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

It was around this time last month that Bradley Carnell, who doesn’t crack a smile often, appeared to have finally settled into his role as the Union’s manager.

He smiled more. He quipped more with his comments, and not in an austere way. In listening to him speak and watching his mannerisms, it appeared that the grass finally smelled sweeter along the Chester waterfront.

How could it not? With a team enjoying the league’s best record, a playoff spot secure with still a month to go, and looking like a shoo-in to compete in its fourth U.S. Open Cup final, there was a good deal to be happy about.

Except, now, for that last part.

After an unforgettable loss to Vancouver on Saturday, the Union entered Nashville SC’s Geodis Park on Tuesday hoping to shake off that 7-0 thumping and regain the form that statistically still makes them the best club in Major League Soccer.

But it was much of the same for the Union, who found themselves on the losing end, 3-1, in the U.S. Open Cup semifinal.

While the Union bow out, Nashville moves on to play the winner of Austin FC and Minnesota United on Oct. 1 in the Open Cup final.

There isn’t need for a lengthy synopsis of how Tuesday night went down, because the numbers tell the story.

Zero shots from the Union in the first half. Zero.

The Union’s only goal came on a whipping curler that found the top of Nashville’s net in the 70th minute from midfielder Quinn Sullivan, who entered substitute in the 63rd.

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

“I thought Quinn came in and showed a lot of life,” Carnell said. “He provided a little spark, and sometimes you need that to regain confidence. … He came in and created the spark and gave us exactly what we needed … and all of a sudden, we looked like ourselves a little bit.”

Nashville forward Sam Surridge scored all three of Nashville’s goals and served as a nightmare for Union defender Jakob Glesnes yet again. Surridge, who’s on pace to win MLS’s Golden Boot, given to the league’s top scorer, has scored four of his 26 goals in all competitions against the Union — that’s about 15% of Surridge’s production this season — and three of those four goals have come at the expense of Glesnes.

“We have to do a lot better on our personal details with set pieces and tracking runners,” said Carnell, without naming anyone directly. “It was a bit of a bad day at the office with that, and now it’s things to work on, things to look at. … We’re not obviously happy with the result, but it’s a Cup run that comes to an end.”

In the last two matches, the Union have conceded 10 goals and scored just one. In the previous 10 games dating to the beginning of July in all competitions, they allowed just nine goals, scoring 17.

“We’ve had togetherness and commitment as a team all season,” Sullivan said on the pregame show ahead of the match. “Now, we’ve had the moment where we get our butts kicked in Vancouver, [so now we need] to bounce back in a semifinal game to see if we’re that team that we’ve said we are the entire time.”

Except the Union didn’t do any of that. Which begs the question: Are they unraveling?

There’s simply not enough evidence to support that notion, despite how alarming the first two games of this three-matches-in-a-week swing have been.

Also, it’s really hard to win on the road. Only four teams in MLS’s Eastern Conference have winning road records, and the Union are one of them.

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

Living out of a suitcase and eating hotel food may sound great for a night or two, but after losing to Vancouver, the team boarded a plane and spent the last three nights preparing for the game in Nashville.

It’s not mainly why the Union lost. One could argue that inconsistencies in the last two lineups played a more significant factor than being forced to undergo regeneration exercises inside a hotel ballroom — but it’s a factor.

So now, it’s a flight back to Philly with three days to prepare before hosting New England on Saturday (2:30 p.m., Apple TV+, MLS Season Pass). That match should showcase the Union’s capacity for a bounce back — especially before stiffer competition arrives to close out the regular season next month.

“You fall down that spiral again, where doubt creeps in and you’re just like, ‘Whoa, man, this is another roller-coaster ride,’” Carnell said. “But these guys are not machines, we are not machines, and I’m proud of the way they responded in the second half to show that there’s a lot of life and a lot of quality left in this group.”

Maybe it’s that realization, that despite a near-perfect run this season, his squad is far from perfect that keeps Carnell buoyed.

A few wins out of this four-game final lap of the regular season can right the ship. If the Union can after this dismal road trip — well, it might just force Carnell’s will to crack a smile again.

While it was heartbreak for the Union, it was elation for B.J. Callaghan, the Ventnor, N.J., native. Callaghan, a former Union assistant, also was the U.S. men’s national team’s interim head coach before settling in as Nashville’s manager last season.

Callaghan could be approaching his second in a pair of firsts. He became the first interim U.S. Soccer coach to win a major tournament after winning the 2023 Concacaf Nations League tournament, and now, with a win in the Open Cup final, he could become the first coach to bring a major trophy to the city of Nashville. … Nashville SC is the only team to have defeated the Union each time they played this season. … The Union had five yellow cards in the loss to Nashville, three of which came in the first half.

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