Olwethu Makhanya’s late-game heroics send the Union to the U.S. Open Cup semifinals

Anyone can be a hero at any time, and that’s doubly true for a Union team that prides itself on lacking stars. It’s even truer in U.S. Open Cup games, with each one’s knockout drama adding to the tournament’s 110 years of history.

Wednesday night had gotten late, the Union’s quarterfinal against the New York Red Bulls was tied in the final minutes, and the sparse crowd that had waited out a thunderstorm delay was looking for a winner. So were the teams, which are facing each other again on Saturday in North Jersey. Nobody particularly wanted extra time, even as it seemed increasingly likely.

It never did, thanks to a player few people would have expected. Centerback Olwethu Makhanya jumped on a loose ball after a free kick in the 89th minute, shot it to the far post, and sent the Union on to the Open Cup semifinals with a come-from-behind 3-2 win.

“It shows that we fight throughout the whole game,” Makhanya said afterward. “If you’re going to fight until the end, you know you might score a goal toward the end. When I scored that goal, I was really happy because I knew that was the game-winner — we just had to go back and defend.”

The game kicked off 35 days, 2½ hours, and two thunderstorm delays late — the one that postponed the game from July 9, and another for about two hours Wednesday. It ended after 104 minutes of game clock with all the stoppage time; those five goals; and a combined 36 fouls, plus various other collisions that referee Joshua Encarnacion let go.

“The energy in this team is awesome. The togetherness is great,” manager Bradley Carnell said. “I think you can just see exactly the way the team digs deep and rallies through tough moments after a two-hour delay. We’re ecstatic to be in the next round.”

» READ MORE: Alejandro Bedoya takes the Union’s Open Cup run personally, wanting a final trophy in his career

While the Union started a full-strength lineup, the Red Bulls didn’t. Star attackers Emil Forsberg and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting were on the bench, and West Chester native AJ Marcucci was in net instead of usual starter Carlos Coronel.

So the objective seemed clear for the Union, just as it did last Saturday when Toronto FC started a backup goalkeeper: Push the game and get a lead before Forsberg and Choupo-Moting got on the field.

That did not happen. New York’s Wikelman Carmona (eighth minute) and the Union’s Tai Baribo (13th) traded early goals, then the rest of the game became the slugfest it always is when these teams meet.

A special prize goes to the Red Bulls’ Kyle Duncan, who was booked in the 23rd minute and easily could have been booked again when he shoved over Danley Jean Jacques in the 32nd. Duncan, who’d been ejected from a league game over the weekend, was awaiting his own team’s free kick when he decided to go at Jean Jacques, and everyone saw it.

Encarnacion gave Duncan a long talking-to, but not a second booking. New York manager Sandro Schwarz gave thanks by promptly yanking his right back from the game.

Forsberg and Choupo-Moting entered in the 64th, and seven minutes later Choupo-Moting slammed Dylan Nealis’ cross into the top corner. Right then, it seemed the Red Bulls were on the way to ending a six-year, 15-game winless streak against their southern neighbors.

But just as quickly, things swung back the Union’s way. In the 74th, loose defending by the visitors gave Quinn Sullivan and Baribo an opening to work the ball across the field to Milan Iloski, who nailed the finish for his first Union goal. The score was tied again, the Union had the momentum, and they pushed the win over the line with Makhanya’s finish.

It was another sign of how far Makhanya has come this year, and Union goalkeeper and captain Andre Blake gave the centerback hearty praise.

» READ MORE: Indiana Vassilev knew the Union had themselves to blame for not beating Toronto over the weekend

“His growth over the year, it’s been it’s been amazing,” Blake said. “If you ask me, I would say it’s 90% from last year to this year, and even at the beginning of the season. I’m really happy for him. … You can see that he’s playing now with a lot of confidence — still a lot to learn, still a long way to go, but he’s playing very well right now.”

As riveting as the win was, it was tinged with some sadness. The most historic competition in American soccer has left Subaru Park not just for this year, but perhaps for a while.

The Union will play their semifinal Sept. 16 at Nashville SC, and the winner will go to Minnesota United or Austin FC for the final on Oct. 1.

After that, the way cup tournaments go, there’s no way to know when the next Open Cup game here will be. That’s partially because of the way the draw works, but also because of how MLS treats the tournament.

» READ MORE: Milan Iloski is ready to jump right into the Union’s squad, and the playoff race

If MLS sticks by the rules it used this year, the Union almost certainly will finish high enough in the standings to qualify for next year’s Leagues Cup and maybe even the Concacaf Champions Cup. The league decreed this year that teams would play in up to two cups each, and repeating that next year would leave the Union out of the Open Cup.

That makes a lot of assumptions in a year in which the World Cup will blow a huge hole in the schedule. Unfortunately, there’s little choice but to assume right now, with MLS’s disdain for the Open Cup still overhead.

At least there’s still plenty to talk about this year, between the Open Cup run and the Union sitting atop the league standings. Blake knows the pressure is rising to turn that success into a trophy, and he wants to make it happen as badly as anyone.

“I’ve been to a couple Open Cup finals and been on the not-winning side,” he said, having been the starter in 2015 and 2018. “We’ve been playing pretty well on the road this year, so hopefully we can go all the way.”