Santos’s strike salvages a big point

It wasn’t long ago that Matt Freese and Carlos Coronel occupied the same goalkeeper’s room in Chester.

Freese was a rookie Homegrown, fresh off his lone season at Harvard, at the start of 2019. Coronel, just turned 22, was on loan from Red Bull Salzburg, looking for games. Both found them early that season with the Union, around an injury to Andre Blake and the Jamaican’s international duty.

More than two years later, the goalies found themselves on opposite ends of the field yet both on center stage Thursday night at Red Bull Arena.

A pair of massive saves by Coronel and Freese’s red card for the denial of a goal-scoring opportunity put the Union in a hole, but Sergio Santos’s pinpoint header in the 85th minute salvaged an important point in a 1-1 draw with the New York Red Bulls.

The game pivoted on a counterattack in the 57th. A long ball from the Red Bulls box skittered up the turf, and while Jakob Glesnes made a great recovery run to get to the ball, his back pass

to Freese in goal was slowed by the wet surface. Hung out to dry with Wikelman Carmona bearing down on him, Freese didn’t try to clear it first time, instead taking a touch instead.

When that got away from him, he wrapped his arms around Carmona, who stopped in his tracks and cast a plaintive glance at referee Victor Rivas. Rivas took a beat, then decisively pointed to the spot and went to his pocket to produce a red card for Freese for denial of a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

Off went Freese, on came third-stringer Joe Bendik, and in went the penalty kick by Patryk Klimala for a 1-0 lead.

For Bendik, as for Freese, it was his first action of the season for the Union (5-3-5, 20 points), with Andre Blake away at the Gold Cup. Coronel has been the established if occasionally shaky starter in for the Red Bulls (5-5-2, 17 points) all year.

Freese made five starts in 2019, replacing Blake when he picked up a hamstring injury. Coronel replaced Freese when he went down with an oblique injury. But Coronel’s loan expired in the summer and, under pressure for international spots, he headed back to Austria. Coronel has since been Salzburg’s backup and played for it in the UEFA Champions League, but the Brazilian is back in America at 24 on a similar mission as in 2019. Thursday was Freese’s seventh career start, with one in last year’s regular-season finale.

Coronel passed his early tests Thursday. He made a phenomenal save on Daniel Gazdag, starting as the second striker off the shoulder of Kacper Przybylko, in the eighth minute when Leon Flach played the Hungarian in. Coronel also charged off his line prudently to sweep away a ball into the path of Jamiro Monteiro in the 38th. In the 50th minute, he leapt brilliantly to get his left hand on a curler struck by Monteiro from 19 yards out.

But he had no answer for Santos in the 85th on a perfectly unstoppable header. The passage seemed innocuous, with Alejandro Bedoya taking possession down the right wing. He quickly took a throw-in after the ball went off New York’s John Tolkin, too quickly to see that the Homegrown remained down (though off the field) with an injury that would end his night. Bedoya found Olivier Mbaizo, who fluttered in a cross that Santos rose to meet with his head and kissed off the inside of the far post and in past a scrambling Coronel.

Freese did his job early with a huge save on Klimala in the 17th minute, sliding out to snuff out a chance when Fabio played the striker in.

Freese’s red card was not the first shout for one on the day, with the Union feeling they could’ve been up a man before the break. Dru Yearwood, who picked up two yellow cards when the teams met in Chester in May, was lucky to escape with a yellow when he clattered into Monteiro in front of the benches with no intent to get the ball. It extended the half for a Union corner, with Monteiro’s shot blocked by Sean Davis’s shoulder on the line and Fabio deflecting Bedoya’s follow-up.