Photo: Paul Rudderow

From looking odds-on winners to almost assured losers in the blink of an eye, few on the Union roster seemed deserving of a Player of the Week nod this time around. But there was one player who stood tall and earned the Union a point all by himself: Zac MacMath.

Some will argue that MacMath should have done better on the two goals the Union let in. Reasonable people with reasonable concerns can disagree on that. What’s not up for debate is the quality of MacMath’s point-preserving penalty save and save on the follow-up shot. That play was of the highest quality.

The script is becoming familiar: the Union dominates large portions of the match, takes the lead but can’t put the game away, then coughs it up late through a combination of individual errors and poor team defending. When Aaron Wheeler brought down Juan Luis Anangono, scorer of the Chicago Fire’s equalizer, inside the penalty box in the 96th minute, it seemed that such carelessness was about to cost the Union even more dearly.

Up stepped Mike Magee, 2013 MLS MVP and Fire talisman, to take the spot kick. One does not expect one of the top marksmen in MLS to miss game-winning PKs, and to his credit, Magee hit the ball hard and low and to the corner.

But MacMath was better.

Call it luck or intuition, MacMath leapt to his right and easily saved Magee’s kick, pushing the ball wide. Then, alert to Magee following up his miss, MacMath got back to his feet and saved the second attempt, then swallowed up the rebound.

End of game.

MacMath has his critics, and he’s been looking over his shoulder all season, since the acquisition of Andre Blake. But give credit where credit is due: at the end of the game, facing a fearsome opponent in Mike Magee, Zac MacMath earned the Union a point. The quality of the play almost deserves more than that single point, and the Union need to be better, but there’s no denying that when it mattered most, Zac MacMath did his part. That makes him our Player of the Week.