For the second time this week, Stefano Pinho came through in front of the home crowd.
His goal in second half stoppage time saved a point in a match that looked to have Chattanooga’s signature style written all over it. The visitors used a quick counter-attack and some defensive miscues to not only cancel Mark Bronnik’s opener, but pull ahead with only five minutes to go in regulation. The late equalizer not only sent the home crowd into a frenzy, but also ensured the Red Wolves slipped from their spot atop the USL League One table.
Coach Vincenzo Candela only made two changes to the lineup that faced Westchester in midweek, but those tweaks were significant. Apparently preparing for a traditionally physical Red Wolves side, Brent Kallman got the start in the center of the back line in place of Anderson Holt. Pato Botello Faz found himself up front with Stefano set up to be a super sub off the bench.
On the other side, Scott Mackenzie made four changes from Wednesday’s victory over Forward Madison. Keeper Jason Smith started in place of Ricardo Jerez, while Aaron Lombardi and Owen Green set up in the back line over Joshua Ramos and Omar Gomez. Rounding out the changes, Greyson Mercer started central in attack over Pedro Hernandez, who had scored and assisted in the last match.
The opening minutes of the match seemed somewhat sloppy from both sides as they fought each other and some oppressive humidity on the field. As typical, Omaha dominated most of the possession, but this tended just to play into Chattanooga’s strengths as the visitors sat back and waited for a chance to counter.
That chance showed itself in the second minute. Following a keeper claim, center back Eric Kinzner attempted a long pass from just outside his own box. The ball found Mercer, who flicked along with his head and past the defense to a speedy Matthew Bentley up the left side. Bentley had little trouble getting in toward Rashid Nuhu, but the Englishman’s strike had little power on it at was an easy scoop for the Owls’ keeper. Even though it didn’t trouble Shido, it was a warning shot of how quickly the Red Wolves could go from defending to attacking.
Over the next 10 minutes, Omaha found still more of the possession, but many promising attacks fell by the wayside due to turnovers or bad touches. One such occasion saw a good penetration into the Chattanooga box that ended up being cut out due to Pato taking a heavy touch with his chest off a pass from Mark. The visitors quickly moved out and only a timely intervention by Sam Owusu on the other end kept the Red Wolves from facing Shido alone again.
The ensuing throw in found Wynand Wessels who put a deep cross into the middle of the Owls’ penalty area. After a quick one-two header combo between Mercer and Bentley, the ball fell kindly to Declan Watters at the back post to slot past Shido. It highlighted some poor aerial defending in the box, and the hosts were relieved to see the linesman’s flag go up to nullify Chattanooga’s opener.
Eventually Omaha would find their footing and start making some threatening attacks with Mark leading the way. In the 26th minute, having pushed the ball up on the left side, the young striker found himself dancing through three Red Wolf challengers and managing to keep his feet into the Chattanooga area. Drawing the defense, Mark laid the ball off to a wide open Max Schneider who put his laces through a shot from just outside the box. The crowd cheered initially as the net rippled, only to realize that Max’s shot had been just wide of the post. Having endured a couple of warning shots already, the Owls would feel glad to have given one of their own.
It didn’t take long for that warning to bear fruit either. Two minutes later Brandon Knapp floated a cross into the area looking for Pato, but the Red Wolves defense managed to head the ball away. The clearance wasn’t quite good enough as Max moved up and put the ball right back in toward Pato. Pato took a great touch, knocking the ball down and setting up Mark to let loose a rocket that Smith had no time to react to, much less get a glove to. The cheers and smoke stood this time as the young striker put the Owls up early.
But despite the early goal, and the continued dominance in possession, Chattanooga showed their warnings were also not to go unheeded. Off a turnover in attack, the Red Wolves broke quickly up the left side. Despite Ryan Becher’s foul from behind on Ualefi Reis, the midfielder managed to push the ball up the right side to Omar Hernandez. With the defense concentrating on him and Bentley’s run up the middle, Sam was left indecisive to allow Jordan Ayimbila nothing but green space on the left side. Hernandez’s pass found the defender in stride and his strike went through Sam’s outstretched legs and into the net to Shido’s left. It was a typical goal for Chattanooga this season, and drained some of the excitement that Mark’s opener had brought to the crowd.
The remainder of the half went pretty much the same way. Omaha made a lot of good looking attacks, but either a final pass or touch just wouldn’t allow them to get anything good on target against Smith. The Red Wolves’ defense stayed mostly back, happy to cede possession and bide their time for another opportunity to pounce. Add to that the physicality and emotions starting to ramp up, and the match started to feel like one of the traditional heavyweight fights that has marked the head-to-head series between these teams.
The second half played out similarly as the two sides stuck to their strengths. Several quick runs and crosses—one in particular by Charlie Ostrem that curled just wide after some good footwork—made it seem like a second goal was coming in just a matter of minutes.
