NYCFC had something to say about that. With a little time to digest what happened here, I have a few conclusions as to why this match ended in a heartbreaking loss and not with the City supporters driving up I-95, sad that their season came to an end.

The Union Midfield Attack Was Toothless

This is the bread and butter of the offense for the Union. Everything they do is predicated on controlling the midfield circle. The chaos they cause, the pressure put on when there are shots, the second balls, everything starts in the midfield, and tonight, they seemed to lack the intensity they normally have in the midfield area. I saw it early; the passes in the circle were not as crisp, and the players who normally are active and cause their own space were smothered tonight. They just couldn’t shake free, which clogged passing lanes and eliminated the easy outlet passes that defined the Union season.

I thought at the half Bradley Carnell would make an adjustment and free up the midfielders, particularly Indiana Vassilev and Jovan Lukic, who were blanketed all game, and the frustration showed especially in the second half. After a no-call on a play the refs deemed to be feet getting tangled, Vasilev sat up and looked completely frustrated. This is the look that the Union have caused all season, but the tables turned on them in the biggest game of the season — Vasilev’s look gave us all an idea of how much City frustrated them all night.

Because the midfielders underperformed, they were playing deeper to prevent the counterattack, which is the backbone of the Union’s game plan all season. Normally, it’s the Union controlling chaos, but in this game, City gave them a taste of their own medicine, and as every disappointed Union supporter will tell you, it’s a very sour pill to swallow.

The Forward Pairing Disappearing Act

In this game, you almost expected Tai Baribo and Bruno Damiani to have a chance to dominate. When you look at the shot distribution on paper, the Union won that easily, tallying 20 to City’s 6, you’d expect a multiple-goal game for the Union. But the telling stat is that the Union only had 5 shots on Goal, while City had 4. One of which was one of the prettiest examples of ball movement that has happened in the playoffs so far.

This can be attributed to Baribo and Damiani being neutralized all game by Agustin Ojeda and particularly by Raul Gustavo, who was more than a pest all night; he was a thorn in the side of the forwards and midfielders for the Union. In the midst of a particularly strong Union pressure as time was winding down, Gustavo had 2 plays where he collided with Union forwards, one of which felt pretty egregious, but the referees said play on. Because the tension was so high as they were in added time and down by a goal. The best shot attempts came by midfielders, including a near miss by Frankie Westfield that was hands down the best attempt of the night for the Union.

As the second half was dwindling away, Carnell moved to sub out Baribo, his top goal scorer, to get fresh legs in the game, which was also an admission that it wasn’t his night.

The Rust Was Real

Two weeks ago, right after the Union closed out the Chicago Fire, I looked at the schedule and saw this as a possible worst-case scenario. I made the case for the Union to play a tune-up friendly against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds to keep the edge and get a full-speed practice in before the biggest game of the season. The long layoff definitely did no favors to how fast the Union could diagnose plays at game speed. They looked a half a beat slow for most of the game, and when they did dial up the intensity, it was there under desperation, which rarely gives great results. This game was no different.

Yes, the Union started off with intensity, but the passes were off; they weren’t turning entry passes the other way like normal, and they didn’t look like the team we saw all season. I’m not claiming to be a strategic genius, but even the Phillies, who had a week’s layoff, had an intersquad game just to stay sharp. There aren’t as many players on a soccer team, so that wouldn’t be a realistic event, but having the Riverhounds come to Subaru and giving fans a chance to watch the tune-up game, or even pump in crowd noise, would be a great measuring stick for the Riverhounds and would have given the Union practice against hungry opponents. It was a missed opportunity for the Union to not only give an interstate team a chance to play against the Supporters’ Shield winners of the MLS, but it would have done wonders for the Union’s readiness.

There is plenty of blame to go around, but at the end of the day, you have to tip your cap to NYCFC. They played extremely well, they were very well coached, and their stars executed their game plan to perfection. Matt Freese played incredibly well, as did their whole roster. If you play that game 100 times, the Union will win the majority of those games, but Sunday night, that was not the case. For now, we will lick our wounds and look forward to 2026 and the new schedule.

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