This is one of the better goals you’ll see this MLS season:

Caught it flush. Right foot, full volley, a central defender no less. We’ve seen Jakob Glesnes score all sorts of great goals as a Union player, and they don’t get more technically proficient than this one. It’s really hard to do, first of all to make contact as clean as this. Usually you’re snapping at the ball and/or trying to side foot volley this kind of service just to keep it down and keep it on frame. But he takes it with the laces and really doesn’t have to swing very hard at all because he’s made such good contact that it’s coming off his foot with a lot of power.

The Union won 3-0 Saturday afternoon to improve to third place in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference. They’ve won two in a row after a three-game winless skid, showing that what we initially thought to be true remains true – that this is a playoff team. They’re good enough to get there as long as guys like Kai Wagner and Andre Blake stay healthy and in the lineup, while Nathan Harriel holds up at CB2 and Glesnes doesn’t revert to his 2024 form. They’ve lost Daniel Gazdag and Ian Glavinovich early, one trade and one injury, but true to Red Bull style and form, they’ve got a bunch of hungry young guys in the fold who are busting their asses out there, and even if they don’t have the overall talent or spending level of a Miami or Columbus, they’re going to run a lot of lesser teams off the field this season, and stack those points.

CliffsNotes: The Union might not win MLS Cup, but they’re worth watching in 2025.