The Union return home after a week ‘we wish we would forget’

The words seemed the right ones, for a moment in which so much is going wrong for the Union.

“There’s been a lot of accountability, starting with myself and moving through the ranks with the rest of the staff and the players,” manager Bradley Carnell said as he prepared his team for Saturday’s home game against New England (2:30 p.m., Apple TV).

As bad as last weekend’s 7-0 loss at Vancouver was, Wednesday’s 3-1 defeat at Nashville in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals might have stung more. It cost the Union their first shot at winning a trophy and another shot to win a trophy that fans and players treasure.

“It’s one of those weeks that, yeah, we wish we [could] forget,” Carnell said. “But if we’re not feeling uncomfortable, it means we’re not growing. And I feel we are at a point in the season now where we have to grow one more time to finish the season strong and to prepare us for the postseason.”

Now all the focus goes on trying to win the Supporters’ Shield for the best regular-season record. The Union enter this weekend atop the standings (17-7-6, 57 points), and finally have two remedies at hand.

One is playing at home for the first time in nearly a month. The other is that the next two games are against teams much lower in the standings.

» READ MORE: Are the Union unraveling? After their last two match results, it’s a question worth asking

New England is in 11th place in the Eastern Conference (8-14-8, 32 points) and just fired manager Caleb Porter. The Union then visit next-to-last D.C. United (5-15-10, 25 points) on Sept. 27. United fired manager Troy Lesesne in July and dismissed general manager Ally Mackay on Tuesday.

The club’s new sporting director, Erkut Sogut, is a longtime agent who has no previous front office experience but helped new D.C. manager René Weiler land the job in the summer.

Winning those games obviously will help, but won’t fully calm the waters. The regular season-ending games after that will be tricky — home against surging New York City FC then the finale on the road vs. Charlotte, where the Union have never won in three previous visits.

Then there’s what could be the most worrying undercurrent of all. Even if the Union win out, it might not be enough to claim the Supporters’ Shield. Vancouver and Miami have enough games in hand that if they were to win out, they’d overtake the Union.

Carnell isn’t thinking about any of that right now, though.

» READ MORE: Union picking up the pieces after 7-0 shellacking in Vancouver, the worst loss in club history

“If you ever live in fear, you’re going to fail, and there’s nothing to fear,” Carnell said. “In my eyes, we just have to play free and enjoy the last four games. And for us, we’ll tally up the points where we are at the end, but so far, we’re still in a very strong standing.”

Union outside back Frankie Westfield was named Friday to the U.S. national team roster for the upcoming under-20 World Cup.

It’s the latest honor for a player who wasn’t a big-time prospect growing up but worked his way up the club’s pipeline and is now a regular starter. The native of Northeast Philadelphia’s Morrell Park neighborhood debuted for the U.S. under-20 team last October and has now played six times for the squad.

“He’s making huge steps forward,” U.S. coach Marko Mitrović said. “First establishing himself as a regular player and playing almost every game, and having significant minutes on the field, but also using his time and opportunity with us. Frankie completely earned his spot on this roster.”

» READ MORE: Frankie Westfield made his Union first-team debut on the same weekend his brother Rocco won a Catholic League basketball title

Westfield is the 11th player with Union ties to make a U.S. under-20 World Cup team. Downingtown’s Zack Steffen, who grew up in the club’s youth academy, was first in 2013 and again in 2015.

At the last edition in 2023, Quinn Sullivan and former Union players Brandan Craig and Jack McGlynn took part. In 2019, it was Mark McKenzie, Matt Real, and former academy prospect CJ dos Santos; and in 2017, Auston Trusty and Derrick Jones were the first active Union players to make it.

This year’s roster also includes former Union academy forward prospect Marcos Zambrano. Born in Ecuador and raised in Gladwyne, he left the Union in 2023 to join the youth pipeline at famed Portuguese club Benfica. He never really made it over there and this summer returned to the U.S. to join Real Salt Lake.

Union forward prospect Eddy Davis will go to the U.S. training camp in Chile, the tournament’s host country, as one of two extra players for practices.

» READ MORE: Where does FIFA’s decision to implement dynamic pricing for World Cup tickets fit into growing the game? We asked.

Westfield and the rest of the squad will head south after their club games this weekend. The tournament runs from Sept. 27 to Oct. 19, which means he’ll miss the D.C. and New York games. If the U.S. makes the semifinals, he’d also miss the Charlotte game.

The Americans have made the last three quarterfinals but haven’t reached the semis since 1989, the only time they’ve done so. This tournament’s group stage opponents are New Caledonia on Sept. 29, perennial power France on Oct. 2, and African under-20 champion South Africa on Oct. 5.

Club teams aren’t required to release players for the under-20 World Cup like they must for senior national team games, but the Union have always been willing to help.

They’ll likely do so for November’s under-17 World Cup too, with Cavan Sullivan a leading candidate to make that U.S. squad, even though the tournament is during the playoffs.

“It’s just unfortunate that the schedules clash, and we just have to live with that — and make sure that we’re deep enough to have these guys representing their countries in a big World Cup stage,” Carnell said. “I mean, it’s the best and it’s the biggest for any player at any age group to represent [their countries]. So the club gives the full support to the federations, whether it’s the U.S. or elsewhere.”