It’s the season of giving and USL League One generously gave their fans a big gift: the schedule for the 2022 regular season! With 11 [editor’s note: all independent!] clubs competing in the league next season and the league sticking with 30 matches per club, it makes perfect sense for the league to design a schedule where each club plays all of the other clubs in the league three times throughout the season. Now that the schedule has been finalized and released, let’s dive into Union Omaha’s schedule and find some of the hidden treasures and traps along the path to the postseason.
Before we get started, here’s a quick rundown of the 2022 Union Omaha schedule:
For the third year in a row, Union Omaha gets to watch other clubs battle in the opening week of the season. The Owls will start their title defense in Week 2, when they travel north to play our friendly neighbors in Madison, Wisconsin. Búhos Nation will have to wait until the fourth week of the season before the Union Omaha has its first home match. The club has three extended breaks of ten days or more throughout the season and two of them occur before Week 9 of competition.
The first third (10 matches) of Union Omaha’s season stretches from April 9th to June 18th: a total of 70 days. With an average of seven days occurring between those matches, the team only has one midweek match. Fortunately for them, both the midweek and weekend match are home matches, so no travel worries will occupy any space in their recovery and preparation. Nine out of the ten matches occur on Saturdays and the team will have the most away matches during this span of their season, with six matches occurring on the road. The team finishes this ten-match schedule with a home match against runner-up Greenville Triumph – the first time the two clubs will face each other since the 2021 USL League One Championship.
As Union Omaha enters Week 13 and begins the second third of their season, they’ll start to feel a little bit of a compressed schedule. The next ten matches occur over the span of 56 days, affording the Owls slightly less time to recover and prepare for the next match. This is due, in part, to the crunch in scheduling from Week 17 to Week 18, where the club will three matches in seven days. The Owls have two midweek matches during this same time period, but the rest of the matches are on Saturdays. During these ten matches, Union Omaha will experience a balanced mixture of home and away matches, with five of each taking place.
The final third of the season is where the schedule truly condenses and places a lot of stress on the team. These ten matches take place across 49 days, allowing the team an average of just under 5 days to recover from the previous match day. The last ten matches see the club playing the most midweek matches, alongside their lone Sunday match. Half of the matches in final weeks of the season see the team playing on four, or less, days of rest. The worst portion of this schedule is from Week 24 to Week 26. In the matter of ten days, the team will play four matches. During this same span of time, the club will face FC Tucson on the road, Richmond Kickers at home, Greenville Triumph at home, and finish with a road trip to Northern Colorado. There’s no doubt that the first three opponents will be highly competitive next season, so that run of matches will be crucial to the team’s final placement in the standings.
This season will be a true test of grit, and roster depth, as it is only natural that load management will come into play as the regular season ends. The 2021 Greenville Triumph team experienced a lot of this, yet still found a way to finish strong. Luckily for the Triumph, most of their injuries occurred early-to-midway through the regular season. If Union Omaha can stay healthy and manage the stress and strain of the season, hopefully they will find the same level of success, or better, during the continuing compression of the schedule.
One of the features of having each club play three matches against the other clubs in the league is the inevitable imbalance between home and away matches. Here is how Union Omaha’s schedule against each club breaks down:
Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly surrounding the 2022 Union Omaha regular season schedule:
The Good:
- The club gets plenty of rest at the beginning of the season, allowing the team an easier transition back into the league’s competitive schedule.
- As the regular season comes to a close, the team begins to have more home matches than away matches.
- There’s no point in the schedule where the team plays more than two away matches in a row, unlike last season’s streak of six away matches at the beginning of the season.
- Aside from having two home matches against every new club competing in the league this coming season, the two highest-finishing clubs (outside of Union Omaha) from last season (Greenville Triumph and Chattanooga) will also make multiple visits to Werner Park.
- Union Omaha has six midweek matches, but four of them are home matches. Of the six matches that follow those midweek matches, four of them are also home matches.
The Bad:
- The months of April and June will see fans filling Werner Park only once during each month.
- June and July each have a small stretch of tough matches. June has Union Omaha at Chattanooga, at FC Tucson, and finishing up at home against Greenville. July features a home match against FC Tucson, trips to Greenville Triumph and Forward Madison, and then a home match against Chattanooga.
- There are only two midweek matches that feature Union Omaha playing on the road and both of those matches are against opponents that are probably the easiest for Union Omaha fans to drive to.
The Ugly:
- It’s already been stated that the last third of Union Omaha’s regular season will be brutal, but not just because of the condensed scheduling. From Week 22 to Week 25, Union Omaha will play at Richmond Kickers, host Forward Madison, host Chattanooga, at FC Tucson, host Richmond Kickers, and host Greenville Triumph. This could end up being the toughest stretch of matches in their season. In those 21 days, Union Omaha will face a tight schedule of six matches, filled mostly with clubs that played in the 2021 playoffs. Having an average of 3.5 days of rest before the next opponent will be extremely tough on the Owls.
Now that the 2022 USL League One regular season schedule has been released, you can start to make your travel plans. The club has repeatedly said how impressed and ingratiated they are by the support of Búhos Nation, so make sure you have your tickets lined up, as well. Starting in April, the Owls will return to the field to defend their title and the competition is only going to get better. Even though we’re still in the offseason, Who Gives A Hoot still has you covered for all of the great Union Omaha coverage. Make sure to continue following us on social media, checking for new articles, and listening to the latest and greatest episodes of the podcast. We here at Who Gives A Hoot wish you all the safety, comfort, and happiness during the holiday season. ¡Viva Búhos!
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