How far can the Union go this year? As far as Bruno Damiani can take them

What you’re about to read here might seem counter-intuitive, or at least contrary to the conventional wisdom about the Union these days.

Many people have played key roles in the team’s record 13-game unbeaten run in league play. There’s Ryan Richter on the bench, of course. Neil Pierre and Nathan Harriel are the new starting centerback tandem. Quinn Sullivan returned from injury, and Kai Wagner’s audacious return from England.

Cavan Sullivan gets the most spotlight, of course, as we all watch him blossom. Milan Iloski has also earned a lot of credit, piling in 17 goals — 10 since the World Cup break — to stand tied for third in the league’s scoring chart.

Danley Jean Jacques deserves a mention too, as a superb all-around player beyond headline statistics.

But from this seat the most important player hasn’t been any of them. It’s been Bruno Damiani.

The big striker is finally scoring consistently. Not only does he have six goals in the Union’s last five games, but he has hit the net in four of those contests.

The second part there matters a lot. It’s one thing to score two goals in one game then none until a hat trick five games later, as he did this summer. It’s another if your goals are spread more evenly.

» READ MORE: Union keep unbeaten streak going strong in a defeat of Real Salt Lake

That kind of scoring rate doesn’t just impact the confidence of a player who has always worn his emotions on his sleeve. It affects how the entire team plays — and crucially, how it is played against.

Damiani knows it, too. He might not have his manager’s basketball background, but the theory is universal: If you know a player isn’t a scoring threat, you guard everyone else tighter and dare that one to beat you.

If that player starts connecting, the defense has to deal with it. That creates more space for teammates to get open, whether to create chances or get on the end of them.

“One hundred percent,” Damiani told The Inquirer this week. “And also, the teammates believe in both [forwards] now, and they’re passing the ball, putting the ball in the box. It’s how it works. It’s not the first and not the last time it’s going to happen, and when you’re in a good streak, things look like they’re much easier.”

» READ MORE: The key to the Union’s season-altering 12-game unbeaten run? Ridding the locker room of ‘toxicity’ | Kerith Gabriel

It’s especially clear in the two-forward system that has long been the Union’s trademark.

Many fans remember how Mikael Uhre’s off-the-ball runs pulled defenses apart, creating room for Damiani, Tai Baribo, and Julián Carranza. But he also scored enough goals himself to ensure that opponents couldn’t leave him alone.

Damiani’s role in this is different from Uhre’s, because he’s a true target forward instead of just one of two guys up top. He leads the way upfield and Iloski runs off him, as do the Sullivans, Indiana Vassilev, and others.

If this sounds a little like how a basketball post player’s teammates rotate around the perimeter while the big commands the lane, you’re right. The two sports share a foundation of how to use space, not just how to get a ball in a net.

» READ MORE: Before Ryan Richter became the Union’s interim manager, he was a hooper from Bucks County with Iverson-like swag

And if you know better than to leave Adem Bona alone in the lane, never mind Joel Embiid, then you know why Richter so often praises Damiani’s off-the-ball work against opposing defenses. He does so even when fielding complaints about the second-most-expensive signing in Union history not scoring.

“They always have to account for him,” Richter said. “Because whether he’s in a scoring run like the one that he’s in now, [or] if he’s not contributing with goals, he makes it difficult on the back line every game. And the way that he occupies the centerbacks, the way he makes every ball difficult for them, the space that he creates for us to attack by pulling the defenders out of their position, it just makes it really difficult to play against.”

Not for nothing, the most expensive signing isn’t scoring either. But we’ll leave Ezekiel Alladoh’s less-than-perfect season alone for now. We’ll also let the multi-sport analogy go, since the 76ers are still in their preseason and the Palestra’s ghosts are still hibernating.

But a comparison to another soccer team that called Subaru Park home this week feels warranted.

When Sophia Wilson and the U.S. women didn’t score against Spain on Saturday, fans could trust that she and her superstar teammates will find the net eventually, because they have a track record of it.

» READ MORE: Cavan Sullivan, Neil Pierre, and Frankie Westfield savor ‘a pinch-me moment’ with their USMNT debuts

When Damiani had a two-goal night in New York in mid-August, those were just his second and third tallies of the year. So when he didn’t score again until a hat trick against Cincinnati five games later, it was fair to ask if that was another one-off.

Now we can finally believe it wasn’t.

“Right now, he’s playing like a complete forward,” Richter said. “And it’s great to see that he’s getting rewarded with the goals, because he deserves that from the work that he puts in.”

The timing of all this is crucial. The toughest stretch of the season kicks off Wednesday night at the Chicago Fire (8:30 p.m., Apple TV), a team led by one of modern soccer’s greatest strikers in Robert Lewandowski.

» READ MORE: In his rightful spot as the Union’s main striker, Milan Iloski is doing more than scoring goals

“That’s going to be a really big test for us, probably the biggest test for this group since we’ve been coaching,” Richter said. “This is probably the biggest game that we’ve had to play. And now with us in the run that we’re in, to play against a really good team like Chicago, that’s a chance for us to show that we belong in the position we are in the league.”

If Damiani can keep scoring, the Union will have a shot in this game and more, all the way into the playoffs.