The result was golden, even if the play wasn’t.
Union Omaha kicked off their run in the 2025 US Open Cup by defeating USL 2 side Flatirons FC 1-2. Playing on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines, the hosts had good spells of possession and compact defense, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a first-half cannon blast from Aarón Gómez and a second-half converted penalty by Joe Gallardo. Shjon Andrews was able to pull one back late to make things a little nervy, but Union Omaha’s defense held to continue their streak of opening round wins.
Still battling injuries and experimenting with the formation, Dominic Casciato put out what was billed as a 4-3-3, but found more fluidity than that during the match. The Boss Búho made four changes from the last starting lineup in Greenville, opting to give 25-day contract keeper Cole Jensen the start with Russell Shealy making the bench. Joe got the start in place of Brandon Knapp, while Anderson Holt came in for Blake Malone, who wasn’t listed on the team sheet. Marco Milanese took a place on the back line and the Captain’s armband with Dion Acoff on the sidelines.
Coach Levi Rossi rolled out a 3-4-3 formation which included former University of Nebraska-Omaha midfielder Luke Smith, Anderson (a defensive standout who scored 10 goals last season for Colorado State University-Pueblo), and former Colorado Rapids midfielder Sam Hamilton. But despite the relative youth and inexperience of the team, Rossi had them well disciplined within his formation.
Though the beginning of the match would set a theme of ping pong in the midfield, the Owls would find a very good chance less than 5 minutes in. With the press on after a Flatirons throw in, Charlie Ostrem recovered the ball in the attacking third and started a switch to Marco who found Joe in massive space on the right side. Joe pressed up and whipped a perfect ball across the face of goal that had four Búhos in position to tap in. The ball missed all of them, with Mehdi Ouamri having the closest chance, but unable to make contact. It was a warning shot of what this offense could be, even if that wasn’t fully realized through the rest of the match.
The early press brought in a few more opportunities as the amateur side had trouble dealing with the coordinated shifts, but each time the Owls got in a good position, the Flatirons defense managed to compress just enough to repel any attacks. Many times there were crosses to be had, but either no one was there to get on the end of them or the passes sailed well away from their intended targets. Of the 16 crosses attempted during the game, only 4 were considered accurate, three of them from Joe on the right side.
As the game reached the 15-minute mark, Flatirons started to grow a little into the game and make inroads to the Omaha half. A couple of chances developed thanks to some good footwork or a misplayed pass, but each time the defense was able to force the hosts into an errant pass, a wild cross, or, usually, a tackle and a turnover. This continued on both sides of the pitch as each team seemed just a single pass away from truly opening up their opponent.
The Owls almost put together that pass as Isidro Martínez slipped a beautiful through ball to Aarón as he split the defenders. He was in one-on-one against Matteo Conci, but the AR raised the flag for what looked in real-time like an easy call, but on replay was much closer than thought. It was a great flash of brilliance to see the run and hit it with the through ball, if not just slightly mistimed.
The attacking momentum would finally break through soon after though.
In the 27th minute, a good run of possession allowed Omaha to work the ball down into the right corner where Joe beat his man to get a lofted ball into the box. Kemy Amiche got a head on it over the Flatirons defense and it fell to Charlie directly in front of goal. Charlie’s headed shot was saved by Conci, but the keeper couldn’t hold on to the ball as it fell to Aarón. The forward dribbled toward the left side of the goal before unleashing a cannon of his foot that left Conci with no chance to save and the visitors up 0-1.
The goal didn’t seem to energize the Owls as much, nor did it deflate the Flatirons, and the remainder of the half went pretty much the same as the first half. Every time there was an opportunity for either side, the defenses would collapse back into shape and divert the attacking momentum.
The game did start to get a little more physical, and a few rough fouls that might have gone for yellow cards in League One play got waved away with just a warning and some discussion. This was particularly of interest as the half came to a close.
Just after the clock struck 45’, A Flatirons free kick sailed perfectly into the box, but missed the oncoming attackers. Cole stepped up to claim the ball beautifully, but was clattered into by Jackson Vander Ven, who was leading with his foot to try to get a touch on the ball. Cole went down hard, but though the referee gave the foul, he didn’t deem it dangerous enough for any sort of a card.
With Cole back up and in action, the half ended with four minutes of additional time announced, but only two given. Either way, it was a chance to reset and try to capitalize on the good moments from the first half.
Making two changes coming out of halftime, Mark Bronnik and Prosper Kassim found their way on in place of Mehdi and Kemy as Dom continued to look for a bit more spark in the attack. Despite the energy that Mark brought to the position, the game continued mostly the same way as the first half. Neither team really was able to find a way through the defense, the cutting pass lacking or the defense collapsing well just in time.
In fact, Flatirons would take the majority of second half possession (59-41), and significantly outpassed the Owls both in number and in accuracy. But the teams would only combine for 3 shots total in the second half, showing the inability for either side to get clear chances on goal.
Union Omaha would only contribute one shot to that total, but it was the shot that ended up being the match winner. Some good pressing in the Flatirons half saw a wayward pass find Mark as if it had been a through ball meant for him. With the defenders moving toward the young striker, Mark laid it off to Prosper for a clear chance on goal. The pass took Prosper away from the goal, however, and his dribble allowed Vander Ven to come in and block the shot. The ball popped up and, as Vander Ven was trying to control it, hit the outstretched hand of the defender just inside the box. The referee had no hesitation pointing to the spot. It was a but of a harsh call, considering the direct threat to goal was not there, but it was still an accurate penalty decision.
