It wasn\u2019t supposed to be this way. <\/p>\n
The Union was supposed to pick up right where they left off. The decisions to bid farewell to three top players last season was mitigated with offseason acquisitions in the millions made to ensure the Union didn\u2019t skip a beat.<\/p>\n
Just look at the numbers. A forward who marked the club\u2019s largest ever signing<\/a>. A defender who was supposed to be a younger, faster version <\/a>of the one who departed to Los Angeles as a two-time All-Star. Renewed contracts for players who were a big part of the success, and of course, a 16-year-old phenom waiting for his opportunity to prove his hype is real<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: What\u2019s wrong with the Union? Bradley Carnell has work to do amid the team\u2019s worst-ever start<\/a><\/p>\n This was supposed to be the year. <\/p>\n But eight games into the 2026 season, the Union sit at the bottom of Major League Soccer\u2019s Eastern Conference standings. And on Wednesday night, their run in the Concacaf Champions Cup came to an end in the round of 16 after a 1-1 draw against Liga MX giants Club Am\u00e9rica. <\/p>\n The draw stopped the bleeding, with the Union entering that match on a four-game losing streak in all competitions but they walked into Mexico City\u2019s Estadio de la Ciudad de los Deportes trailing in the two-game series 1-0, following a loss to Am\u00e9rica a week earlier. <\/p>\n What did the game look like? Well, it would\u2019ve been fair to not know how it ended if you turned off the broadcast in the first half, because it was a performance that wasn\u2019t worth watching. Club Am\u00e9rica would score just six minutes into the match, completely exploiting holes the in Union\u2019s back line and makingnewcomers in defenders Japhet Sery Larsen and Geiner Martinez look silly.<\/p>\n The main culprit in the first half beatdown was America midfielder Brian Rodr\u00edguez, who torched both Sery Larsen and Martinez down the left side of the field, creating chance after chance that made a six-minute Am\u00e9rica goal seem inevitable. <\/p>\n By the end of the first half, Club Am\u00e9rica held the edge in almost every statistic, namely possession, as the Union was forced to press high in even higher altitude to defend and break up attacks, only to concede balls back to Am\u00e9rica thanks to poor passing or an inefficiency in what to do with the ball. <\/p>\n A microcosm of that arrived in stoppage time of the first half when Cavan Sullivan<\/a> controlled and laid a perfect ball to a wide open forward Stas Korzeniowski in the box. However, the ball got stuck under Korzeniowski\u2019s feet and cleared away before he could get the shot off. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: MLS suspends Ernst Tanner after an investigation \u2018substantiated\u2019 allegations against him<\/a><\/p>\n