The first round of the 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is in the books, and the first ever U.S. Open Cup game to take place in the state of Nebraska will be a champion vs. champion matchup. Union Omaha, the reigning USL League One champions, will host Des Moines Menace, the reigning USL League Two national champions, at Morrison Stadium on Tuesday, April 5. This is the second straight tournament that Des Moines has advanced to the second round, after beating Duluth FC 1-1 on penalties in the 2019 tournament. They would later be defeated by former USL Championship side St. Louis FC by the same score in the second round.
Des Moines defeated Minneapolis City SC 4-2 in a home match where defense definitely appeared to be optional. Both teams combined for 37 total shots, with Des Moines alone placing 11 shots on frame. The box score pretty accurately describes the flow of the game, as Minneapolis started looking more and more overmatched as the game got close to halftime, even as Minneapolis equalized from a 2-1 deficit with half an hour remaining. It was a pretty overwhelming victory, but hats off to Minneapolis City’s Lionel Vang, for scoring what might already of been the goal of the tournament with a thirty-yard free-kick to his upper-left corner.
So, how does Des Moines Menace match up with Union Omaha? Well, a lot of this is going to be a guessing game because both teams are building their rosters before playing their respective seasons, and in Omaha’s case, we’ve still yet to see them play in a competitive match after a considerable amount of rebuilding. We saw Des Moines head coach Dean Johnson line his team up in a 5-3-2 against Minneapolis, but obviously they were comfortable coming up the flanks to build up their attack. It wouldn’t surprise me to see them come out in this same formation, but this keep their shape more, let the game come to them and find opportunities to counterattack. Since Jay Mims stresses box-to-box play and encouraging all players to focus on defending first, we could possibly see a chess game between the two coaches as each of them tempts the other regarding possession. We know what formation Des Moines will likely be going up against, and if you aren’t aware of Jay Mims’ history on this matter I strongly urge you to find Ben Turner at this game to ask his thoughts on the matter [Editor’s note: please do!], but which players will be forming Union Omaha’s shape? The WGaH media empire workshopped a potential starting XI for the season on the recent season preview pod, but with this being a cup fixture less than a week before our first regular season game (away to Forward Madison) it wouldn’t surprise me to see a lineup that doesn’t end up being our regular XI:
A few thoughts with the lineup above:
- Defenders: I believe Claudio and Alex Touche could potentially be swapped here. I can’t find evidence that Jiba has ever regularly played as a defender, but I’ve seen him play it with Union Omaha firsthand and am fairly confident that’s his position with the team [Editor’s note: I second this].
- Midfielders: I think we see Scearce’s role change in 2022 and expect him to take more responsibility on the attack. I don’t expect this diamond formation to be static by any means but wanted to emphasize my expectations. Don’t be surprised if Acoff is perhaps flexed up to play forward instead of Hugo, but I think that’s highly unlikely.
- Forwards: There’s been a good amount of buzz regarding Noe Meza’s preseason performance. If the thought is that he’s in Mims’ preferred XI right now (alongside Rivera), I’m willing to guess that he’d prefer to start them both in Madison the following Saturday, and perhaps let one of them sub on in this match. Obviously, in a perfect world, Rivera is an automatic sub-off at 60 minutes if we have a multi-goal lead.
In closing, I think this will be one of those games that Mims encourages the team to press high on Des Moines. Use their superior talent to force mistakes early, and try to overwhelm an overmatched team early and force them to abandon their gameplan early. I do not expect Union Omaha to approach this game as a final preseason tune up either, so I think we can expect a performance to be proud of, worthy of a team’s first ever U.S. Open Cup match.
Who Gives A Hoot? 