Union picking up the pieces after 7-0 shellacking in Vancouver, the worst loss in club history
“I just apologize to the staff, the players,” manager Bradley Carnell said. "... Sometimes going out of our comfort zones is a good thing, and we’ll learn from this.”
Bradley Carnell is probably not very fond of Vancouver.
The Whitecaps handed Carnell his last defeat as the manager of St. Louis City SC in June 2024. Carnell, who led the expansion team to a first-place finish in the Western Conference a season before, was fired by St. Louis two days after the 4-3 loss in Vancouver.
Carnell did not fare much better while leading the Union against the host Whitecaps on Saturday night. Vancouver (15-6-7, 52 points) delivered a 7-0 thrashing of the Union at BC Place, highlighted by a hat trick from Thomas Müller. The seven-goal loss is the most lopsided defeat in Union history.
Unlike the result of his last outing in Vancouver, Carnell will keep his job managing the Union (17-7-6, 57 points), who remain first in the MLS standings despite the loss.
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San Diego (17-8-5) trails the Union by a point for the top spot in the leaguewide standings after losing, 3-1, to Minnesota United on Saturday night. Eastern Conference rival FC Cincinnati (17-9-4, 55 points) crept closer to the Union after a 2-1 win over Nashville.
While the out-of-town scoreboard was kind to the Union’s Supporters’ Shield aspirations, the scoreboard inside BC Place was anything but.
Carnell rotated some of his starters, leaving Kai Wagner, Danley Jean-Jacques, and Tai Baribo out of the starting lineup. Olwethu Makhanya was suspended for the match after picking up a red card in the Union’s 1-0 win over Cincinnati, and Andre Blake is still making his way back from the hamstring injury he suffered in August. Blake traveled with the team, but Andrew Rick started in net.
“From a personnel standpoint, I thought we did exactly what we needed to do,” Carnell said after the match. “Unfortunately, the application on my behalf, we couldn’t get it right. I think over 30 match days, 29 we’ve proven to find the right recipe. Today, we didn’t. They exposed us and exploited us.”
Vancouver found its first goal on a corner set piece in the 18th minute, as Mathias Laborda headed an in-swinging cross from Sebastian Berhalter past a frozen Rick and into the top left corner. The Whitecaps quickly added a second, as Ali Ahmed blazed past Alejandro Bedoya on the left wing and served a ball into the 18-yard box. Emmanuel Sabbi calmly tapped it in to put Vancouver up, 2-0, in the 24th minute.
The Whitecaps went up 3-0 from the penalty spot in the 29th minute after Jesus Bueno was called for a hand ball in the 18-yard box. Müller, the former Bayern Munich star, converted the penalty past Rick.
Müller, who turned 36 on Saturday night, scored on another penalty in the first minute of first-half stoppage time. Ahmed drew the penalty, as his run down the left wing caused Bedoya, standing in at right back for Wagner, to take him down in the penalty area. Müller converted to put the Whitecaps up, 4-0.
Carnell did not wait until the halftime break to make three substitutions after Müller’s second penalty, pulling Bedoya, Bueno, and Mikael Uhre in favor of Baribo, Wagner, and Danley Jean-Jacques in the second minute of first-half additional time.
Even with Carnell making three substitutions late in the first half, the damage had already been done. A nightmare first half was followed by a continued landslide in the second half. Sabbi earned a second goal to put Vancouver up, 5-0, in the 61st minute. Seventeen-year-old Rayan Elloumi scored his first MLS goal in the 80th minute to push the Vancouver lead to six, and Müller secured his first MLS hat trick, scoring his third goal from open play in the 88th minute.
“I just apologize to the staff, the players,” Carnell said when asked if he had any regrets regarding his handling of the match. “I put them in a position [where] they didn’t feel ultra comfortable. Sometimes going out of our comfort zones is a good thing, and we’ll learn from this.”
Before Saturday, the Union’s most lopsided loss was a 6-0 defeat to Liga Pachuca in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup. The Union had never lost by more than four goals in MLS play until Saturday.
Bedoya, who wore the captain’s armband in Vancouver, took to social media after the match to apologize for his performance, calling it “simply not good enough.”
The Union will have to recover quickly from the drubbing, as they travel to Nashville for a U.S. Open Cup semifinal on Tuesday (8 p.m., Paramount+). The Union is looking to secure a spot in the U.S. Open Cup final for the fourth time in club history. They have finished as runners-up in the tournament three times, most recently in 2018.
With only two days off before Tuesday, the Union will remain on the road instead of returning to Philadelphia.
“We just have to move on,” Carnell said. “I’d rather get cleaned out like this and learn from it, and be like, ‘All right, that’s not us, let’s move on.’ That’s the feeling I get, that’s the messages I’m hearing, and that’s always a positive sign.”
The Union will need a better effort than they displayed Saturday in Vancouver to advance past Nashville, which is playing in its first Open Cup semifinal in club history. If the Union beat Nashville, they will travel to the winner of the Western semifinal between Minnesota United and Austin FC in the Cup final on Oct. 1.