Second half barrage, vintage Andre Blake carry Union into Leagues Cup quarterfinals

Bear with me here – I’m still trying to process what I just watched. What a wild, wild match. Alright, let me take you through it. 

So, the Union came into their League Cup Round of 16 matchup with FC Cincinnati on a bit of a good run of form. They had won four out of their last five matches in all competitions, and looked like they were building something that just never seemed to be there in the first half of the season. 

And they started the match continuing their good form. In the 4th minute, they looked like they had already broken the deadlock. From a beautiful lobbed pass from Alejandro Bedoya, Mikael Uhre latched onto the bouncing ball and slotted home to give the Union the lead. Well, briefly. After a VAR review, it was determined that Uhre’s foot was just slightly beyond the Cincinnati backline and the goal was waved off. Unfortunate, but the disallowed goal was evidence that the Cincinnati backline was vulnerable. One looping ball in behind and they were beaten. 

In the 17th minute, the Union had another great chance when Daniel Gazdag found himself in space on the right wing and slid a ball behind the Cincinnati backline, but Jack McGlynn’s effort sailed over the bar. Immediately, a minute later, the Union had yet another chance when Bedoya found space on the same right wing, slid a ball back to Gazdag, but Gazdag’s effort was a bit wayward. 

Then the game really opened up for both sides.

In the 35th minute, Cincinnati had their best chance of the half when Luca Orellano slipped a nice ball into the path of ex-Union forward Sergio Santos, who made a deft little pass to a wide open Yuya Kubo, but Kubo somehow fluffed his lines and hit the post from just six yards out. A lifeline for the Union. 

Six minutes later, the Union came back with their best chance of the half when Bedoya slid a ball across the box for Tai Baribo, whose effort beat Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Calentano but was miraculously saved off the line by Deandre Yedlin. After the ball ricocheted off Yedlin and bounced out, Nathan Harriel found a bit of space on the edge of the area, and laced a shot that went just wide of the left post. 

When the halftime whistle blew, both teams probably felt like they deserved to be ahead. And frankly, you couldn’t blame either side for feeling that way.  

To start the second half, the Union came out firing. In the 51st minute, Daniel Gazdag played a cheeky trivela pass into the path of Uhre, who somehow managed to dispatch the ball past Calentano and into the Cincinnati net with his left peg from a tight angle. The goal was much needed for Uhre, who despite scoring in his last two MLS matches, was yet to score in the Union’s 2024 Leagues Cup campaign. Hopefully a goal of that quality will bring back the Uhre of old that was banging in goals for fun. 

The Union were far from done – and so was this drunk game. Just 10 minutes later, Gazdag found Baribo about 20 yards from goal, and the Israeli forward cut inside and curled an absolute belter of a strike into the side netting to give the Union a 2-0 lead. A man on absolutely blazing fire, Baribo’s goal was his 10th in his last 11 matches. The lad is in nutty form, and seems to be utterly unplayable at the moment. 

But Cincinnati and last season’s MLS MVP, Luciano Acosta, weren’t dead yet. In the 66th minute, Acosta made his presence known. He slipped past the Union backline and fired an effort on goal that Andre Blake somehow saved, but the ball fell right into the feet of Cincinnati midfielder Pavel Bucha, who buried his chance and cut the Union lead to 2-1. A halftime substitute, Acosta created a goal after just over 20 minutes on the pitch. And the little Argentine magician wasn’t done yet. In the 80th minute, Acosta worked some magic on the endline before slotting a picture perfect ball across the face of the goal and into the waiting feet of Yedlin, who leveled the match at 2-2. And to be fair to Cincinnati, the equalizing goal was coming. Had it not been for a pair of unbelievable saves from the omnipotent Andre Blake in the 70th and 73rd minute, the game could easily have been 3-2 in favor of the orange and blue. 

And at this point, the feeling that Cincinnati was just going to run away with this one probably began to creep into the mind of nearly every Union fan watching. However, if you were in this camp (I’m guilty), you failed to consider that Tai Baribo couldn’t stop scoring if he wanted to right now. Just a minute after Yedlin’s equalizer, Baribo got on the end of a ball from Quinn Sullivan and smashed it into the back of the net with his first touch. A striker’s goal. And a goal that sucked the life out of not only the Cincinnati fans, but also the players. 

From that point on, it was the Union’s match. And in the 84th minute, Sullivan decided to shut down the club. After ripping an effort on frame that was saved by Calentano, Sullivan jumped on his own rebound and laced a left-footed effort that took a wicked deflection and found its way into the back of the net to extend the Union lead to 4-2 and effectively put the game to bed. 

When the final whistle blew, the Union were on to the Leagues Cup quarterfinals where they will face Liga MX side Mazatlan FC on August 17 at home. And considering the extended break in MLS, this is perhaps the best possible time for the Union to make a deep cup run. No fixture congestion, no headaches. Just tons and tons of goals, and vintage Andre Blake performances. And what a joy and honor it is to still be able to watch our Jamaican superhero, as he continues to extend his legend and etch his name all over this club’s history. Hopefully, that history continues next week.