Rate the U: Hits and misses in New Jersey

The back line was good enough to get a clean sheet, but the offense couldn’t bury their chances.

How many times have we heard that this season.

Under normal circumstances a scoreless draw in New Jersey against the fourth-place Red Bulls would be considered an okay outing. But C.J. Sapong’s missed PK and Marcus Epps’ failure to either bury his breakaway attempts or pass the ball to an open teammate for a potentially easier finish made Saturday’s night game in Harrison a disappointing result.

The Union deserved to win.

Mark McKenzie and Auston Trusty shut down Bradley Wright-Phillips to continue earning accolades for their partnership in central defense while Borek Docksal delivered the pass of the year for the Union so far when he split the Red Bull defense to set up Epps. Haris Medunjanin had another great pass forward to set up Epps’ first chance in the box.

The subs didn’t do a ton to change the outcome though Ilsinho had some sharp moments in the box. David Accam’s play continues to be a troubling storyline. It’s one thing to not have any goals or assists, but another when he has so few highlights (besides that play he wasn’t given an assist for setting up Haris’s goal in Montreal) we can point to and justify the hoops the team jumped through to acquire him from Chicago in the offseason.

If you had a chance to watch — not a given if you were away from your TV this weekend given that the Union don’t have a streaming option for people in market — weigh on the player performances at the Ranker website.