Lack of discipline bites Union again in loss to New York City FC

CHESTER — The Philadelphia Union is 0-2 to start the 2026 MLS season. And in the triage of what’s gone wrong, there are levels of concern.

A rebuilt defense has held up pretty well thus far, despite losing two stalwarts from last year. An attack that has scored 12 goals in two games in the CONCACAF Champions Cup against substandard Trinidadian opposition doesn’t have one from open play in 180 MLS minutes.

But before those concerns can be broached, there’s an even more elemental one: Finishing a game with all 11 guys on the field.

For the second time in two games, the Union had a player sent off. Both Ezekiel Alladoh’s straight red against D.C. United in last week’s opener and Olwethu Makhanya’s second yellow card Sunday were for dissent. With a tightening of rules about what you can say on the field aimed at cleaning up the game, players will need to make adjustments. The Union thus far haven’t.

“Some guys need to step up a little bit in terms of their leadership, to step up in terms of their composure, and when we need to have a calming voice and when we need to have a presence in a different way,” coach Bradley Carnell said after a 2-1 loss to New York City FC. “Some of our stuff over the last two weeks, from a disciplinary standpoint, is probably substandard, which leaves us a mountain of work to do.”

“I think the frustration is we’re just letting ourselves down at the end of the day,” midfielder Indiana Vassilev said. “Two red cards due to dissent: It’s obviously not a trend we want to keep on setting for ourselves. We’re just shooting ourselves in the foot at the end of the day.”

The conversation was even more unsparing in the locker room.

Makhanya’s red card proved pivotal. The Union had trailed since Hannes Wolfe’s goal in the 37th minute. They were denied what they thought to be a penalty in the 69th minute, when Jovan Lukic went down in the box and referee Chris Penso was referred to the monitor to review.

They got a penalty on a much softer call in the 86th minute, when substitute forward Stas Korzeniowski backed into NYCFC defender Thiago Martins and got the call. Vassilev scored from the spot in the 89th, avoiding a repeat of the 1-nil defeat that ended last season in the MLS Cup playoffs, and the Union fancied a chance to win the game with 10 minutes of stoppage time added.

But Makhanya was shown a second yellow in the second minute, evidently for doing the VAR hand motion toward Penso on what he thought was the wrong call in awarding NYCFC forward Talles Magno a corner kick. Which, keen observers may note, is not a play within VAR’s purview to adjudicate.

So when seven minutes later, no one on the Union pressured the cross by Agustin Ojeda on the left edge of the penalty area, and fill-in left back Ben Bender, who is not a left back, was outjumped near the center of the 6-yard box for a header by crashing right back Tayvon Gray, you could point to missing a center back as to why the Union were missing one point from the game.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to look at ourselves in the mirror,” said Nate Harriel, who was great at right back. “It’s two weeks, two red cards, not even from tackles, but just by our mouths at the center referee. It’s not good enough from a culture standpoint. We can’t keep doing this every single week.”

Alladoh last week became just the third Union player sent off on his MLS debut, joining Toni Stahl in the first game in franchise history in 2010 and Corben Bone in 2014. Sunday marked the first time since April 2019 that the Union picked up red cards in consecutive games.

For Makhanya, who had a breakout season last year and is among the hottest defensive prospects in MLS, that’s now three red cards in 2,324 minutes in the league. While players backed him and emphasized how central he’s been since debuting at the start of last year, Sunday’s effort fell short.

The Union are a markedly younger team than last year, with many veterans in their late 20s and early 30s jettisoned in the offseason. That isn’t the root of this problem, though, or at least it shouldn’t have been.

“There is a little bit to say about, I guess veterans trying to lead the younger guys,” Vassilev said. “But I also think there comes a stage where maturity comes into play. We had a red card last week due to the same reasons. And it really should be that one red card and everybody learns from it.”

Harriel said the disciplinary lapses may precipitate, “the hard conversations you need to have” to stop a problem before it exacerbates.

In capturing the Supporters’ Shield last year, the Union only lost consecutive MLS games once — at Columbus and at Nashville in late June/early July — and only lost consecutive games in all competitions on two occasions: the Vancouver debacle/Nashville Open Cup semi being the other one in September. None of those involved a game at Subaru Park.

The Union have a full week to train before hosting San Jose on Saturday, then a gauntlet with Mexican giant Club America in the two-leg CCC Round of 16 tie that starts March 10.

That’s not much time to get things right. The sooner they do, the better.

“We have a culture here,” Harriel said. “The standard’s high. And right now as a group, I think you can see that we’re a little bit below, and that’s something that we don’t want, we don’t want the fans to have here, and we don’t want to continue it like that.”