Gazdag, Carranza help Union handle the Crew in opener

Like a long MLS season, Saturday night’s Union opener required long periods of uneventful toil. But moments of soccer beauty, of technical transcendence, made all the drudgery worth it for those wearing home colors.

Two handball penalties set the stage for a picturesque counterattacking goal that stood as the game-winner, then a moment of utter brilliance on his debut by Joaquin Torres gave the Union a season-opening 4-1 win over the Columbus Crew.

Torres set up the second goal by Julian Carranza with his first touches as a member of the Union, and Carranza’s first goal was a textbook example of everything in the club’s counter-attacking ethos. In between, Daniel Gazdag buried two workaday penalties thanks to an interpretation of the handball rule that is anything but uniform to book a 12th consecutive win at home and move to six games unbeaten against the Crew.

Torres entered the game in the 79th minute, took a pass in midfield seconds later, then spun in and out of contact with defender Philip Quinton twice, leaving the rookie flailing at his shadow. While falling, Torres threaded a perfect pass to Carranza down the right channel for his fellow Argentine to cut a shot back across the grain for paydirt.

The second goal of the night, also by Carranza, was more conventional if no less ruthless, in the 52nd. Jose Martinez started it by dispossessing Lucas Zelarayan near midfield. That led to a 4-v-4 break, against a goalie and defender making their debuts. Gazdag played Alejandro Bedoya on the right wing, and Bedoya played a low and hard ball that could’ve found either Carranza on the near post or Mikael Uhre on the far stick. Carranza got to it first and clipped it home for a 2-1 lead.

“The first goal right off the bat is a ball win in midfield, with Jose getting aggressive, a quick forward pass, getting a guy in the green zone and then a goal,” Curtin said. “… We bend a little bit, but we don’t break. We kind of make it ugly for stretches, but when we do go, like we did on that goal, in transition, we can be ruthless.”

It’s picking up where they left off from last year, the Union having tallied the sixth highest goals scored in a season. The Union are unbeaten in their last 23 games at Subaru Park (180-5) dating to Sept. 1, 2021.

“In this building, for whatever reason, it’s hard for teams to beat us,” Curtin said. “We can grind and suffer a little bit, but when we go out in transition, we can beat it.”

The first half was a feeling out period for both teams. Columbus is under a new coach in Wilfried Nancy, a coach of the year finalist for his work with Montreal last year. He’s got a better cache of weapons in Ohio, with Zelarayan and Cucho Hernandez. They looked the livelier side overall, playing a high defensive line and controlling field position, plus upwards of 60 percent in the first half.

They got their reward in the 28th minute, with Hernandez playing a ball forward that ended up the back of the net. Shot or pass, touch or not from the flashing Alexandru Matan, an own goal off Jakob Glesnes … it was all a matter of some debate, but it went down as the latter, saddled onto the MLS defender of the year.

It would be a prelude for controversial touches in the box on the evening.

The first game on the stroke of halftime. The Union had a productive set piece sequence, and a recycled ball found its way to Leon Flach near the top of the box. His blasted ball through traffic was adjudged to hit the hand of defender Mohammed Farsi, though the Canadian defender had mere milliseconds to react. Gazdag stepped to the spot and sent goalie Patrick Schulte the wrong way to knot the game.

Gazdag would bury another penalty against the debutant goalie in the 72nd. That time, a Kai Wagner shot ricocheted off the arm of Milos Degenek. It was referred to VAR, despite Degenek’s protests, and the defender got a yellow card for his troubles.