UO can get to within 1 point of idle Charlotte Independence with win over NCFC
Union Omaha’s win against Central Valley Fuego last weekend broke a nine-match winless streak within the league, and seemed to verify that the previous match against El Paso Locomotive was more indicative of how the team will play for Dominic Casciato than the season opener against Forward Madison. Looking more and more like a team that’s found its identity, UO will host a team it has never lost to this weekend in North Carolina FC. NCFC come into the match with a level 1-1-1 record, and will be playing their first league match away from WakeMed Soccer Park this season.
That identity appears to be one where the starting formation disappears pretty much after the opening kickoff. The last two matches featured a starting back four from left to right of Stefan Mueller, Junior Palacios, Alexis Souahy and Shaft Brewer Jr. In actual practice, Conor Doyle almost becomes a third center-back when UO are on the attack. This allowed Brewer to constantly press high, sometimes almost to the point of leaving Souahy and Palacios a little exposed to the counter-attack if they aren’t able to communicate assignments to each other quick enough. Brewer was also mixing with what can only be described as a collection of constantly moving parts in the upper middle-third. Joe Brito and Noe Meza were the announced and actual starting forwards, but it can’t be argued that Joe Gallardo was actually Omaha’s most forward pressing player last weekend. He, Meza, Brito and JP Scearce (along with eventual subs Alex Steinwascher and Steevan Dos Santos) seemed to be taking turns at the top, each of them waiting for the right time to either start the counter-attack following a Fuego mistake, sometimes even creating the opportunities on their own defensively.
However, we did see Luca Mastrantonio make his Union Omaha debut. We can’t say for sure whether or not his appearance was planned (it was a halftime substitute, but he did sub on for the already booked Brewer), but Union Omaha’s look in the back was distinctly different because of it. Palacios shifted to his more natural position on the right, and as a player that plays a little bit more of a physical style, it led to a little bit less of the controlled chaos we had seen the previous 135 minutes.
Given NCFC’s style of play, a defensive lineup that averages being positioned further back might not be the worst idea. North Carolina have either out possessed each of their opponents this season, or been on the right side of a 50-50 game. They also love, and I mean love to cross the ball. They’ve put in an incredible 59 crosses over their first three games. By comparison, Omaha have made only 23 in their two games. A performance like the last one for the Omaha defense might be necessary, a performance that included 23 clearances.
NCFC’s stable start to the season hasn’t been what we’ve been used to seeing the past couple of years, but it might be due to the bevy of players they brought in that are very familiar with the league. North Carolina made additions like Mikey Maldonado, Devin Benton, Daniel Navarro and Rafa Mentzingen this past offseason. Those four players alone have combined to play all but 13 minutes so far this season. They have, however, handed this year’s starting spot at goalkeeper to the young Nicholas Holiday. Holiday has started all three games so far, after starting only 13 the previous two seasons. He has, however, only seen six shots on target in those three games, allowing half of those into the net.
And finally, the weather could certainly play a factor this weekend. A cold front moves in Friday night bringing a line of thunderstorms that will turn into steadier showers with colder, more sustained winds than we’ve seen in the metro the past several days. The turf itself shouldn’t be impacted a whole lot, but the conditions themselves might slow down play considerably and perhaps force NCFC to keep the ball low to the ground more than they’d like. In general, look for UO to face a stiffer challenge from this weekend’s opponent than they have typically in the past.
Who Gives A Hoot? 
Maybe you should release some players for loan…
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Loans are an odd thing in this league. A player that is good enough to loan up would likely be sold up, or consistently starting here. A player that needs more development (loan down) would be in the semi-pro ranks with a much shorter season (salary becomes a factor as well). Loaning within the tier seems odd as well–you don’t want to improve your opponents in L1, and NISA / MLSNxt don’t seem like effective loan partners.
If L1 were a more permanent league in terms of players staying (longer contracts, possibility of promotion, expectations to develop players to keep long term), a loan might make sense. I’ll even concede that perhaps Academy players fit this demographic. As it is for most of the players though, I don’t see much of a loan-out market. We’ll have to rely on squad rotation once Dom figures out what he has and who needs what regarding playing time and development.
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