All things must end, and so it is with unbeaten runs. The Owls’ luck ran out thanks to a pair of second half goals from Billy King and Bruno Rendon to overturn Pedro Dolabella’s opener in a match that saw two sending offs and a flurry of yellows during first half stoppage time. Missael Rodriguez found himself dismissed for a second yellow card and Northern Colorado assistant coach Colin Falvey found the right words to get himself sitting in the locker room for the rest of the match. Despite the disadvantage, Omaha had plenty of chances, but were unable to put away a final ball to salvage the match.
Dom made six changes in the side that started the Jägermeister Cup draw/win against Central Valley just three days prior, and back to a side that looks more like their normal League One side (only one change from the starting XI at Charlotte). Rashid Nuhu was back in net with only Mechack Jérôme remaining from the Cup side in the back line. Blake Malone, Marco Milanese, and Dion Acoff joined Missael Rodriguez and Lagos Kunga to round out the side.
Northern Colorado, however, made no changes to the team that drew/won against Charlotte Independence last weekend. Their dangerous starting XI, having a little more rest time, would try to retain their Jäger Cup form into the league and win for the first time this year.
And in the beginning, it looked as if they would do just that. Northern Colorado had their way with early possession pinning Omaha back on several occasions. The first 10 minutes didn’t seem to allow the defense time to breathe as Hailstorm used timely interceptions in midfield to cut out any possible attacks and controlled passing to drive forward on their own. The Owl defense was able to stay disciplined and compact, however, giving Hailstorm few great looks at goal. A couple of shots from outside the box and some weak scuffs wouldn’t trouble Rashid much.
That’s not to say that Omaha had no chances in attack, however. There was space up the left side of in attach with Marco, Missael, and Aáron Gómez making good runs to win some early corners. Joe’s deliveries were a little to far direct toward the penalty spot though, and neither opportunity came to much of anything.
By the 15’, the game had become much more even possession-wise. The Owls had found their way into the flow of things and were engaged in a pretty back and forth battle with the Hailstorm midfield. Neither team was able to really get a lot of advantage, with both teams doing well to attack, counter, and, defend. Omaha’s attack found itself quick and well paced, but missing a final ball to put against Lalo Delgado’s net.
The Hailstorm would find the first really big chance of the match in the 29’. After a turnover by Aáron in midfield the ball found it’s way to Ethan Hoard dribbling into the final third. With defenders on him, Hoard found the dangerous Bruno Rendon sprinting up the left side with no on in front of him. A perfectly paced through ball found Rendon 1-on-1 with Nuhu, but the normally lethal winger put his shot off target and into the side netting. It was a fortunate release of the pressure, but would only serve to foreshadow how much of a problem Rendon would be.
Emboldened by that passage of play, Hailstorm started stepping up the attack again, and the pressure. They were finding space to shoot again, but their efforts were well snuffed out either by a diving Rashid or timely interventions. The Owl defense was staying in front of the Northern Colorado attackers, but they expended a lot of energy as the kept playing with that fire.
In the 38’, Rendon would make his presence known again in a huge way. After a good run of possession culminating in a chance from Marco, Hailstorm transitioned very quickly to attack. Rendon took the ball in space from his own half and was able to fight off Missael and almost break away again. Only a tactical foul by Missael would stop the attack. At the time it seemed a good yellow to take, but that thought would change by the end of the half.
Just before that, however, the Owls would finally get a good delivery in and Pedro wouldn’t miss it. Lagos set up a corner by making a brilliant dribble up the right hand side on a through pass from Mechack that the forward thought would put him in alone against Delgado. It took a desperation sprint by Chelo Martinez to foil the attack, but that didn’t rid the danger. On the ensuing corner, Joe set a ball with a perfect curve that Pedro met about 8 yards out. The header left Delgado flailing and Omaha celebrating as a frustrating half looked to end with the game in their favor.
