Union win season opener in stunning fashion, 4-2 at Orlando City

ORLANDO — A night that started with major questions about the Union’s talent ended with a resounding statement.

After going down 1-0 early against Orlando City in the season opener, the Union stormed back with four straight goals on the way to a 4-2 rout at Inter&Co Stadium.

Marco Pašalić had both of the Lions’ tallies, in the eighth and 79th minutes. In between, Tai Baribo scored in the 23rd and 64th, Dániel Gazdag capped off the play of the night in the 48th, and Mikael Uhre struck in the 51st.

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Most of Bradley Carnell’s picks for his first starting lineup as Union manager were easy to predict: Andre Blake in goal, Kai Wagner at leftback, Jakob Glesnes at centerback, and the striker pairing of Mikael Uhre and Tai Baribo.

The biggest unknown was the midfield, and Carnell dialed up the closest thing to predictable that there was. He deployed a box-shaped group of four, with defensive-oriented Danley Jean-Jacques and new signing Jovan Lukić behind Quinn Sullivan and Dániel Gazdag.

The surprises were the other spots in defense. Though Carnell had cleared Ian Glavinovich to play, it turned out the newcomer wasn’t ready to start. So Olwethu Makhanya got the nod, making his Union first-team debut after not playing a second at this level since joining the club in July 2023.

At right back, Carnell had cleared Olivier Mbaizo to play. But Mbaizo missed a long stretch of the preseason with an injury, and Nathan Harriel is still sidelined by the injury that kept him out of all of the Union’s preseason games. Academy product Frankie Westfield got most of the minutes, and Carnell liked what he saw enough to give the 19-year-old the nod.

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Orlando didn’t take long to exploit Makhanya’s inexperience. After Eduard Atuesta split Lukić and Sullivan with a simple pass, recipient Martin Ojeda could look Makhanya right in the eye one-on-one. Makhanya kept his focus on Ojeda as Pašalić ran behind him, Ojeda sent the ball Pašalić‘s way, and the Lions’ new $5 million winger shot to the far post.

Makhanya was far from the only Union player to blame. Wagner, in particular, had pressed high, leaving the space Pašalić ran into wide open. Yet in still, anyone looking for evidence that Makhanya wasn’t ready for the first team found some.

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Westfield got his welcome-to-the-big-leagues moment in the 16th minute, when Orlando’s Iván Angulo sent him headfirst into the endline boards. The native of Northeast Philadelphia’s Morrell Park neighborhood left the field but re-entered after only a couple of minutes.

A team that wants to play high-pressing, defense-first soccer might not score too many pretty goals. So naturally, the Union’s first goal of the year was not pretty.

Gazdag had the ball on the right, played it to Sullivan atop the 18-yard box, and sent a pass toward Baribo that Orlando’s defense broke up. The ball rolled to the left wing, Wagner hit it back into the crowd, and Baribo poked it in from near the goal line.

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The Union’s second goal was quite pretty: a 12-pass, cross-field move out of a throw-in. Westfield, Lukić, Makhanya, Glesnes, Gazdag, and Wagner all had significant roles before Wagner fed Sullivan on the left.

He switched the ball over to his right foot and lofted a pass toward the back post that flew over all of Orlando’s defenders, and Gazdag kept the ball from going out of bounds and instead slammed the ball between Gallese and the near post.

Uhre’s tally was a crafty piece of heads-up play. He, Sullivan, Baribo, and Lukić were all pressing Orlando’s defense, and giving the Lions real trouble getting the ball out of the back. Brekalo played a ball back to Rodrigo Schlegel, Uhre chased, Schlegel misplayed the reception, and Uhre pounced to slam the ball past a shocked Gallese.

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Baribo’s second goal also came out of a throw-in and some nice cross-field passing. The play started on the left flank and moved to the right, with Westfield, Baribo, and Gazdag combining down that side. Westfield kept driving forward, and provided the assist for Baribo’s finish from the center.

Carnell made his first substitutions in the 71st minute, sending in Chris Donovan for Baribo and Alejandro Bedoya for Uhre. That switched the Union’s formation to a 4-2-3-1, with Sullivan, Gazdag, and Bedoya the unit of three from left to right.

That role is one Bedoya played many times over the years with the U.S. national team, but hadn’t with the Union for quite a while because of their preference for a 4-4-2.

Orlando threw the house at the Union from there, and eventually, Pašalić got one back off a corner – after Luis Murriel hit the crossbar and Pašalić hit the left post on the play before burying his own rebound.

In the 84th, Glavinovich replaced Gazdag to help close out the final minutes. Mbaizo was the final entrant for Westfield in the 88th. Blake also did his part throughout the night, making five saves in his 300th all-time appearance for the club.

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