Down in Arlington, Texas Sunday night, it was one of those evenings where dogs are a trees best friend. It was hot (right around 100°) and dry (humidity around 33%) – a perfect setting for fire to spread and it did just that, figuratively, onto the soccer field in Chocktaw Stadium. The match between North Texas SC and Union Omaha was filled with heart, grit, and a few goals to make it interesting. I’ll save you the suspense: yes, the match ended in yet another draw, the fourth in a row between these two clubs. The 2-2 final score doesn’t tell the whole story, so let’s dive right in.
Union Omaha, donned in lightning yellow jerseys, shorts, and socks, were awarded the opening kickoff. From the get go, the Owls looked to utilize the left side of the field, but the North Texas defense was able to fill their right side of the field with numbers to absorb the attack. Along with absorbing the attack, North Texas looked very composed playing the ball out of the back. They felt the pressure, but they remained calm and stuck to their game plan early on.
In the 4th minute of play, Union Omaha’s Conor Doyle added a productive wrinkle to the Owl’s offense. Playing as the left midfielder, Doyle received a pass on the left side of the field and instead of turning toward the sideline, he opted to turn inside. As he did, he opened up a lot more possibilities for himself and his teammates. As you can see in the video below, there were far more red jerseys occupying the left flank. When he turns inside, there’s plenty of space with which to work. After passing the ball to Sousa, he doesn’t give up on the developing play. Watch him continue to run into the North Texas half and doesn’t get picked up by the defense until Devin Boyce feeds a long ball toward the right corner. Even with two defenders closing in on him quickly, he’s able to get the ball into the penalty area. Despite the play not ending in a goal, that kind of movement off the ball is incredibly valuable to throwing off the defense. It was an improvised, yet calculated run because Doyle had the situational awareness to spot the weakness in the North Texas defense.
Almost immediately after that play ended, another bright tactical decision was made by Union Omaha. North Texas was playing a conservative defense and their initial point of pressure seemed to be right at the half line. So, Union Omaha developed a plan to stretch the defense and open up space for the offense to work. As you watch the next gif, watch the backline and supporting midfield combine for multiple short passes. This was the bait that they needed to draw North Texas players further up the field. Once enough numbers were present, Union Omaha’s Damiá Viader quickly crossed the ball backward to teammate Blake Malone. Once Malone settled the ball, he left it for Emir Alihodžić to quickly turn a lob a deep into the final third. With the North Texas midfield drawn forward and the defense setting their line too far back, there was plenty of open space and the defense was left vulnerable and Alihodžić correctly identified a potential one-on-one downfield. Union Omaha forward Greg Hurst was close to connecting with that pass, but North Texas goalkeeper Colin Shutler did well to leave his line and intercept the ball. This is another case of great planning and good execution.
Now if you paid attention to any of the possession statistics from the four previous matches between these two clubs, you noticed how much more North Texas had than Union Omaha. If you don’t recall the numbers, I’ll help you out: over the past four matches against North Texas, Union Omaha possessed the ball on average 43.3% of the time. Knowing this, Union Omaha had to plan for the eventuality of North Texas owning the majority of the possession again on this occasion. It’s good that Union Omaha manager Jay Mims didn’t try to force the issue and make the Owls play a style of play they aren’t accustomed to. Instead, he developed a plan to achieve multiple goals. First step: pressure high. Don’t let the backline get comfortable with the ball and don’t let the midfielders find the passing lanes. Second step: move personnel from side to side to condense numbers wherever the ball is. More players near the ball means the opponent has less time to think about what they’re going to do with the ball, limits them to one or two touches, disrupts their desired flow, and creates more chances for the Owls to capitalize on a mistake.
Here’s another video for you to watch. You can see North Texas swinging the ball across the backline and waiting for something to open up. When they choose to attack down their right side, you can actually see the Union Omaha midfielders keep their line and shift to their left. In fact, they shifted so much that Devin Boyce was practically inside the center circle. At one point in the video, you can count six North Texas players within about 20 yards of one another. In that same amount of space is eight Union Omaha defenders. With passing windows and touches limited, North Texas dropped the ball and tried to quickly shift their attack to their left side. Union Omaha, being the highly-disciplined squad that they are, adjusted just as quickly. Now looking for attacking opportunities on the left side, North Texas players found themselves outnumber again: 4 to 6. This time, North Texas forward Kalil Elmedkhar rushed his touch, Boyce was able to apply some pressure, and turned it over to Union Omaha captain Ferrety Sousa.
Both clubs were moving the ball well, battling for possession, and fighting to gain another yard of space. In order to break the deadlock, a moment of boldness would need to happen. Enter Damiá Viader: the cunning Catalan with copious amounts of creativity to contribute. In the 11th minute, he received a pass about 15 yards inside of the North Texas half. From the camera angle, he had no passing options available and plenty of red shirts in front of him.
So what does this guy decide to do? Dribble straight at the defense. This guy went full-on Leroy Jenkins mode, grabbed a Super Star from Super Mario, and took on the defense all by himself. As he dribbled toward the goal, he didn’t even bother to juke the first defender. He might as well have not even acknowledged his existence. The next defender saw him coming a simply took a knee, clearly telling Viader that he’s not worthy of defending him. Then, right as Viader gets to the top of the 18-yard box, the defenders start crowding him. None of them were trying to push him or even trying to stab at the ball. It’s almost as if they were escorting him into their own box. It didn’t take long for Damiá to take full advantage of the opportunity because he lined up a shot for his right foot and went upper-90 to the near post. North Texas’ goalkeeper, Colin Shutler, gave a good effort to parry the shot away, but wasn’t quick enough to get lateral. It was a fantastic goal and Damiá’s fifth goal of the season.