That wasn’t quite what the scriptwriters had in mind, though. Just seconds before the halftime whistle would have blown and with Hailstorm on the attack, Lucky Opara took a pass on the right hand side and started to dribble forward into space. Missael came charging in and slid forward into the attacker drawing a whistle from referee Rafael Santos. While Missael pleaded that he didn’t make contact with Opara, Santos reached for his pocket and a second yellow card. So close to halftime, the team would find themselves an Owl short for the remainder of the match.
That only started more chaos though. Opara would find himself carded when in the discussion he pushed Joe twice, the second time knocking him over, right in front of the ref. Pedro stepped in over Joe to make sure both sides stayed out of a scrum, but you could see the tension had come to a boiling point. Lagos would find himself in the book as well for getting involved. Falvey, meanwhile had some beef to get out with the ref (for some unknown reason…) and saw yellow. Politely disagreeing with that call got an immediate red for the assistant coach and Northern Colorado would be down a man—albeit on the bench.
When the halftime whistle did finally sound, an additional 10 minutes had been played in the half—critical minutes for a team that had to see out this match and make sure they were fit for the trip to Chattanooga in 4-days’ time.
When the second half started, Omaha naturally found themselves on the back foot. Despite compressing in defense and putting on PC in place of Nortei, chances came early and often for Hailstorm as they could sense how wounded the Owls were. Martinez and Noah Powder made themselves nuisances, finding good positions on the right side of attack and getting close enough to make some good looks at goal. One of those early shots from Powder caused Rashid to make a diving save to his right to maintain the lead.
Just as the team seemed to be settling in and about to weather the onslaught, Northern Colorado managed to strike. Noah Powder received the ball up the right hand side and ran into Marco just outside the penalty area. Though normally a brick wall that close to goal, Powder brushed off his challenge and managed to turn into the box. With Blake coming over to help, Opara found room toward the byline to take the layoff from Powder. With no one to help in the middle, and with Mechack beaten inside by Billy King, it was a simple cross and finish for the Hailstorm to level the score.
Though they had been dominated early in this half and had given up an equalizer, the Owls still had a good bit of fight left in them. In the 62’ minute, Lagos found himself with the ball around midfield and with a plan. Showing some insanely good ball skills, he dribbled his way past most of the retreating Hailstorm defenders and made his way toward the top of the box. That, unfortunately, is where it all fell apart. Chasing to take on three defenders instead of pushing an easy pass out right, Lagos was tripped up and dispossessed just at the edge of the area ending the attack.
But before the onlooking Parliament could begin their boos and pleas to the referee, Hailstorm initiated a lethally quick counter-attack. A long ball by David Garcia found its way over the defense and right into the path of Bruno Rendon. Played on by Blake, Rendon took the ball forward against Rashid, dribbled into the left side of the box, and this time he wouldn’t miss. Slotting home for his 1st League One goal, Rendon showed again why he is fast becoming Omaha’s nightmare.
The next five minutes would be even tougher as Hailstorm started to sense blood in the water. Moving forward, they would unleash an attack that might have killed off the game if not for some timely defending, blocking, and Rashid directing the pushback against the one-way traffic. It started to look like Omaha would break again, and there didn’t seem to be any answers for it.
The good news is that the fight wasn’t fully gone from the hosts. After surviving the barrage with only a one-goal deficit, Omaha started to hit back on the attack. Subbing on Luca Mastrantonio for Pedro and Zeiko Lewis on for Joe seemed to energize the team while maintaining a good defensive presence. Luca was able to go forward on occasion, drawing defenders with him, and was pretty well on form with his long-ball distribution from the back. A couple of crushing, but legal, challenges helped Hailstorm think twice about pursuing a third goal too hard.
The bad news is that it never came to anything that troubled Delgado. The Hailstorm defense was pinned back for the better part of the final 15 minutes of action, but they were disciplined and compact enough to prevent any real shots. Anything that looked too dangerous (and their were a few) was swallowed up by their keeper before the running strikers could get a foot to it.
By the time the final whistle sounded, you could tell that the Owls had given it a lot for the second half, and specifically the final 20 minutes. A couple of breaks in the armor were all Hailstorm needed to take the three points and send Omaha to their first home defeat in over a year.
