Danley Jean Jacques’ second straight game with a goal for the Union shows that’s not just a bonus

For the second Saturday in a row, the Union delivered a 3-0 win at home in which the score line was better than the performance.

This time, it was against a D.C. United team that wasn’t just bad but also shorthanded. Star striker Christian Benteke and young attacking midfielder João Peglow were out injured, and either would have finished the chances their teammates botched in the first half.

The Union also showed a growing flaw: a lack of scoring chance creation from their attacking midfielders. Indiana Vassilev does a lot of things, but chance creation isn’t one of them, and Quinn Sullivan isn’t yet a ball-dominant player. (Saying “yet” matters, because he has the tools to become one.)

It’s not a coincidence that this flaw has shown up in the games since Dániel Gazdag’s departure. If it persists, pressure will grow on sporting director Ernst Tanner to fulfill his pledge to buy another attacking midfielder this summer if needed.

Beyond that, looking at a 3-0 win in the mouth is as useful as doing so with a gift horse. There were plenty of positives from a game the better team won, as it should have.

The biggest item from here was Danley Jean Jacques scoring for a second straight game. His defensive work is well-known by now, from being José Andrés Martínez’s successor in the diamond last year to playing at the base of the box midfield this year.

Are goals an added bonus, or perhaps part of the system? The way the play evolved on Saturday points toward the latter.

» READ MORE: Union rout D.C. United, 3-0, in a win that was rarely in doubt

It started with Frankie Westfield reeling in a headed clearance by D.C.’s Jacob Murrell. Once Westfield brought the ball down, he passed it to his fellow Northeast Philadelphia native Sullivan wide on the right. Sullivan took just one touch, settling the ball for Jean Jacques to run on to.

Let’s stop there for a moment. The pass was a perfectly fine one to make, and one that Gazdag or any other Union players could have made without anyone writing a paragraph about it.

But other players might have tried to keep the ball and take on the nearby defender. Had Sullivan chosen that, he would have had lots of space to run into behind Aaron Herrera for a cross or dribble toward the middle.

Giving the ball to Jean Jacques instead presented D.C.’s defense with a challenge that it might not have expected. Hosei Kijima arrived just in time to watch Jean Jacques slot the ball between his legs — a nutmeg, in soccer terms, and one of the better ones at Subaru Park in a while.

» READ MORE: Bruno Damiani admits to being frustrated over his goal drought with the Union

Now United had an even bigger problem, because Jean Jacques had a heap of space in front of him. Centerback Kye Rowles had a decision to make: press forward and leave more space behind, or sit back and focus on cutting off forward passing lanes?

Rowles gambled on the latter, and lost badly. Jean Jacques took the invitation, dribbled forward, and fired away from 20 yards.

That’s an area of the field where a midfielder should shoot from, but usually an attacking midfielder is in that kind of spot. This time, Sullivan was still out wide, and Westfield was more toward the middle in the 18-yard box. Jean Jacques was rightly confident after scoring a week earlier, and his low drive banked in off the post.

“I saw things were open, and I said why not,” he said after the game in French. “In the last game, I scored, so I said why not today. I gave it a try, I succeeded, and I’m very happy.”

» READ MORE: The Union always cherish wins over big-money rivals, and they got another in routing Atlanta last weekend

He has the green light from manager Bradley Carnell, in a way that Martínez didn’t always from Jim Curtin — although Martínez obviously gave it to himself quite often.

“Yeah,” Carnell said. “I mean part of the philosophy [is] we want to finish with final plays, right? If that’s one more pass to the next guy who’s got a better position, or if it’s brave and sees a gap from the top of the box to let loose, why not?”

He added that he believes “we’ve been rewarded in many ways, with the flexibility we have and the freedom that we have in the front line.”

Jean Jacques isn’t officially part of the front line, but he definitely delivered a reward. And later in the second half, the front line did its part with a play that’s also worth highlighting.

Mikael Uhre’s critics have usually been quick to pounce over the years when he doesn’t score. So you’d think that a nine-game goal drought, which is where he now stands, would have them braying.

» READ MORE: Dániel Gazdag’s departure makes room for the Union’s young prospects. When will they play?

But they are quieter than usual right now, in part because they see everything else he’s doing. Saturday brought his second straight game with an assist, this time a header to Bruno Damiani that helped the Uruguayan snap his own rut.

It was a gutsy bit of work, too, pushing the ball down while leaning backward to get away from a defender in front of him.

Uhre’s overall shift also included two tackles, three defensive recoveries, seven duels won from 17 contested, and three fouls drawn. That should be enough to earn a goal from the soccer gods one of these days.

“And that’s the thing — right? — when strikers don’t get rewarded for their goals,” Carnell said. “But I’m happy he’s getting in and amongst the things, and creating final plays, and being in moments to keep plays alive.”

» READ MORE: Through noticeable change, Union coach Bradley Carnell has been determined not to show his hand

He noted that he met with his strikers a few days ago to discuss his rotation plans, and hopefully, such openness will help keep them all happy. In his pregame news conference Thursday, Carnell used the analogy of a sprint relay team handing off the baton as each runner finishes his shift, and he used it again Saturday.

Some time between the two, a team staffer tipped him off that it was Penn Relays weekend up the road. Carnell didn’t know, with him being new in town. One of these years, Andre Blake can take him to watch his fellow Jamaicans.

Until then, here’s a reminder to Union fans. This game was just one win over a bad team in a season-long endurance race. The good teams are still to come, and they know how to pounce on the back stretch.