It was a gutsy performance from the visitors that earned Scott MacKenzie coach of the week honors and left Búho Nation wondering what went wrong.
Despite playing a majority of the match with a man advantage, Union Omaha couldn’t get the ball past Chattanooga’s TJ Bush and his disciplined defense. Unfortunately, they did beat their Rashid Nuhu with a Mechack Jérôme own goal that gave the Red Wolves a 0-1 victory and an important three points in the playoff race.
With PC Giro’s retirement, Dom was forced into a few changes from the last time the teams met only 30 days prior in the Jägermeister Cup. Nortei Nortey took PC’s spot in the middle with Pedro Dolabella while Shido took his normal starting spot with Wallis Lapsley backing him up from the bench. There was some good news, however, as Marco Milanese made his return from injury starting on the wing for Joe Gallardo. This match also saw the return of Ryen Jiba to the bench for the first time in almost two months—a welcome sight with Dion Acoff still unavailable due to injury.
MacKenzie also made three changes since their last match against One Knoxville a week before. Declan Watters was forced into action due to Leo Folla’s red card suspension. Chevone Marsh and Omar Hernandez filled in the midfield for Stefan Lukic and Mayele Malango—the latter helping make up a bench consisting of only four listed players.
From the opening whistle, it appeared that Union Omaha would simply pick up where they left off against Chattanooga. The attacks in the early going where heavily in favor of the hosts with several chances just missing the last touch. There were times when the Red Wolves found some space to counter, but those were easily cut out by the back line or Shido himself.
The match was also early to be a very physical encounter—something that has been a bit of a hallmark of both teams this year. While referee Joseph Macht often let the players sort it out themselves, there were a couple of hard fouls early that set the tone of play for the evening. Neither team seemed willing to back down—Omaha in defense of home field, Chattanooga with the stinging reminders of previous meetings.
The first really dangerous chance came down to the Owls in the 6’. After a corner clearance, Pedro found a running Steevan Dos Santos around midfield leading to a great counter opportunity. With two defenders bearing on him, Steevan laid off to Marco running up the left side with him. As the defenders switched attention briefly, Marco placed a tempting cross right in front of Steevan, who had now run past the last of the defenders and into the box. The ball was just a bit out of Steevan’s reach, but fell fortunately to Missael Rodriguez, who had followed the action up the right side. With a hard, but clear angle on goal Missael’s feet got caught up underneath him and killed off the attack better than any of the Chattanooga defenders were in any position to do.
That proved to be a theme for the rest of the night.
For the next 20 minutes, the attack seemed centered solely in Chattanooga’s defensive half. Lagos Kunga made himself a menace with his dribbling and ball skills, getting in position for a couple of really good shot chances. The best of which came off a corner in the 15’ where he beat his defender and had no one but Bush to beat. The shot came in low on the Red Wolves’ keeper who just about kept the ball from crossing the line—even though it took a slight bobble and a bit of an awkward fall to do it.
That’s not to say that Chattanooga didn’t have their chances between the Omaha attacks. A long shot by Ualefi from about 30 yards out off a short corner came close to catching Shido off guard. The Ghanian keeper recovered well and dove to keep the dipping shot out of the bottom corner of goal, neutralizing what might have been the visitors’ best chance of the first half.
But much of the half was fully dominated by the Owls, a lot of it thanks to Lagos and Brandon Knapp, who seemed to has settle in to his role on the right side very well. With the former dribbling and the latter finding some incisive passes, Omaha would feel quite unlucky not to have a goal or two by halftime.
Especially after a 40’ red card sent the visitors down to 10.
Playing out of the back following a Red Wolf turnover, Marco Milanese pushed up the left side and launched a ball toward Missael. The ball cleared both the Owl forward and Gustavo Fernandes, but took a friendly bounce that the Chattanooga defender was a step slow on. Missael sprinted past Fernandes, easily getting to the ball just outside the box with a direct line on goal. With no other option, the defender reached out and grabbed Missael just outside the penalty box, bringing him down and denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity. Macht took only a second to decide that the foul was outside the box before issuing Fernandes his marching orders and setting up Omaha with the man advantage.
The attacks weren’t done for the half though, as Pedro almost made a breakthrough in stoppage time. Marco again found a perfect pass, crossing through the Chattanooga defense to find the Brazilian midfielder completely unmarked. The pace of the ball allowed for a header that looked destined for the back of the net. Once again, though, Bush came to the rescue with a Save of the Week contender to push the ball over. Such action would leave the Owls wondering what they’d have to do to get the ball across the line while the Red Wolves gave an exhale of relief as the halftime whistle blew.
