Union’s Bradley Carnell recognizes the ‘unique situation’ his club is in heading to Montréal

Still searching for their first points of the Major League Soccer season, the Union have entered previously uncharted territory.

When the final whistle sounded on a 2-1 loss to Charlotte FC on Saturday, it marked the sixth straight league defeat to open the season for the Union.

The run of defeats is no longer just the worst season-opening losing streak for the club, but the first stretch of six straight MLS losses in the team’s 17 seasons, besting a five-game losing streak set in Jim Curtin’s final season as manager in 2024.

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The next opportunity for manager Bradley Carnell and his team to pick up their first points of the season arrives when they travel to face CF Montréal at Stade Saputo on Saturday (2:30 p.m., Apple TV).

“We’re in a unique situation,” Carnell said. “I don’t think anyone’s ever experienced this type of streak in their careers. Everyone’s trying to clutch at every straw and upturn every stone to try and find the solutions, and I think it’s been a good, collective effort this week.”

Montréal (1-5-0, three points) has been in similar form to the Union, though it has a win this season, a 3-0 road conquest of the New York Red Bulls. Carnell expects Saturday’s game between two teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings to come down to mentality.

“Everyone is feeling something, but it’s a sense of mentality now,” Carnell said. “It’s a sense of desire and urgency. The X’s and the O’s will be important in this game, but I think it’s more about the mentality piece of two teams going at each other.”

Against Montréal, the Union will hope their attack can be more effective against a team that has conceded 17 goals in six league matches. The Union have scored four goals across their six losses and have not scored more than once in a match.

Carnell believes his side is getting a similar quantity of chances as it did last season, but that it is lacking quality in transition and in the final third.

“I think we’ve had just as many transitions as last year and got into the box just as many times, but the quality of the moment then gets away from us,” Carnell said. “The more times, confidence-wise, that doesn’t work, then you actually start to fall down, regress a little bit. And now we have to start digging ourselves out.”

Carnell said at his weekly news conference that Augstín Anello is continuing to make progress in his recovery from a hamstring injury.

“It shouldn’t be too long before we see him,” Carnell said. “He’s progressing in the right way.”

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Carnell added that a pair of midfielders, Danley Jean Jacques and Jesus Bueno, were both managing knee bruises. Defensively, the Union will look to contain the duo of Prince Owusu and Wikelman Carmona, who have combined for all seven of Montréal’s goals this season.

“They have some good pieces, and they’re a dangerous team,” Carnell said. “They have very specific ways of playing, and that’s always a challenge anyway in its own regard, because it’s something you don’t see every game day.”

The Union signed Nathan Harriel to a new contract on Wednesday that will keep the homegrown defender with the team through 2028-29, with a club option for the 2029-30 season.

Harriel, 24, joined the Union’s academy in 2019 from his hometown of Oldsmar, Fla. He has played in 148 games for the Union since joining the first team in 2021, including 23 league starts during last season’s run to the Supporters’ Shield.

“It’s been really nice to be able to be in one club for this long,” Harriel said. “It means a lot to me. I want to give back to the city, to the club, as much as I can.”

After the departures of longtime Union defenders Kai Wagner and Jakob Glesnes in the offseason, Harriel has become the veteran on the Union’s back line. Harriel said the new contract gives him more confidence on the pitch.

“It shows that the club has a lot of confidence in me, and that they believe and trust in me, and they’re willing to invest in me,” Harriel said. “That gives me the confidence to go about and just play free, and be my own person. There’s no need to be in my own shell, be scared of what others might think of me. Chest out, and be confident.”

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After going winless in their last seven across all competitions, the Union have fallen below the top 20 in the Concacaf club ranking index. Concacaf’s most recent ranking has the Union as the 23rd-best club in North America.

The Union were ranked 10th overall in October’s club rankings but have since fallen to 15th among MLS clubs in the index. The Union are one spot behind the Red Bulls and one spot ahead of the Chicago Fire.