Union Omaha’s goal well dried up quickly Wednesday night as they struggled to a 0-0 draw against Central Valley Fuego FC in Match 3 of the Jägermeister Cup. Though they were able to salvage an extra point by winning the PK shootout 4-1, it did little to erase an overall uninspired 90 minutes in which the Owls dominated possession but had nothing to show for it. Wallis Lapsley was again the hero of the day, stopping four shots in regulation and one penalty to secure the two points.
Coach Dominic Casciato continued showing some rotation for these matches as he made five changes from the team that started the 1-4 victory at Charlotte last time out. Lapsley resumed his normal place as the Cup goalkeeper while Zeiko Lewis, Brandon Knapp, Anderson Holt and Will Perkins all got starts. Just as exciting was the return from injury of PC Giro to the bench, seeing the team sheet for the first time since the trip to Knoxville on April 12.
For Jermaine Jones’ side there were three changes from the team that lost to One Knox in their last outing. Carlos Ávilez returned in net while Chris Heckenburg and Zahir Vazquez made up the remaining numbers in place of Mouhamed Dabo and José Carrera-Garcia.
It didn’t take long to realize that this game would be quite a bit different from the last match these two played two months ago. Fuego seemed content to play back and look for chances to counter or deliver long balls into the attacking third, which meant that despite Omaha owning most of the possession the visitors would occasionally find some dangerous routes in on goal. They were helped by some errant passes early and the Owls often defaulted to their own version of direct play in an attempt to make something happen on offense.
This did create a very early chance for the hosts as Luca Mastrantonio, under no pressure in the back, found the run of Aáron Gómez down the left side of the final third. He was able to outpace his defender, show some great physicality to hold off a challenge near the touch line, and find a trailing Joe Gallardo outside the box. From there, Gallardo picked out Pedro Dolabella with a cross that should have been a great chance on goal. Unfortunately, Pedro was felled by some contact and a bit of a jersey pull by Emmanuel Gómez that allowed Ávilez to claim the ball easily. Despite the obvious contact and shirt tug, the referee quickly waived off any appeals for a penalty as Fuego relieved the pressure. This would be a recurring theme with the officials who seemed willing to let a very physical game run its course.
While the Owls continued to own possession, the majority of attacking pressure was with Central Valley early. Though the defense stayed compact and dealt with most of the danger, Wallis was called into action to deal with the occasional shot.
One of those shots came in the 14’ when Alfredo Midence took advantage of the compact defense to find an unmarked Robert Coronado on the left just outside the attacking third. With lots of space to maneuver, he managed to get past the onrushing Will Perkins and dribble into the box. From there he unleashed a straight blast toward net that took all of Wallis’ reflexes and strength to parry away for a corner. Though true attacking chances like this would become less common, the Omaha keeper showed why he’s the best backup in the league.
The Owls would finally get a couple of decent chances about the middle of the first half. Nortei Nortey would see a great run by Zeiko Lewis on goal, but put the ball too close to Ávilez for the striker to get on it. Shortly after, Nortel would take matters in his own feet, dribbling across the top of the box and clearing space to shoot. His effort would be off balance and too wide and weak to trouble the keeper, but it was at least Omaha’s first official shot of the match. Finally, Aáron Gómez would find his way clear on a quick throw in from Joe Gallardo, only to be pulled back by Issa Yaya who earned a yellow card for killing off the attack.
However, the remainder of the first half continued to be marred by sloppy play, leading to several Central Valley chances, but nothing that would come to a goal. Bad back passes were either barely recovered by the back line or saved in spectacular fashion. By the time the Owls made it into the locker room at halftime, they could count themselves lucky not to be down in the match, despite an overwhelming advantage in possession.
Coming out of halftime, Coach Dom made two changes bringing on Lagos Kunga and Ryen Jiba for Pedro and Mechack Jérôme, and moving Anderson Holt off the left and into a center back position. Almost immediately you could see the impact of the substitutions and the break as the Owls came out much more controlled and dangerous in their attacks.
