What’s wrong with the Union? Bradley Carnell has work to do amid the team’s worst-ever start

Just before the second half started on Saturday, the broadcast showed Union players in what looked like heated conversations on the field.

One shot had Indiana Vassilev gesturing at Jovan Lukić, with Olwethu Makhanya standing nearby looking unamused. Another shot had Danley Jean Jacques talking to Nathan Harriel, in what appeared to be an equally annoyed way.

There are plenty of vocal players on this team, and coaches in lots of sports will tell you that talking is better than not talking. But the vibes felt bad, even though the Union were only trailing Atlanta United 1-0 at that point.

Ninety seconds after play resumed, Atlanta scored a second with ease. Twenty-one minutes after that, another far-too-easy goal made it 3-0. It was 3-1 at the final whistle, thanks to a close-to-garbage-time goal from Agustín Anello.

There have been some bad Union teams over their 17 seasons, but none until this one started a league campaign with four straight losses.

Manager Bradley Carnell knew it when he sat down for his postgame news conference, and did not hide from it.

» READ MORE: Union lose to Atlanta United and make team history in the process

“We’ve got to sharpen up who we are currently, what are we trying to do and what are we trying to accomplish,” he said. “Because this is a first for us, I believe, and this is not something that we are all particularly proud of. And I stand at the front and put my hand up, and make sure we’re going to fight to get back on track here.”

How bad was this game? If you’ve ever heard of the old Match Game TV show, it was so bad that there were a lot of blanks.

Atlanta goalkeeper Lucas Hoyos did not have to make a save until the 62^nd minute, and wasn’t truly tested by a shot on target until the 81^st. But that was the Union’s 12^th shot of the game, including six from within the 18-yard box that ended up off-target.

Bruno Damiani had two of them, Jean Jacques had one, Vassilev had his latest, and Anello missed with the net open.

» READ MORE: Before this game, the Union said they are ‘so close’. What’s it going to take to get over the hump?

“There’s a lot of, I would say — I don’t want to say anxiety, but there’s a lot of that floating around, especially when things don’t go your way,” Carnell said. “It feels like every bounce is going to the opponent, and how do you work that back in your favor? It’s by doing the basics really well, and we’re letting ourselves down with the basics right now.”

Carnell chose to not start Ezekiel Alladoh, two days after saying the team’s record signing is still “getting a little bit more connected with the group.” It’s not a knock on Stas Korzeniowski, who has earned a shot to start, to have questions about Alladoh.

“We’re still trying to get ‘Eze’ on-boarded with our pressing triggers and cues and everything like that and every day he’s learning,” Carnell said when asked on Saturday. “Every day he’s getting more up to speed with how we do things, and the intensity levels needed to apply our way.”

Alladoh was a substitute in the 57^th minute, and just two of his 16 touches came inside Atlanta’s 18-yard box. Not getting the ball enough in the first place isn’t just on the striker.

Cavan Sullivan, meanwhile, didn’t play at all. Carnell said some late-game injury risks took subs away that he might have used differently, but he also said, “I just didn’t feel this was the right game to get Cavan in. I just didn’t see that window of opportunity.”

Here some observers will note that Vassilev, for all his hustle, has started all four league games so far and mustered just four shots in 315 minutes.

Getting the doors blown off last fall in Vancouver was one thing. Getting the doors blown off in March in Atlanta — the one team everyone around MLS has been waiting years to see blow the Union’s doors off — is another.

They’ve had to wait a while. This was the Union’s first loss to the Five Stripes since 2023 and just their third in 16 meetings since the start of 2019, the year the Union started their rise to MLS’s elite.

» READ MORE: Club América's Alejandro Zendejas made Subaru Park a milestone in his race for the U.S. World Cup team

This came to mind when Carnell said his players gave “too much respect at times” to Atlanta’s big-money attackers Emmanuel Latte Lath, Aleksey Miranchuk, and Miguel Almirón.

“We’ve said we’re waiting for a lot of leadership on and off the field,” Carnell said. “We’re waiting for a lot of this, and I’ve seen guys grow. But now when we get tested, now let’s see: do we want to make sure that we stand there and face whatever is confronting us, be open to it, be having a growth mindset to exploring what’s wrong?”

It may feel easy for fans to blame the casting off of familiar veterans over the winter. From here, that still isn’t the root cause.

It’s hard to imagine Jakob Glesnes rushing back on those Atlanta fast breaks, given how often he got caught on those exact plays. (The Los Angeles Galaxy’s decision to give him a new contract until the summer of 2029, when he’ll be 35, raised some eyebrows.)

» READ MORE: MLS bans two players, including a Union alum, for life for gambling on their own games

Kai Wagner caused headaches with his perennial wanting to leave town, and that’s before any questions about his behavior on the field. Philippe Ndinga has needed only a few days to show he’s a quite good player.

Would Tai Baribo have finished the chances that Anello and Damiani have fluffed? Maybe, but his three goals for D.C. United so far haven’t proven that the Union were wrong to see if he was a product of their system. One was a penalty kick, one came against his old team, and the other was a doorstep finish of a rebound with D.C. down 2-0 to Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami.

In fact, the biggest loss might be Mikael Uhre — who would have been dismissed at the end of 2024 had his contract option for 2025 not been triggered automatically. His runs off the ball pulled opposing defenses apart, and created the space for Damiani, Baribo, and Julián Carranza before them to have easier scoring chances.

Those runs aren’t coming in the same way now.

In the big picture, the Union had to get younger, and they waited a long time to do it. The longer they waited, the more it was going to hurt when the time came.

» READ MORE: The Union’s losing streak can be traced to few scoring opportunities, and many lineup shuffles

It’s hard to see right now where the bottom will be, or when this team will reach it. But the first step is admitting there’s a problem, and Carnell has done that.

“This is the time when we now get challenged,” he said, “because now we separate the men from the boys.”