Photo: Ron Soliman
Coming off a largely lifeless performance against Nashville, the Union fought tooth-and-nail to a 1-0 win vs. a stout St. Louis City team on Saturday evening at Subaru Park.
“Tonight we asked the boys to put display what everybody doesn’t see behind the scenes,” Bradley Carnell offered in the opening address of his post-match press conference.
“And that’s a group of committed guys – the whole roster – growing together, and enjoying each other, committing to a philosophy.”
Through four matches played, St. Louis’s defense was a formidable one – not conceding a single goal in 360+ minutes. With a key player of that goalless run, goalkeeper Roman Burki, unable to go, it was Ben Lundt in net. The German net-minder faced a bevy of Union chances, yet, the backup keeper was sensational – topping 8 of 9 shots on target.
For the short-handed Union, some seemingly unorthodox decisions by the manager were, both, the difference in the match and an opportunity for some bench players to exhibit themselves as key contributors in the squad.
Harriel & Vassilev excel in new-ish roles
The Union came out in the ~becoming~ trademark, 4-2-2-2 to St. Louis’s robust 3-4-3.
As Alejandro Bedoya was absent due to a family commitment, it was Indiana Vassilev who would fill in the deeper lying midfield role for Danley, opposite Jovan Lukic.
Vassilev has primarily been used in an attacking midfield role this season, so the decision to use him in a deeper-lying role was a bit of a pleasant surprise. The former Aston Villa midfielder showed every bit of the composure, evasiveness, and soccer IQ you’d expect from a former Premier Leaguer.
Per fbref.com, Vassilev completed 6 passes into the final third on 7 progressive passes. He was tidy, completing 27/30 (90%) of his passes, and he made good quick decisions. He didn’t dwell on the ball – wasn’t dispossessed all night and carried himself out of pressure when needed.
Harriel had himself a night as well, displaying some useful versatility. The right-back-turned-right-attacking-midfielder for 71 minutes, supplied the counter-press some needed additional horse-power. Harriel even had some moments on the ball that impressed – not something often said of him.
Late in the match, the Olympian slid into a center-back role to see out the victory, allowing Ian Glavinovich to get some rest in his first game back from injury.
Harriel’s ability in the air was noticeable at both ends of the pitch. His noggin provided the Union another capable head in the penalty area on set-pieces, along with another athletic defensive body in the box to defend set-pieces.
Harriel also provided great value from throw-ins for the Union – creating high volume dangerous set-piece opportunities with his long tosses.
The first major chance for the Union on the night came off of a Harriel throw that found Bruno Damiani’s head – earmarked for the top right corner.
The high-flying Uruguayan lept and met Harriel’s heave flush, forcing a save from Lundt and drawing a corner – leading to the Union’s only goal of the evening.
We need to talk about Bruno
The Union had several players turn in key performances on the night. Yet, outside of Quinn Sullivan, no one had more impact on the game than Bruno Damiani.
The dynamic, deceptive, and feisty forward has impressed in the limited minutes he’s gotten this season. His high work-rate off the ball, his astute movement, his chance creation, and ability in the air have all have shone through in his 75 minutes across three matches.
This game, in particular, showed that Damiani possesses many of the skills that make him an ideal fit for the way the team want to play.
Damiani created in a way that no other striker on the roster does. This chance is an ideal example of that.
As the Union swarm STL’s short clearance, Lukic and Sullivan combine to find Damiani, who hesitates, but makes a back-door run. Damiani works hard to track down Sullivan’s back-heel, and with one touch from a very tough angle, puts a stinging shot low to Lundt’s left – forcing him into an unexpectedly tough save.
Minutes later, Damiani was at the forefront of creating another chance. This time, the play started with beautiful hold-up play from him at the half-way line, fending off a STL defender all over him. Damiani layed off a pass into the path of Sullivan and sprints his keister off to get into the box and put a tough chance on frame.
The highlights pick up just after the hold-up play, which is unfortunate, because it is the exact type of back-to-goal play this team has been starving for.
Just before the end of the first half, Damiani again shows off some subtle brilliance. His ability to put this pass right into Mikael Uhre’s path off of one touch is outstanding.
There are simply too many impressive instances in the match to call to that exhibit how good of a player Damiani is. If those highlights don’t speak to how effective he has been, these statistics will.