The Positives
For as frustrating a game as this is, there were some positives to take away from it. First, is that this team doesn’t quit. They were under a ton of pressure against a good team, especially in the second half, and still managed to give themselves a shot to at least equalize the game. Once settled in, they were able to play their style of soccer—through the middle and possession based with long balls coming when needed. It never felt desperate in attack, and it never felt complacent. It felt deliberate and controlled, even if it didn’t come off in the end.
Second, I love the way this team didn’t back down, but also didn’t lose their heads. It was mentioned among the Parliament that Rashid showed some great leadership in settling the guys down, both on the pitch and in the midst of the extracurriculars that flared up around the half. Pedro rushed in to help his guy, but also was seen trying to keep the sides separate after Opara pushed Joe down. That is extremely important growth, especially for our Captain who is not always known for being the calmest in situations like that. I feel the second half really showed their character, and I couldn’t be more proud of them for it.
Finally, we did manage to score one. Aside from Prideraiser getting off the mark, the fact that we scored when it didn’t look like we were creating much shows some promise. Set pieces are often the great leveler, and we continue to be good in getting to those balls and at least putting them toward goal, if not in goal. Pedro wasn’t having the best night in midfield up to that point, but when you score one like that a lot can get redeemed. Joe’s delivery helped it along, but the Brazilian’s presence in the area is one that we’re lucky to have.
The Negatives
I’m going to get this out of the way now, lest it become a full ref rant. Missael never touched Opara on the slide tackle. My feed happened to freeze once at the perfect frame to show our striker sliding fully under the right foot and past him. Opara sold the hell out of that. And while we’re at it, Lagos was fouled—hard. It wasn’t a penalty, but he was fouled close enough in the box to provide a threat. Also, if that foul is called, the counter to Rendon never happens. The ref seemed very card happy, and that’s not usually good to play under for a physical team.
Ok. That said.
Missael had no business making that challenge. His first yellow was without question. I get it against a guy like Rendon, but the Owls find themselves making “professional fouls” a lot, and this time it bit us in the ass. Don’t get me wrong—I love Missael’s passion. I’m going to be inconsolable for a few weeks after the season ends knowing he’s going to move on to another level (at least if Chicago has ANY brains in their front office). But he’s got to make a better decision there. Keep from the appearance of evil, as it were.
But while we’re on decisions, I have to call out Lagos as well. I am well and truly hushed from my take on him after the Kansas City match concerning his dribbling skills. He needs to keep that up. He’s opening space and making things difficult for defenses. However. When you’ve got three guys in front of you and a layoff pass to your right inside the box, I don’t see trying to go the hard road, especially after you’ve used up quite a bit of gas getting there in the first place. Lagos played his heart out, but there were a couple moments that his decisions didn’t pan out.
But a single missed pass from Lagos isn’t what doomed the team. Really, I don’t feel like the red card made losing inevitable. But for the second match in a row, the team registered one shot on target (Pedro’s goal). I’ll read off some other stats. 6 shots (4 blocked). 12 touches in the opponent’s box. 49% passing in the final third, 0.23 xG. Those aren’t great, despite the fact that our attacking play up to that point is solid. Even being down a man, we won possession (52-48), passes (400-361) and benefited from 23 fouls (yep…23).
I don’t think that will continue—this team is too good. It’s also not a single player’s fault. But it’s been an item trending down for the past couple of weeks. The problem is that we have one major playmaker that probably won’t be ready for a full 90’ and another that’s gone and gotten suspended ahead of our clash at a scrappy (and improving) Chattanooga Red Wolves side. It’s going to be up to the other playmakers and leaders on the team to figure this out.
The good news is, I believe they can.
The Ugly (But Fair)
I kinda owe this one out of fairness to our next opponents because of my comments on a recent podcast I guest-hosted on.
The pitch looked awful. What is normally home plate and the infield were very brown, you could see the rows for the sod striping the land between where first and second normally are, and the ball on occasions just died when it hit the infield. It was embarrassing, to say the least.
