Union look to extend win streak in Utah
They play Real Salt Lake, which has never lost to the Union.
Coach Jim Curtin hopes the Union learned from their struggles when they went 0-4-4 in their first eight games this season.
They became the last Major League Soccer team to earn a win. But since that rough beginning, the Union have been on a roll with a club-record four wins in a row.
"We learned how hard it was to be in the hole and how hard it was to get out of the hole, and we don't want the team to get there again," Curtin said this week.
The Union could have easily fallen back into the hole when they trailed, 1-0, at halftime last Saturday against the Colorado Rapids, the team with the worst MLS record.
The second half was a different story, as the Union scored twice for a 2-1 victory at Talen Energy Stadium.
For the second straight week, the Union will face a struggling team from the Western Conference when they visit Real Salt Lake (3-8-2) on Saturday.
Things have been going the Union's way lately, and that continued Thursday, when RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman was suspended for the Union game and fined an undisclosed amount for violent conduct in last week's 1-0 loss at Seattle.
The Union are also making their own breaks and won three games in an eight-day span. One surprise was that 35-year-old center back Oguchi Onyewu didn't leave the field during those three games.
Speculation had Curtin giving Onyewu off in one of the games, but that didn't happen, and Onyewu led a defensive effort that allowed just one goal.
A former U.S. national team mainstay with 69 caps, Onyewu had been benched for three games but returned in a 3-0 win over the New York Red Bulls on May 6 that began the four-game winning streak. Then came the three games in eight days with a 4-0 win at D.C. United on May 13, a 2-0 home victory over the Houston Dynamo on May 17, and the victory over Colorado.
"He's been called up a lot more early in the year than we probably anticipated," Curtin said of Onyewu. "To do the quick turnaround and go Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, and only concede one goal was impressive, and I think he has done a great job for us as a leader back there."
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