This showed as within 3 minutes of the restart Omaha would finally get their first shot on target of the match. Taking the ball in the attacking zone, Lagos showed off his dribbling skills to open up Joe Gallardo on the left side. Joe was able to use Lagos’ continuing run to cut back inside and dribble to the top of the box where he fired a low shot that Àvilez had to dive to keep out. The ball spilled out of the keeper’s hands and Aàron almost slotted home, but instead drove the ball directly into Àvilez’ still prone body allowing the Fuego defense to recover and clear the danger.
Despite the energetic and more deliberate style of play on display, that would be the final shots on target for the Owls. They did cause a few more moments of chaos from set pieces and pressing, but nothing managed to fall in the hosts’ favor. They were able to significantly reduce the bite in Fuego’s attack with much better skill and pressing than was shown in the first half. Central Valley responded by playing back, staying compact, and really denying that final ball that would’ve seen Omaha rewarded for it’s improved play over the last 45 minutes.
With the match drawn, the Owls would find themselves in their second penalty shootout of the competition. Once again, they would go first and choose to kick into the Berm end where many of the 3,020 in attendance joined the Parliament to try to spur their club to the extra point.
Luca Mastrantonio would take the first kick and fired to the keeper’s right. Despite guessing correctly, Ávilez couldn’t get to the well placed kick. Robert Coronado would take the same approach, bouncing the ball just before it reached Wallis and putting it over his outstretched arms to level the shootout.
Adam Aoumaich then stepped up and once again fired a lofted shot for his kick. He managed to keep it down this time and left the keeper no chance as it rippled the roof netting. Nahir Vazquez then had a chance to match, but his slight delay in the run up would not fool Wallis who dove to his right and stopped his fourth penalty kick of the year.
After that it was PC who took the ball for his first meaningful involvement in the match. The veteran showed his composure taking a no nonsense run up to the ball and burying it in the side netting, despite Ávilez seeming to know that the ball would be to his left. That put all the pressure on José Carrera-Garcia who tried to loft one into the roof, but ended up skying it over the bar and into the cheering Parliament.
With the door open to put the match away, Missael Rodriguez made no mistakes with his kick. A simple shot to the keeper’s left scored as Ávilez guessed incorrectly and the Owls would win yet another shootout by a count of 4-1.
The shootout win still wouldn’t be enough to move Union Omaha out of the cellar in their group, though it did move them into a tie at 4 points with Central Valley Fuego. Northern Colorado still paces the group with 6 points from 3 matches and Spokane holds second with 5 points, but has the wild card slot with 4 goals and a +1 Goal Difference.
Next up for the Owls is a home match against Northern Colorado on June 1, this time in USL League One play. Always a tough matchup, the team will look to return back to the form that has them second in the table with 13 points from 5 games, while Hailstorm is bringing up the bottom with only 2 points from 4 played.
The Positives
First and foremost, the return of PC is a huge positive in this match. Though he only played 23 minutes, he was still able to get into the flow of the game and took his PK with poise and control. He didn’t factor hugely in the match otherwise, but the fact that he’s back after a long absence is a huge plus.
Next is Wallis Lapsley. It seems every time he plays, there are nothing but positives to say about him. He really did save the points for the team yet again with timely saves, including in the shootout. Despite Fuego only registering 0.48 xG on 34% possession, the shots they did have were often quite dangerous. I’ve said before that I think Wallis could start for several teams in League One, for a few in the Championship, and would probably be a good backup option for some in MLS. Thankfully, he’s here when we need him.
Finally, I think that the turnaround in attacking play, control, and overall chemistry was excellent in the second half. Dom made the appropriate changes and the subs took advantage. Anderson did as good a job as he could on the left side and playing some wing, but having Ryen come in and let Anderson slide into center back helped shore up some of those opportunities Fuego had in the first half while providing a lot more creativity in attack. Lagos coming on for Pedro was a good change not because Pedro was doing poorly necessarily, but that Lagos put an energy into the match that Fuego hadn’t had to deal with up to that point. These changes helped the team cut out having to play the long ball and let them play a much more controlled and dribbling attack through midfield—which then opened up more of the long balls when needed later. It’s frustrating, and a little unfair, that the changes didn’t end up leading to a goal. But for the second straight match the team was able to respond to a substandard first half performance while almost completely neutralizing any threat the other team could mount. That ability will be critical as the season goes on.