Just as with the Red Wolves, though, I’m not placing blame here. We flip the field constantly between baseball and soccer, and the weather has been crazy enough that we might need an old priest and a young priest at this point. The grounds crew is an extremely hard working group, and they should be proud of their efforts. This isn’t easy to manage.
And I also don’t have to tell Martie, Alexis, Gary, or any of the leadership of this team. They are well aware of how it looks. That’s why they’re working so hard to get a place of our own. Plus, I’m sure the Storm Chasers are tired of the random divots, dead spots, and anomalies that soccer causes on a baseball diamond. I acknowledge that we all get it.
But I can’t call it out in others if I don’t call it out for us. It may be unavoidable and truly nobody’s fault, but there are a lot of people watching who don’t see that. All they see is a field in poor condition.
(I promise, I won’t bring up the field condition again, unless someone gets hurt. Maybe if it causes a fluke goal. Ok, I’ll try REALLY hard not to bring it up again.)
Interesting Facts:
- I actually missed the match live and had to watch it on replay the day after. I was sitting in the Denver airport (of all places) in the corner of a bar having a second beer for the first time in a very long time. Of course, it was a Modelo.
- With the flurry of cards shown, that leaves Blake Malone and Rashid Nuhu as the only starters in this match who have not picked up a card of any sort in League One play.
- Bruno Rendon has scored as many goals in the Jägermeister Cup (4) as the entire team has scored in League One play. He leads the team (and League) in Cup goals, but is also tied for the team lead in League One goals…with 1.
- Dominic Casciato has now been in charge of Union Omaha for 38 regular season matches, or enough for one English Premier League season. In that time, he’s compiled a record of 23-9-6 (W-D-L) which is 78 points. Jay Mims’ first 38 matches brought a record of 19-13-6, or 70 points. Both of those point totals would have made Champions League places this year. Oh, well…
Key Events:
Northern Colorado Yellow Card: 11’ – Jackson Dietrich (Bad Foul)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 20’ – Nortei Nortey (Bad Foul)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 38’ – Missael Rodriguez (Tactical Foul)
Northern Colorado Yellow Card: 41’ – Chelo Martinez (Hard Foul)
Union Omaha Goal: 45’+5’ – Pedro Dolabella (A: Joe Gallardo)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 45’+6’ Missael Rodriguez (Bad Challenge – Second Yellow)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 45’+7’ Lagos Kunga (Dissent)
Northern Colorado Yellow Card: 45’+7’ Lalo Delgado (Dissent)
Northern Colorado Yellow Card: 45’+7’ Lucky Opara (Shoving A Player)
Northern Colorado Yellow Card: 45’+7’ Colin Falvey (Bench – Dissent)
Northern Colorado Red Card: 45’+8’ Colin Falvey (Bench – Dissent)
Northern Colorado Sub: 46’ – Billy King ON; Ethan Hoard OFF
Union Omaha Sub: 46’ PC Giro ON; Nortei Nortey OFF
Northern Colorado Goal: 54’ – Billy King (A: Lucky Opara)
Northern Colorado Yellow Card: 60’ – Patrick Langlois (Bad Challenge)
Northern Colorado Sub: 60’ – Marky Hernández ON; Jackson Dietrich OFF
Northern Colorado Goal: 62’ – Bruno Rendon (A: David García)
Union Omaha Sub: 70’ – Luca Mastrantonio ON; Pedro Dolabella OFF
– Zeiko Lewis ON; Joe Gallardo OFF
Union Omaha Sub: 76’ – Ryen Jiba ON; Blake Malone OFF
Northern Colorado Sub: 79’ – Enock Kwakwa ON; Chelo Martinez OFF
Northern Colorado Yellow Card: 89’ – Noah Powder (Time Wasting)
Northern Colorado Yellow Card: 89’ – Enock Kwakwa (Bad Foul)
Northern Colorado Sub: 89’ – Danny Robles ON; Noah Powder OFF
Union Omaha Sub: 89’ – Mark Bronnik ON; Lagos Kunga OFF
Who Gives A Hoot? 