Union fall in Leagues Cup semifinals, 3-1 at Columbus Crew

The Union’s hopes of winning the Leagues Cup ended in the semifinals again, this time with a 3-1 loss at the Columbus Crew.

Diego Rossi scored the opener and what proved to be the winner in the first half, with Dániel Gazdag scoring in between those, and Juan “Cucho” Hernández delivered the insurance goal early in the second.

The Union’s time in the tournament is not over yet. They’ll host the loser of Wednesday’s late semifinal, Los Angeles FC vs. the Colorado Rapids, on Sunday at Subaru Park. The winner of that game will earn a berth in next year’s Concacaf Champions Cup, which is a consolation prize but not a small one.

Then, the regular season will finally resume next Wednesday at Subaru Park, when the Union coincidentally host Columbus. That game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but was postponed after the teams made the Leagues Cup semis.

How the game went

Union manager Jim Curtin knew his team wouldn’t have much of the ball against a Columbus team that loves to keep it and pass it around, and that proved true right away. The ball had barely left the Union’s defensive half of the field at all when Rossi pounced on a rebound in the 12th minute.

Now the visitors had to chase the game, and Curtin had picked a lineup designed to play more defense than offense. Some of that was out of necessity, since forward Tai Baribo was suspended due to a red card in his last game. But it was still a choice to start Quinn Sullivan instead of Sam Adeniran at forward next to Mikael Uhre.

It was also a choice by the Crew to step off the gas after the opener, and the Union punished them for it. That led to a moment in the 32nd minute where Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte played a short pass to Yevgen Cheberko in their own 18-yard box, and Cheberko didn’t control it.

In an instant, a three-man high press of Jack McGlynn, Sullivan and Nathan Harriel swarmed Cheberko and forced him into a weak sideways pass. Gazdag jumped on the turnover, ran forward and fired a shot past Schulte.

Columbus emerged from its slumber late in the first half, uncorking a brilliant nine-pass move off a throw-in to retake the lead. Rossi and Hernández finished the play with an outstanding give-and-go.

Hernández scored the third when Harriel didn’t close him down near the penalty spot. Andre Blake saved Hernández’s initial header attempt, but it was strong enough to force a rebound and Hernández got to it before Blake could.

Curtin finally summoned Adeniran just past the hour mark, and he entered as part of a triple-substitution in the 65th minute: Adeniran for Uhre, Jesús Bueno for Leon Flach, and Danley Jean Jacques (making his Union debut) for McGlynn. But it was just about too late by then, and the fact that Adeniran replaced Uhre meant there still wouldn’t be two true forwards on the field.

Olivier Mbaizo replaced Harriel in the 75th, and had little impact. Jeremy Rafanello was the last entrant, replacing Alejandro Bedoya in the 90th.