Allowing late goals a season-long pattern for the Union

Union coach Jim Curtin couldn't hide his frustration and who could blame him? The Union coughed up another late lead in Sunday's 3-3 Major League Soccer draw with the visiting Chicago Fire.

After Sebastien Le Toux gave the Union a 3-2 lead in the 90th minute, Chicago's Kennedy Igboananike scored the equalizer in the 92nd minute.

That extended the Union's current winless MLS streak to five games, 0-3-2.

In three of the five games, the Union surrendered costly late goals.

During a 3-2 loss at D.C. United on July 26, the Union jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first four minutes, only to see the hosts storm back. The winning goal was scored in the 79th minute.

In a 3-1 loss to the visiting New York Red Bulls on Aug. 1, the Union tied the score on a goal by Sebastien Le Toux in the 73rd minute. One minute later, New York scored the game-winner on a goal by Bradley Wright-Phillips. (The Red Bulls added an insurance goal I the 94th minute after the Union pulled everybody up in the offensive zone).

"We invent different ways to blow leads," Curtin said. "It's unacceptable, you score three goals at home, you should win no matter what."

Curtin felt the Union got the short end of two hand ball calls and he might have a point. The first on Chicago appeared to occur in the box but the Union were given a free kick just outside the box. The second, leading up to the third Chicago goal, wasn't called.

Still, calls get blown all the time. With the Union, leads are being squandered too much. Curtin felt on Sunday, the Union acted as if they had already won when they went up 3-2.

"I'm at the stage where I'm watching our guys celebrate like we've won, like it's over," he said,

He said the celebration caused the Union to waste energy.

"I don't understand why our defenders are running an extra hundred yards to jump on guys when we could stay back and conserve some energy," Curtin said. "I'm yelling at everybody to get back. Again, I understand the excitement and that's a minor point but I'm grasping at straws with things we can tighten up because it's happened so many times."

Midfielder Brian Carroll says that the Union tend to gamble too much offensively when they have the lead. On Sunday, they led 2-1 and 3-2.

"We have to have a defend-first mentality once we have a lead and give up nothing else," Carroll said. "If we get another goal, great but if we have to win 2-1 that is how it should be, but we didn't do that well enough tonight."

And it hasn't been well enough most of the year. There have been several other instances such as 2-1 loss to NY City FC on June 6, when the winners broke the tie in the 87th minute. Or a 2-1 loss at D.C. United on May 30, when the winning goal was scored in the 85th minute. Or a 2-1 loss to New England, on April 19 when the game-winner came in the 76th minute.

One of the most frustrating games was a 3-2 loss at Sporting Kansas City, when the winners scored in the 91st and 95th minute on April 5.  And finally, during a 3-3 draw at Real Salt Lake on March 14, hosts tied the score in the 86th minute.

No wonder Curtin, Carroll, and the rest of the team were so frustrated. This has been a common scenario all season and explains why the Union (6-13-6) have already lost one more game than all of last year with nine games remaining.