That was a bit of a wild game but we were able to come out on top! From the penalty to the JP goal to the final save that sealed the win. So much that could be discussed but a few things I want to focus on as we go into a very busy week ahead.
A Save for the History Books
We have a Save of the Week candidate with the penalty save early in the first half. Not only does it have an opportunity to win that award, it has already gone down in the history books as the first penalty save in Union Omaha history*.
That * is that it is the first save in league history, not including our shootout win over Chicago in the cup. But that is indeed incredible! We’ve actually only allowed 2 penalties prior to the one from this game, both being converted. The first was in 2021 in the Morrison game against Tucson. The second was the first game this year in Madison (though all of us there were not convinced it *was* a penalty). Either way, this is historic and hopefully we won’t have any more penalties to need to save any time soon.
Clean Sweeps
This game was yet another clean sheet, due to the aforementioned penalty save as well as the last-second (should be Save of the Year candidate-level) save. That makes it the 8th clean sheet this year, which is quite incredible with only having played 17 games. The broadcast mentioned this stat a few times, so I thought I’d look into how it compares to previous seasons.
In 2020, we had 6 clean sheets after 16 games, with 15 goals conceded. That is pretty similar to the 8 we have after 17 games, though we have conceded only 13 goals so far this season. That means that even though our attacking form hasn’t been too great, the defending has been truly exceptional this season. And that is still very much a team effort, with the way the we are set up to defend as a team.
What about the mark from last year? Well, that was 10 clean sheets after 28 games, with 23 goals conceded. So we are close to that clean sheet mark already, though we do still have a long way to go to make sure we don’t concede too many goals. We’ve seen how quickly that can change, with Greenville (who had been 2nd best to us) letting in 8 goals in their past two games. But if we keep putting in the performances we have, it’s definitely an achievement that we can aim to beat.
Final note about defending: This game had the largest xG differential against us this year. We only had 0.67 xG vs Fuego’s 1.98 xG for a differential of -1.31. Despite that, still able to get the win with how good the defense has been!
West Coast Our Best Coast?
We went out to California and won our first competitive game there. Though.. that seems familiar. So far in fact, we’ve won every game we have played in a timezone west of us. Incredible!
Well… a few caveats. As mentioned, this was our first game in California, which incidentally is *technically* also our first game in Pacific time. So that helps. It also helps that the only other team we’ve played in a timezone west of us… is Tucson. And we have won every game we’ve played in Tucson. Which is really swaying the statistic here. Tucson technically is in Mountain Standard time during the season (as Arizona doesn’t follow Daylight Savings Time), so it’s a bit pedantic to say that it’s separate from Pacific, but I will do so.
We have two games left this season to see if this streak continues. We play at Tucson and then have our first game at Northern Colorado. Those September games will see if West is truly Best (for us).
Hope that everyone is ready for the 3-games in a week home-stand that we are about to have. Let’s start racking up those home points!
Who Gives A Hoot? 