Inside the play that symbolized the Union’s potential in their impressive season opener

In soccer, the plays that make the highlight reels are usually goals, and understandably so. That’s how the bills get paid, and sure, add in the occasional big goalkeeper save, for players and social media creators alike.

But the viral clips don’t always capture everything that went into the big moments, since soccer is so fluid. A football highlight starts at the snap, a baseball highlight just before the windup, and a soccer clip… well, somewhere that doesn’t make the piece too long.

This applies to a significant play in the Union’s season-opening 4-2 win at Orlando City last Saturday. Mikael Uhre earned headlines for pouncing on a loose ball to put the visitors up 3-1, but what led to that moment was just as important – maybe even more in the bigger picture.

The sequence started 21 seconds before Uhre’s strike when Orlando took a throw-in from its own end. The Lions’ four defenders moved the ball across the field, and when it got to right back Dagur Thorhallsson, he was ready to take off up the field.

Right centerback David Brekkalo’s pass to Thorhallsson was under-hit, as it skidded across the grass. Thorhallsson had to check back a step to get the ball, and as he did, he saw Union midfielder Quinn Sullivan charging at him. This caused Thorhallsson to turn left and head backward a few steps.

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The Iceland native got Sullivan out of his way, but he was far from out of trouble. Tai Baribo was up next, cutting over from his left forward position to pester Thorhallsson more. This caused Thorhallsson to pass the ball back to Brekkalo, and Baribo’s first mission was accomplished.

When Brekkalo received the ball, he looked up and stood with the ball for a good four seconds. He knew he’d been trapped.

Baribo, Uhre, Sullivan, and Jovan Lukić had arranged themselves in a shape that cut off every forward passing angle available. They knew it from their side, too, and Sullivan showed it when he pointed Baribo toward Brekkalo. Baribo duly took a few steps, and Brekkalo had no choice but to pass backward to Rodrigo Schlegel.

It wasn’t a great pass, and Schlegel did an even worse job controlling it. The ball bounced off Schlegel’s foot; Uhre was already on the way over, hit the gas pedal, then hit a line drive into Orlando’s net.

Union manager Bradley Carnell exulted on the sideline, with a big fist pump that the TV cameras caught right on cue. His assistants celebrated just as much while the players embraced with the substitutes warming up on the end line.

They had every right to be happy. Just over 50 minutes into their first game of the season, a club with a changed roster, a changed formation, and a changed manager was playing like the Union did at their past peak.

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“It was great to see everything that we’d worked on in the preseason come to life,” Sullivan said. “A lot of our talk has been winning the ball closer to their goal, and in the first game, to put all those pieces together to end up in a goal for us, and that ends up being the winning goal, is really good.”

When this reporter showed Sullivan a screenshot of the trap, he immediately recalled it and agreed with its significance.

“Me and Tai were in unison in that, and I was communicating with him on, ‘Just keep going, keep going,’” Sullivan said. “We talked about cover, shadow, and all these things. So for that play to come to life, to end up in a winning goal, is great for the first game of the season. And hopefully, you know, we do that in every game.”

He said he knew in the moment, too, that things were going right. They hadn’t early on in the game, with Orlando’s new big-money winger, Marco Pašalić, scoring just eight minutes in. But by the time Pašalić got the Lions’ second goal, the Union had put four on the board.

“Yeah, you can feel it,” Sullivan said. “I think in the first half, we were a little hesitant, and we didn’t start off great. But as the game went on, I felt like the entire team gained confidence in the press and going together.”

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The Bridesburg native has a veteran’s head on his shoulders, on and off the field. Though he’s just 20, this is his fifth year as a pro, and his 15th as the oldest of four brothers. (Cavan is the youngest, and middle siblings Declan and Ronan are in the Union’s youth academy.) So he knows as well as his older teammates how to sense when something is happening.

“You kind of have a feeling when you have someone pinned in and numbers up, and you’re going to win that ball, barring any little deflections that don’t go your way,” Sullivan said.

Carnell was just as pleased.

“We have to present ourselves in a synchronized fashion, especially when we’re playing transitional soccer and working our pressing style,” he said. “It’s really fun watching, but I think we’re still not even near where we should be or can be. … We’ve had five, six weeks now, and every day the players are making me proud.”

Will the Union play as well all year as they did Saturday? It’s impossible to know that right now, with just one of 34 regular-season games in the books. At least we’ve seen a sign not just of what they want to be on the field, but what they actually can be.

» READ MORE: Union win season opener in stunning fashion, 4-2 at Orlando City