You would think North Texas would be rattled after such a goal, but they composed themselves very well. Once the ensuing kickoff granted them possession, they made sure to keep it, move it around, and try to find the right space in Union Omaha’s defense. They were easily stringing together ten passes, incorporating multiple players, and trying to work different angles. It paid off in the 17th minute. Coincidentally, North Texas was able to connect 17 passes in a row before the goal. The team was having a difficult time finding the right way to get the ball into the middle of the field. Caiser Gomes, one of the North Texas defenders, received a pass and immediately sent the ball long and into a crowded middle of the field. From there, a few one-touch passes and a scoop-pass by center midfielder Blaine Ferri that went over the Union Omaha defense was all that was needed to free Kalil Elmedkhar, get him in a one-on-one with Union Omaha goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu, and send the ball into the back of the net.
I could’ve sworn that Kalil ElMedkhar was offside, but after taking a screenshot, I think the referees made a good decision to avoid making the call. In the screenshot provided below, it looks like ElMedkhar’s right foot is even with the right foot of Jacob Crull. If there were to be an offside called, it would be because of ElMedkhar’s right shoulder possibly being inches in front of the defense, but that would require Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and USL League One doesn’t have that available.
The rest of the first half was a possession battle between the two sides. North Texas had a couple of good chances on goal and Union Omaha had a promising attempt, as well. North Texas was beginning to gain more of a presence in the middle of the field. As that happened, Union Omaha was seen to scramble a bit more. The Owls tried to keep the ball away, but fast-breaks don’t often lend favorable chances for extended possessions, so they were forced to play more defense until the halftime whistle was blown.
At the start of the second half, it seemed to play out a lot like the start of the first half. North Texas was maintaining possession, Union Omaha was shifting personnel to create numbers in the area, and North Texas was fighting to find some space in the middle of the field. There did seem to be a tactical shift with the North Texas defense. Instead of letting themselves spread out and become vulnerable to thru-balls, they started showing more of a bunker defense. This shift would create problems for Union Omaha because they had the personnel advantage in the final third, closed down passing lanes and crossing opportunities, and also closed down the shooting angles.
It didn’t take long for North Texas to take the lead in the second half. In the 53rd minute, North Texas forward Kalil ElMedkhar, goal-scorer in the first half, received a pass right near the midline on the left side of the field. He turned toward the Union Omaha half and quickly sent a curling long ball into Union Omaha’s penalty area, directly to the feet of teammate Freddy Vargas. Without even taking a touch to settle the ball, Vargas slotted the ball under an advancing Rashid Nuhu and gave his club the lead. The pass from ElMedkhar was beautifully executed and Vargas did well to finish the chance. Nuhu seemed to feel there was a possibility of offside being called, but the camera angle and the speed at which it panned across the field didn’t allow viewers a chance to support his claims.
For nearly half an hour, Union Omaha put the pressure on North Texas with little to show for it. There were great chances in front of the net, like in the 75th minute when Union Omaha forward Evan Conway had a clear chance at goal and head the ball past the far post. He knew that he had a great chance before him and wasn’t afraid to show his frustration after the ball went out of bounds. Union Omaha fans would only have to wait six more minutes before they could celebrate again.
In the 81st minute, Union Omaha defender Jacob Crull was able to win an aerial duel after a North Texas goal kick. The ball found its way to teammate Evan Conway, who quickly combined with Damiá Viader to move the ball up the field. Once Viader was running pace-for-pace with Conway on the left flank, Conway gave Viader the ball and broke his run toward the North Texas penalty area. One of the North Texas defenders floated toward Viader and opened up a large gap for Conway. Viader saw the space and fed the ball to Conway, who could barely settle the ball before Caiser Gomes was on top of Conway. The window of opportunity was shrinking faster and faster as more defenders rushed toward him, but Conway was still able to get the ball in the net. The immediate celebration let you know how much that goal meant to the squad. Substitutes on the sideline joined in the celebration with all of the field players. The team was tied with North Texas, on track to earn a point on the road as the end of the regular season inches closer, and Evan Conway just scored for the first time in 135 days. There was plenty to celebrate.
If you’ve noticed anything about the coaching style of Jay Mims, it’s that he’s not going to let the team settle with a tie. Maybe he thinks ties are like kissing your sister or maybe he knows that one is the loneliest number. Whatever the reason, Jay Mims put the fire back in the team’s belly and urged them to keep battling to the end of the match. With the small amount of time left, Union Omaha was able to generate one more quality chance on goal. Second-half sub Ricardo Rivera went one-on-one with Caiser Gomes in the penalty area, cut the ball back, and spotted Devin Boyce charging into the box. Rivera connected a pass to Boyce, who lined up the shot from the right side of the penalty area. Striking hard and low, aiming for the back post, everything seemed to go in slow motion as the ball crept across the box. It looked promising. It looked destined to go in, but ultimately the shot went just wide of the post. Soon after, the referee blew the whistle to end the match.
Union Omaha and North Texas have had truly impressive battles against each other and this occasion lived up to the expectations. The Owls were happy to pick up a point on the road. Both teams showed great persistence for the full 90 minutes. These two clubs meet again during the very last match of the regular season. With each passing week, every match gains more and more importance, so that last match will be a true joy to watch.
Who Gives A Hoot? 