The second half began much the same way the first half did with Omaha dominating possession and chances, but Chattanooga showing the occasional tooth and claw in counter. Recent signing Max Schneider, having come on at halftime, put his stamp on the match almost immediately by stopping a very dangerous counter with a perfectly timed sliding challenge to deny Pedro Hernandez a breakaway chance, then causing all sorts of chaos a few seconds later in the attacking end.
Getting on the end of a clearance, Max let fly from about 20 yards out, beating Bush but not beating the right post. The ball clanged across goal where Lagos was waiting to finally put the ball into the net. The celebrations started, but were short-lived as Lagos had been very offside as Max took his shot.
The pressure didn’t let up, but the longer the short-handed Red Wolves held, the more their resolve seemed to increase. Chance after chance went by the wayside either due to uncharacteristically bad finishing or a defense that camped itself inside their own final third and refused to allow anything past them.
By the 72’, Chattanooga started firing warning shots of their own. Having pressed into Omaha’s final third off a midfield turnover, the ball found its way to Yahir Paez on the left wing. Paez lofted a cross to the far post side of the six yard box where Ropapa Mensah was waiting. With Blake Malone shifting over to help Pedro guard Mensah, Pedro Hernandez was left unmarked in the middle. Mensah beat both his defenders to head the ball over to Hernandez who rocketed a volley toward the net. Only Shido’s own Save of the Week nominated reflexes kept the scoreline level, but the threat was starting to show.
That threat came to fruition only two minutes later. Omaha, with a free kick in the Red Wolves half, decided to take short for Lagos to dribble to create something. Closed down by two defenders he attempted to chip the ball into the area, but Chattanooga deflected the ball and went off to the races. Mensah pushed the ball forward to Hernandez again, who was outpacing Zeiko Lewis and had only Mechack to beat. With Mayele Malango streaking down the left side to support, Mechack did the best he could to close down the attack. As Hernandez looked to release Malango with a through ball, Mechack stuck his toe out and got just enough of a touch on it to send the pass away from the Red Wolves’ striker. Unluckily, that ball went straight past Shido, who had moved to cover Malango’s shot. It was completely against the script, but no one could deny it had been threatening for a while.
With the final 15 minutes, the Owls threw the kitchen sink into attack as the Red Wolves slinked even further back into their box. Chance after chance went to Omaha with either the defense making last ditch cut-outs or Bush making save after save to keep the advantage. The boys did their best, but by stoppage time you could tell that they’d given all they had left. When the final whistle sounded, Union Omaha was stuck looking up at a second consecutive shutout loss.
The loss did open the door for Charlotte to leap into second with their victory this weekend over Spokane. Greenville, despite a bit of a “meh” 0-0 draw with One Knoxville went top of the table, taking advantage of our dropped points as well as Forward Madison, who continued their dip in form by losing to Northern Colorado.
The Owls will be looking for to sustain that dip as the Mingos visit on Saturday, August 3, in an always tough matchup that will have implications for the top-4 by season’s end. It’s also Unified Series night following the match—double the soccer!
The Negatives:
- Obviously, Omaha didn’t score. The shooting boots weren’t on as tightly as normal, and when they were TJ Bush was there to swat away the ghosts of the 9 goals he’d given up in the previous two meetings with Omaha. Some nights, they just don’t fall.
However…
If this game looks a little bit familiar to you, I’ll take you back the June 2 meeting between Greenville Triumph and Chattanooga. On the road again, MacKenzie’s bunch gave up 26 shots, 10 on target, 61% possession, pulled off only 4 shots on target, but had 6 big chances and won by a 1-3 scoreline. Nothing about that match stats-wise says three points to Chattanooga except that score.
Fast forward to Saturday night and the same thing happened. Chattanooga stayed compact and swore that nothing was going to get through. I’m sure that Dom and the team saw this coming, but the tactics to deal with it were to bring on more attackers. While Max coming on for Brandon was more like-for-like, it seemed to be done for the purpose of getting Pedro more involved in the attack. After that, Zeiko came on for Marco and Aáron in for Nortei—that last one having an impact on the near-goal as Aáron didn’t move in to occupy the space that Pedro and Blake had left for Hernandez.
Knowing that, the only true defender that was back when Chattanooga started the break that scored their goal was Mechack. He was against Hernandez and a fresh-legged Malango with only Zeiko even in the frame as the two Red Wolves bore down on Mechack (who, by the way, was also having to scramble back to position after taking the free kick). For a group that has prided itself on team defense and smart positional play, they left themselves completely exposed trying to break through what MacKenzie had cemented in defense.
