Celebrating Failure: The Top 5 Union Winless Streaks

5. October 15 - November 3, 2011
3 losses, 1 draw - 2 Goals For, 5 Goals Against

The stretch at the end of 2011 didn't make the list because of it's length, but the context of the not winning. The Union ended up finishing the season in 3rd place, just 3 points behind Sporting Kansas City who won the Eastern Conference. The 1-0 loss to New York Red Bulls denied them the top spot in the conference. In the playoffs the Union then had to take on Houston in a home-and-home series where they lost both games. SKC on the other hand beat Colorado 2-0 in both legs. Houston did go on to beat SKC in the conference final that year, but it would have meant the Union hosted a final 2 years before the USOC final.

Fun fact: This is actually the point where everything started to go wrong! Nowak then went crazy and dismantled the team. Which led to John Hackworth taking the job, Aaron Wheeler playing centerback, Roger Torres being cut, and everything bad happening.

4. March 7 - ???, 2015
3 losses, 2 draws - 5 Goals For, 9 Goals Against

The current run makes the list because of the painful displays of "soccer" the team has forced the fans to endure, and because there is no saying when it is going to end. Yay!

The season started off with 2 draws and a decent level of hope, but all that has faded as three crushing defeats have made sure there is very little hope, if any. The Union have found an impressive blend of continuing old ways and finding new ones to give games away. Going into stoppage time winning and coming out losing is a feat that not many MLS teams can say they've ever done. Even the goals we score are depressing. Fernando has 3, but the Union's second leading scorer is Own Goal with 2.

3. August 4 - September 20, 2012
4 losses, 4 draws - 4 Goals For, 10 Goals Against

The 8 game stretch without a win ranks as the second longest in Union history. The streak began with the memorable Montreal double red card game, included going a man up against Columbus and still going on to lose, and ended with a loss to DC with the game winner being scored by the one and only Lionard Pajoy.

Despite how terrible the stretch was, the worst part is that it was enough to convince the Union front office to award John Hackworth the permanent head coaching job. What better way to prove that you are ready to run a team than leading them to their longest winless streak to date! That's so Union.

2. April 28 - June 16, 2012
5 losses, 1 draw - 4 Goals For, 9 Goals Against

Of the 5 loses during this stretch, 4 of them came because of goals in the last 15 minutes. Steven Lenhart, Kenny Cooper, Danny Kovermans, and Chris Pontius scored the late winners and lead to the firing of Peter Nowak. The most memorable game of the 6 was the 3-2 loss to NYRB that was the high point in Freddy Adu's career in Philadelphia when he was red carded for diving and for one brief 2 minute span the fans chanted his name. It was all down hill from there.

1. March 22 - May 10, 2014
5 losses, 4 draws - 8 Goals For, 13 Goals Against

The longest losing streak in Union history gets the top spot in our list celebrating the worst of the worst. This champion of terrible runs began with 3 wins in the first 4 games, but ended with a run of 4 games where the only goal for was an own goal in Seattle. There was even three games in this run that saw goals in the last 15 minutes, one that turned a draw into a loss and two that turned wins into draws.

It's only fitting that the winless run that outlasted the one that got Hackworth the job, would turn out to be the one that got him fired.