Despite their efforts to develop quality attacks in the final third, Union Omaha suffered a 0-3 loss to 2nd-placed Charlotte Independence on Saturday night. It was the first time that the Owls were held scoreless in almost a month and the third overall match which featured Union Omaha finishing without a goal. Of the three scoreless matches, two of them were against Charlotte.
In the first half, Union Omaha seemed to work solely along the right flank. A lot of the time, JP Scearce and Junior Palacios were opening up channels along the sideline, but there were few developments found beyond the midline. Here’s a heat map of a few players from the entire first half. You’ll start to notice some trends as you see them:
Junior Palacios
JP Scearce
Conor Doyle
Joe Brito
Some of the trends to notice in these heat maps:
- Shape stability was becoming an issue. With Junior Palacios advancing up the sideline and creating opportunities to advance up the field, JP Scearce was often caught sitting back too far to overwhelm the opposing defense.
- We’ve become accustomed to seeing Conor Doyle sitting back on defense, but seeing Joe Brito residing heavily in those three large splotches of the heat map tells me there were times when the two players were too close together and need to spread out to keep Charlotte honest. It’s good to see Brito taking up space in the center circle because he has the obvious qualities to facilitate on offense, yet still shepherd the attacks to the outside before they can develop too far into the Union Omaha half.
- Not many of the players advanced high enough in the opposing half to create a meaningful attack. With less players advancing, more emphasis was placed on 1v1 battles, rather than team-oriented attacks. This meant the defense could swarm on Steevan Dos Santos and Noe Meza.
Not all was lost at halftime, though. The Owls were down by a single goal, which came in the 7th minute. Union Omaha also held strong on stat sheet: 84% overall passing accuracy, 73% passing accuracy in the opposing half, and 8 total shots. Despite the three bullets above, the Owls were still able to maintain consistent possession and generate threats on offense. The defense left a little more to be desired, on the other hand.
The defense had a successful duel rate of only 20%, which is extremely low, especially against a high-powered offense like Charlotte. Fortunately, the five fouls lost in the first half were all on the opposite end of the midline, so there weren’t any set piece opportunities against the Owls.
The second half was a lot more like the first, in that most of the passing and offense was generated along one side of the field. Despite having 10 shots in the second half, only 2 were on frame. There were chances for Union Omaha to finish and get on the scoreboard, but none would come to fruition. The Owls often resorted to long balls in an effort to give the defense a moment of respite, while also trying to catch the Charlotte defense asleep. It just seemed like a night which wouldn’t go their way, no matter what was attempted.
At the final whistle, Union Omaha lost 0-3, giving up two goals in the second half – one in the 55th minute and the last in the 90th minute. The loss kept Union Omaha in 9th place for the third straight week. This Saturday, the Owls travel to Greenville to take another stab at bringing home The Belt.
After the match, Union Omaha Head Coach Dominic Casciatio summed up his thoughts succinctly, saying, “It’s a disappointing result. We’re giving away too many soft goals, so it’s something for us to work on this week and get back to next weekend.”
Match Summary
Attendance: 2,562
Goal Summary:
7’: CLT – Joel Johnson (assisted by Miguel Ibarra)
55’: CLT – Tresor Mbuyu (unassisted)
90’: CLT – Khori Bennett (assisted by Lùis Álvarez
Substitution Summary:
61’: OMA – Pedro Dolabella replaces Joe Brito
61’: OMA – Stefan Mueller replaces Junior Palacios
69’: OMA – Alex Steinwascher replaces Shaft Brewer Jr. (due to injury)
70’: CLT – Khori Bennett replaces Dane Kelly
79’: CLT – Gabriel Obertan replaces Miguel Ibarra
80’: CLT – Lùis Álvarez replaces Tresor Mbuyu
82’: OMA – Chavany Willis replaces Luis Gil
90’+1: CLT – Héctor Acosta replaces Joel Johnson
Discipline Summary:
No cards handed out during the match
Who Gives A Hoot? 