The Negatives
The entire first half…again. This time there wasn’t a heavy rain or waterlogged pitch to blame for the sloppy passing and lack of creativity in attack. Dom said in his (very brief) postgame comments that it was “flat”, and that is a very nice way to put it.
When you have 67% possession in the first half, but can’t put a shot on target, that tells me the possession isn’t moving forward. The team was caught in the offside trap several times, but those were all on long balls trying to play past the Central Valley high line. They were able to play that high line because a lack of sharpness in the short passing game kept the threat out of the midfield, so there was little danger of a quick run with a well placed through ball breaking that line. Additionally, the long balls often seemed overly hopeful at best, desperate at worst.
That’s not trying to take anything away from Jermaine Jones’ side. They executed their gameplan, played the counter well, and set the offside traps that caught our strikers out. But we have to understand that teams are going to play this way against us, especially when we should have an attacking advantage against them. Being able to break that down is going to be critical going forward.
My final thought on this is that once again we played substandard in the first half. You can blame rotation, finally having a decent break for the first time all month, possible complacency playing an opponent that hasn’t been successful this year, whatever. It doesn’t bode well if that continues. Thankfully, for now, it’s only two games. That’s a blip that we need to make sure doesn’t become a trend.
Interesting Facts:
- This is the first match between these two sides that has ended 0-0, and the first time we’ve drawn (after 90’) in the history of the matchup.
- Union Omaha only registered one official shot on target in the match. This is the second time this year they’ve done that (0-1 win at One Knox). The Owls were held to one shot on target only twice all of last year (all competitions).
- Wallis Lapsley has faced 8 penalty kicks this year and saved 4 of them (1 over the bar). That’s a save percentage of 57% for on target shots. Not bad considering PKs generally produce a 0.79 xG (79% of the time, they work every time)!
- Adam Aoumaich’s PK is the first time he’s slotted a meaningful ball home in his professional career. It won’t count as a goal in the stat books, but we’ll take it!
Key Events:
Central Valley Yellow Card: 21’ – Alfredo Midence (Bad Challenge)
Central Valley Yellow Card: 29’ – Issa Yaya (Tactical Foul)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 32’ – Brandon Knapp (Bad Challenge)
Central Valley Sub: 37’ – Razak Cromwell ON; Issa Yaya OFF (Injury)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 45’+1’ – Will Perkins (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Sub: 46’ – Lagos Kunga ON; Pedro Dolabella OFF
– Ryen Jiba ON; Mechack Jérôme OFF
Central Valley Sub: 46’ – Ashkanov Apollon ON; Emmanuel Gómez OFF
Central Valley Sub: 56’ – Qudus Lawal ON; Alfredo Midence OFF
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 60’ – Anderson Holt (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Sub: 67’ – PC Giro ON; Nortei Nortey OFF
– Missael Rodriguez ON; Aáron Gómez OFF
Central Valley Yellow Card: 68’ Raúl Mendiola (Tactical Foul)
Union Omaha Sub: 76’ Adam Aoumaich ON; Joe Gallardo OFF
Central Valley Yellow Card: 84’ Clayton Torr (Hard Foul)
Central Valley Sub: 90’+1’ – José Carrera-Garcia ON; Raúl Mendiola OFF
Penalty Shootout:
Union Omaha – Luca Mastrantonio – Scored (1-0)
Central Valley – Robert Coronado – Scored (1-1)
Union Omaha – Adam Aoumaich – Scored (2-1)
Central Valley – Zahir Vazquez – Saved (2-1)
Union Omaha – PC Giro – Scored (3-1)
Central Valley – José Carrera-Garcia – Missed High (3-1)
Union Omaha – Missael Rodriguez – Scored (4-1)
Who Gives A Hoot? 