In Damiani’s 213 minutes played, he ranks second in MLS in the following categories:
- expected goals per 90 minutes (1.16, to Hugo Cuypers’s 1.17)
- expected goals + expected assists per 90 minutes (1.46, to Lionel Messi’s 1.88)
- Shots on target per 90 minutes (3.3 to Lionel Messi’s 3.5)
To go along with that, Damiani won a match-high 11/15 aerial duels in the match. The next closest player was Jakob Glesnes – winning 4/9. The tenacity Damiani brings is welcome, along with a skill-set that perfectly fits the system Carnell wants to play.
Resolve
Both Jakob Glesnes and Mikael Uhre had games to forget vs. Nashville. Yet, the pair showed a great deal of resolve with their performances on Saturday evening.
Glesnes showed up consistently, shutting down St. Louis breaks with perfectly-timed flying last-ditch challenges. The Norwegian made up for his ball-watching last week, with good anticipation, playing physical without going overboard on aggression. It was possibly the best all-around performance from him since 2023.
Uhre, also, came to Subaru Park with his hard hat and lunch pail. The Dane was immense in the second half, tracking back in defensive support and not shying away from contact, getting “stuck-in” on 5 of 11 ground duels.
On the ball, Uhre played a strong game. Instead of looking to go to ground upon any semblance contact, as he often does, Uhre battled through tough challenges and drew 4 fouls on the night.
However, the sequence that can be appreciated the most from Uhre won’t show up in the stat sheet. After drawing a yellow card in the first half on a cheap elbow and some residual jawing by St. Louis’s Kyle Hiebert, Uhre picked his moment.
Hiebert was fouled by Uhre while going up for a header, and Uhre decided it was time to throw some barbs. He, uncharacteristically, stepped into Hiebert after the whistle and let the Canadian know he didn’t agree with the tariffs either.
While PSP does not condone violence, whatsover, performances like Uhre’s are likely what Bradley Carnell was referring to with the following quote:
“Really proud of the boys tonight. They dug deep and I thought we thoroughly deserved the win.”
Darmiani is a much better Uhre then Uhre is an Uhre in my opinion. I genuinely hope the competition between them is fierce for that starting role because it should be. I was super high on him initially and have cooled a great deal with a larger sampling under the bell.
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I am uncertain any Union player has betwixt me as much. Most the time I am thinking WTF then I see him busting his ass, then he has a timely run and good finish then I’m annoyed again most the time. It’s his feet. Or lack thereof I guess. Easy to say from the sofa and post 50 years old. I do think Bruno offers a deeper sophistication which to my ever aesthetically needing pleasing eye almost always Trumps the try hard.
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I am trying to out Pragmatist, Pragmatist as I’m aging and trying to be the gentler version of my acidic and sardonic self.
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Its good to be back though– last year took the Union out of me a bit. Now just to get the other repliers back too.
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What say you, Chorus?
It’s early still. And the international break was a good and bad thing. It was bad for obvious reasons, but it was good because it forced Carnell to start Damiani and play for more minutes and with more intensity than has been asked yet this season. I saw it as a bit of a tryout to take Uhre’s spot when everyone returns.
That said, I was less impressed with Damiani on Saturday than others. I felt like he disappeared for long stretches. That’s fine as long as when you do appear, the ball ends up in the net. Whether it was STL’s defense, or something else, I feel like I didn’t see enough from him to displace Uhre yet.
That said (part 2), I’d like to see him start over Uhre, anyway, and see how he plays full-time next to Baribo. If he can’t make a major impact on the game, you have to stick with Uhre’s workrate and count on the others to provide the goals, as they did through the first 3 weeks.
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I was always around, but the pervasive negativity dissuaded me from commenting too much. I find myself to be cautiously optimistic about this refreshed group. Time will tell…
“Out Uhring Uhre” is astute. All three of those front line guys are earning their stripes, fighting like hell for every ball – on both sides of the ball, and doing everything in their powers to not endear themselves to the defenders on their shoulders. As Union as one could possibly want.
As hard as Uhre works, he just not much of a scoring threat. I feel like Nashville thought it was safe to just have a guy in Baribo’s pocket all night to neutralize him. It is much harder to do that if both of your strikers are legit threats. I look forward to seeing Baribo and Damiani up front together.