Over the course of this season many USL Championship and League One teams have been recognizing the milestone achievements of their players making appearances wearing that club’s shirt. Dallas Jaye for Greenville is one example of a player that hit an appearance milestone, not only for Greenville, but for all of League One.
This got me thinking about the short history of our beloved club and how many matches some of our boys have played. The next closest milestone for appearances would be 25 total appearances (either as a starter or as a sub) so I took some time to research who was close to hitting this achievement.
The only players I focused on were those that have played for Union Omaha during both seasons so, unfortunately, Greg Hurst (hat-trick hero and currently on fire), Connor Doyle, and others will not make an appearance on this list. That left me with 13 players to focus on.
As you can see from the table above, we have a handful of players that are less than 5 games away from playing their 25th match in a Union Omaha shirt. A few things that jumped out at me:
- Devin Boyce will make his 25th appearance on Saturday. I said on twitter that Devin went from “who the hell is this guy?” to “why in the hell isn’t he starting?” in a very short period of time. This number jumped out at me because Devin has been so consistent and such a boost of energy that we recognize when he isn’t on the pitch. He is also the ONLY player for Union Omaha to appear in every single match we’ve played. Hell of an achievement.
- EVD is only 2 appearances away from 25. His start to this season made me feel like he hasn’t played much this season. If we’re talking strictly minutes, that may be true, but for appearances starting every game last season and appearing in 7 of the 8 this season has boosted his number up.
- Rashid Nuhu is our rock in the back. Rashid’s only two non-appearances came because of a red card in 2020 and for rest during a long road stretch, otherwise he has been between the pipes for every other match. The man is a beast and deserves to be celebrated when he hits 25.
- Elma Nfor being 4 away from 25 surprised me only because Elma doesn’t get the opportunity to start very often. He’s racked up his tallies in this category with his bottled chaos sub appearances but is very close to hitting this milestone as well.
- Finally I wanted to give love to three players that worked their butts off to become mainstays in our starting 11. JP, Daltyn, and Sousa are all guys we’ve talked about on the pod who worked their way into these positions and their appearances show this. Those three had some bumps during the beginning of last season before making regular appearances and have not missed a game this season, leaving them close to 25.
As the season continues, let’s all keep an eye on this milestone as these players continue to add to their appearances and work towards other milestones. I for one will be celebrating Devin on Saturday as the first player to appear in a competitive match in a Union Omaha jersey 25 times. Here’s to many more!
Who Gives A Hoot? 