Joe stepped up to take the penalty and placed it high into the left side of the goal. Conci guessed correctly but wasn’t able to cover the top side of the net as the ball flew in to double the Owls’ lead.
There was no comfort in the two-goal lead as the chaos continued into the final 10 minutes of the match. Both teams seemed to continue to play the same way, but fouls and free kicks would end up putting the hosts in a good position to score.
That’s what happened in the 84th minute when Smith popped free kick toward the box from about 30 yards out. The ball found the head of Tobi Osifodunrin (a name I’m STILL trying to pronounce) who flicked it on to Andrews. No stranger to scoring goals, Andrews beat Anderson to the header and Cole was left with no choice but to pick the ball out of the net and go again.
Thankfully, that would be the last truly dangerous attack for Flatirons as the defense managed to hold. A free kick in the 90’ might have given some trouble, but Brent Kallman headed the ball away cleanly right before a Flatirons attacker could get to the ball and snuffed out the danger. It capped off what was a really good performance by the defense, considering the match at Greenville, and allowed Búho Nation to breathe a sigh of relief at the final whistle.
What’s Next:
Union Omaha gets a chance to rest a week before returning to USL League One play at South Georgia Tormenta FC on March 29. The Ibises have never beaten the Owls, but look dangerous after a spirited performance losing to Richmond and a consecutive clean sheets against AV Alta FC and Harbor City of the UPSL.
After that, the lads head off to Des Moines on April 2 to face the USL-2 side stacked with some really good, though retired, professionals in Round 2 of the US Open Cup. This will be the third time in four years that Union Omaha has played Des Moines in the USOC, but the first time the team will travel to Des Moines for the match.
The Good:
The good news is that we scored a goal and the defense stepped up. Having Marco in the back seemed to help some, despite the fact that Blake wasn’t in the lineup. Brent played a lot more like the veteran he is, including some good challenges and well-timed tackles to disrupt the Flatirons’ offense. The wingers looked like they knew what to do defensively, and the midfield held strong when the ball came through their areas. Cole wasn’t tested too much, but he passed the ones he had to, and the goal wasn’t his fault.
Aarón’s goal was the kind of goal we scored a lot last year and the kind of thing we’re going to need to see more off. Set up by Charlie getting a good head to the ball on a well played cross-and-flick, Aarón showed the instincts and striking ability that we know he has. It was a very good play to put us up and on the road to a victory.
The Bad:
The rest of the offensive performance wasn’t great. There were times where we’d get the ball in dangerous areas, but couldn’t make the final pass to open up a shot. There were a lot of times that the pass wasn’t on, but they tried it anyway, leading to either a turnover or just enough of a block to force a recycle of the play. There were other times, like Joe’s first cross of the game, where players were there but didn’t react fast enough to run through the ball and put it on net.
While I don’t believe we should shoot for shooting’s sake, I look really hard at our shots statistic for this match. Over the whole match we attempted five shots. three of those were on target. One of those was the penalty. All of those shots came from inside the box and were part of only nine touches we had in the opposition box for the game. (For contrast, we held Flatirons to only four touches and one shot inside the box—which resulted in their lone goal).
There were moments of excellence, but not creating those chances to shoot makes you rely on luck more often than not to get your offense going. The penalty, though correct, was lucky. Without that, we’re facing extra time and penalties against a team with nothing to lose. That lack of effective firepower could’ve seen us out of the Cup, and in even more of a morale pit than we were after the Greenville opener.
This is something we’ve got to get right, or else we could start the season with two losses.
Key Events:
Union Omaha Goal: 28’ – Aarón Gómez (1st) (Unassisted) (0-1)
Union Omaha Subs: 46’ – Mark Bronnik ON; Kemy Amiche OFF
– Prosper Kassim ON; Mehdi Ouamri OFF
Flatirons FC Yellow Card: 58’ – Orlin Hernandez, Jr. (Bad Challenge) (1st)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 60’ – Isidro Martinez (Bad Challenge) (1st)
Flatirons FC Subs: 62’ – Cooper Johnson ON; Binto Adnan OFF
– Dani Barajas ON; Orlin Hernandez, Jr. OFF
Union Omaha Sub: 64’ – Brandon Knapp ON; Isidro Martinez OFF
Union Omaha Goal: 73’ – Joe Gallardo (1st) (Penalty) (0-2)
Flatirons FC Sub: 77’ – Bailey Rouse ON; Raymond Jackson, Jr. OFF (injury)
Flatirons FC Sub: 81’ – Adel Amarouche ON; Cooper Johnson OFF
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 83’ Anderson Holt (Bad Challenge) (1st)
Flatirons FC Goal: 84’ – Shjon Andrews (1st) (A: Tobi Osifodunrin – 1st) (1-2)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 90’+1’ – Joe Gallardo (Bad Challenge) (1st)
Union Omaha Sub: 90’+1 – Ryen Jiba ON; Aárón Gómez OFF
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 90’+4’ Bench (Dissent)
Who Gives A Hoot? 