Had pushing more and more attack worked, of course, I wouldn’t be citing it as a negative. That’s the risk Dom’s paid to take—it just didn’t work this time.
- I also have to point out that there were several chances where the shooters just didn’t seem ready to shoot. Lagos’ run in the 20’ that took him all the way across the box before he finally launched it into the side netting. A 31’ interchange between Brandon and Missael in the box that showed Brandon a good look at goal, only to see him pass off to Missael for a shot in a tight angle (that well could’ve been offside anyway). A 38’ chance by Steevan (set up by another Lagos run) where the striker seemed surprised by the pass and put almost nothing on his shot. There were a lot of chances, especially early, where the shooters seemed gun shy.
Now I’m not out there seeing what they are. I don’t know what’s going through their heads. I do know it was frustrating to watch—more so when so many other good chances that were taken didn’t pan out.
The Positives:
- No matter what I said in the negatives, the truth is this team played really well. This is not like the Greenville match where they squeaked by with three points and didn’t look all that convincing. This was miles better than the Northern Colorado match that was bad enough that I didn’t even finish writing the recap (or at least that’s the excuse I’ll use…) This was a dominant performance. Some stats for you:
(Union Omaha – Chattanooga Red Wolves)
Possession: 71% – 29%
xG: 2.32 – 0.26
Shots 24 – 10
On Goal 8 – 4
Touches in the box: 46 – 15
Passes: 537 – 218
Accuracy: 86% – 64%
Final Third Passes: 189 – 73
Final Third Accuracy: 75% – 40% (!!!!)
Crosses: 20 – 5
Union Omaha dominated this game in everything but the scoreline. Possession was meaningful and creative. Second and third balls were either won or quickly shut down. We had four players all night with an average position inside our own defensive half. They had three players whose average position was in the attacking half—one of those was a substitute. Most of Chattanooga’s pressure came from counters and long balls. We had four players with an xG stat greater than Chattanooga’s whole team. Hell, I think the own goal probably had a better xG than the Red Wolves had all night.
While I recognize that none of those stats mean anything when faced with a 0-1 final score, it does mean that the plan was working. We just couldn’t beat the Bush and his 9-man back line. I’m pissed that they lost, but I’m damn proud of most of their work this match, especially bouncing back from the Hailstorm match.
Sometimes, stuff just happens. If the Owls keep playing like this, though, it’ll go right more often than it goes wrong.
Interesting Facts:
- Union Omaha has conceded 8 Own Goals in their history (7 in league, 1 in Open Cup). Prior to Blake’s earlier this month against Lexington, the last one was in a 2-1 win over Richmond (Shaft Brewer, Jr. conceded that one) on Sept 9, 2023. This was the first time the Owls have ever conceded an OG in the league and lost the match (Joe Gallardo put in an OG in the 5-1 loss to StL City in Open Cup on April 25, 2023).
- This was the first time that Chattanooga has won at Omaha in their history. It’s also the first time in six matches the Red Wolves have beaten the Owls (October 22, 2022). That was also a 1-0 victory.
- Chattanooga has never beaten Union Omaha when the Owls have scored—all four victories in the series have been clean sheets (and all but one of them by 1-0).
- As alluded to in the main recap, both keepers are up for Save of the Week. You know who I’m voting for, but they are both admittedly deserving (credit where credit is due).
Key Events:
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 28’ – Brandon Knapp (Bad Challenge)
Chattanooga Red Wolves Red Card: 40’ – Gustavo Fernandes (DOGSO)
Union Omaha Sub: 46’ – Max Schneider ON; Brandon Knapp OFF
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 53’ – Max Schneider (Bad Challenge)
Chattanooga Red Wolves Sub: 56’ – Mayele Malango ON; Chevone Marsh OFF
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 61’ – Nortei Nortey (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Sub: 62’ – Zeiko Lewis ON; Marco Milanese OFF
Union Omaha Sub: 71’ – Aáron Gómez ON; Nortei Nortey OFF
Chattanooga Red Wolves Yellow Card: 73’ – Michael Knapp (Tactical Foul)
Chattanooga Red Wolves Goal: 74’ – Mechack Jérôme (OG) (0-1)
Chattanooga Red Wolves Yellow Card: 81’ – TJ Bush (Time Wasting)
Chattanooga Red Wolves Sub: 82’ – Jamil Roberts ON; Omar Hernandez OFF
Chattanooga Red Wolves Sub: 90’ – Gharett Morris ON; Ualefi OFF
Union Omaha Sub: 90’+2’ – Ryen Jiba ON; Mechack Jérôme OFF
Who Gives A Hoot? 