The Union played Saturday night like a team that had just traded away its most creative midfielder. It also ended the eighth game of the season with a midfielder playing center back, a forward filling in as the No. 10 and lineup cracks for the first time in the project undertaken by Ernst Tanner and Bradley Carnell. A 1-0 loss to New York City FC at Citi Field was the logical consequence of the Union’s midweek actions, trading Daniel Gazdag to Columbus for a sum of money that had no immediate effect on the club’s ability to win soccer games. Instead, the Union watched Indiana Vassilev fumble to try and fill Gazdag’s creative role. At game’s end, Carnell opted to slide Tai Baribo into midfield so that he could push two forwards up top in search of a tying goal. He also dropped Jovan Lukic into a three-center-back posture with Jakob Glesnes and Nathan Harriel, since the Union only have two available center backs who have played an MLS game. “It’s a game where, unfortunately, we lost a lot of the battles, lost a lot of the duels,” Carnell said. “And this is something that we’ve been pretty good at all year long. That unfortunately got away from us tonight, especially on a tight field like this. So didn’t go our way.” The problems, in no particular order: • Andrew Rick went for a bit of a jog outside his box on the goal by Alonso Martinez in the 55th minute. Rick started for Andre Blake, limited in training this week with an adductor injury that Carnell called “very minimal” and “day-to-day” but not well enough to make the trip to Queens. Instead, Rick started and made one save, but when the backline was blown apart by right back Mitja Ilenic’s ball forward, Rick sprinted off his line and slid at only the ghost of Martinez, who rolled the ball into an empty net from outside the box. The blame may primarily fall on Olwethu Makhanya, caught looking the wrong way on Ilenic’s ball. Makhanya will have to start for the foreseeable future with Ian Glavinovich recovering from surgery on a knee meniscus. “I want him to continue to gain experience,” Carnell said of Rick. “I want him to continue, and if you learn by making a mistake, you won’t make that mistake a second time. So we support Andrew in everything he does. He’s been amazing on the training ground and playing for Union II. That’s not on Rick. That’s on me, and we support Andrew through everything.” • Vassilev, the momentary replacement for Gazdag was starting for the second time with the club. As the complementary 10 to Quinn Sullivan, Vassilev completed 26 of 31 passes, created two chances, had one touch in the NYCFC box and just three passes into the final third. In short, nowhere near enough to compensate for the hole left by the club’s all-time leading scorer. “I thought Indy was industrious,” Carnell said. “He put in a lot of effort, a lot of energy. We just needed a little bit more service from wider areas and a little bit more danger in the final third. But you run out of space pretty quickly on this field.” Not among the solutions in this first post-Gazdag was hyped 10-of-the-future Cavan Sullivan. Carnell explained why. “Just in terms of the spaces, it’s tight, it’s choppy, there’s not a lot of space for football,” Carnell said. “So it’s more over the battle, the duels, the second balls, the balls in behind. And so I think that makes a case for the other players who did come on.” As a whole, the Union created 17 shots to NYCFC’s 11. But just three were on target. Former Union Homegrown Matt Freese made three saves, none of them all that difficult. Sum it up and the Union have been shut out in consecutive games. They have two goals in four games after 10 in the first three. Tai Baribo hasn’t scored in his last four games, the other two strikers in the rotation have a total of two goals this season and the midfield has to figure out how to compensate without Gazdag. Very quickly, a 3-0-0 start has dissolved into one win in five, as the Union dropped to fifth in the Eastern Conference. “We pushed the game,” Carnell said. “Unfortunately, wasn’t as quite controlled or how it’s been over the last couple of weeks. And that’s something that we’re just going to have to look at.” ...read more read less