The visitors weren’t without their own chances, though. The 64th minute saw what might have been their best look of the second half. After Omaha failed to clear the ball during a ping-pong moment at the top of the box, Chattanooga found substitute Yanis Lelin on the right side of the pitch. The defender drove a perfectly weighted shot toward the back post where both Mercer and Bentley were waiting to put in a go-ahead goal. Sam’s reactions were better this time, and the defender intervened just as the ball was arriving. The ensuing corner kick came to nothing, but another warning shot found its way across our goal.
As the minutes ticked on it felt like Omaha would find a breakthrough eventually, and it seemed like it would happen with 10 minutes left in regulation. Looking for a way to press up, Dion Acoff took some space on the right side vacated as a Red Wolf went down on a non-contact play. The ref allowed the attack to continue, and Dion found Laurence Wootton on further up the right side. With Chattanooga functionally down to 10 men, Laurence was able to lay the ball off to Max in a ton of space. The German midfielder struck fiercely and beat Smith, but couldn’t beat the crossbar. The second near miss excited the crowd, which made the next big play in the match all the more heartbreaking.
As the Owls have done all year, they let their opponents in to score when momentum and attack were completely on Omaha’s side. Orange County loanee Ben Barjolo found himself in trouble on the left side around midfield as two Red Wolves looked to close him down. His outlet pass was back toward Brent, who had some trouble getting under it and was only able to head it in the general direction of Chelo Martinez. With Chelo unable to get to it, the ball fell to Wessels in the Chattanooga attacking third. Great vision and a greater pass allowed him to pick out Lelin’s streaking run into the left side of the box. The defender put off a shot to rival Max’s, only this time the crossbar rebounded the ball in past Shido to give the visitors a very late lead.
The final minutes ticked down, and despite their best efforts, it seemed like this would be another heartbreaking loss and three points thrown away. That’s when Omaha pulled a Chattanooga-style counter to beat them at their own game.
A Red Wolf throw in deep in their attacking half went directly to Ben who headed away to Max to start the attack. A one-two with Prosper Kassim allowed Max the space and time to find Dion speeding up the right side. Beating two defenders to get toward the corner, Dion made a pinpoint cross that looked to be bound for Pato. However, Pato drew his defender off with a dummy, let the ball go in behind him to Stefano who blew the roof off of Werner by scoring his second straight 90+ goal.
When the full time whistle sounded, the entire stadium could finally breathe. It wasn’t a win, but to take a point against a team at the top of the table in that fashion may have felt like a win. If nothing else, it had to have felt like a loss for the Red Wolves. And honestly, I’ll take it.
The Good:
- I’ll start with the obvious, and that’s Stefano Pinho. The Brazilian has saved three points for us this week with late heroics and has inspired the team to continue fighting. He’s as dynamic a presence as we’ve had up front in a while, and pairs perfectly with Pato up top. Asking him how he felt after seeing that goal go in, he had this to say:
“I’m trying to do my best when I step on the field, so I’m very happy to have scored this goal today. And, we should do better, to get three points, but we have a full week next week to look better, to try to get three points against Knoxville.”
It sounds like a bit of a canned answer, but it’s very accurate as to what’s going on with him. He’s leading the way this week with his heroics, and helping to overcome some of the issues we’ve had giving away goals. He knows there’s room to improve and that’s the focus. He’s exactly the kind of veteran presence this team has needed all year.
But aside from Stefano, I also have to call out Mark Bronnik. He struggled a couple of times in the Westchester match, and began to look like the starting spot might be too much for him. On Saturday he settled down some, and his goal was one of the best we’ve had this season. He’s got a lot of talent and energy, and he has to be ready to step up and show that he’s ready for the starting minutes a lot of the fans have asked for. At least last night, he did that. Here’s hoping he can continue to build on that.
- Stefano isn’t the only one fighting to the end. I asked Coach Vinnie about the high points we could take from this match, and he responded with this:
“You know, I think the high points—we talk about wanting to build toward something. Maybe we didn’t have that fight a couple weeks ago. You talk about on Wednesday winning a game in the 90+ minute, and now tying a game in the 90+ minute against a team that’s at the top of the table, that’s where we want to be. So I see a fight from the guys. We still need to get better at some things because we’re still gifting goals away. But high points are that we’re fighting now until the end. I didn’t see that before. We’re scoring multiple goals in a game now, as well, so we’ve got to take those positives and build from them.”
The team has seemed to turn a bit of a corner and gotten some belief in them over the past few weeks. I’m not going to speculate on the end of Dom’s tenure, but Vinnie and company have definitely shown more optimistic and inspired play. This has led not only to some late magic, but also to some more scoring. As he mentioned, the ball is actually going in the back of the net more for us now than earlier this season. We have 8 goals in our last 5 USL League One matches, 11 in our last 7 overall. That’s a pretty good uptick considering where we began the season. I won’t call us prolific just yet, but there’s a lot more coming out of this attack than there was.
- Mayor Ewing’s visit and Hispanic Heritage Night were a couple of big hits on a night where the entertainment value of the match was high already.
To start with, the mayor’s presence at the match and the presentation on the field should provide some positivity among the fanbase who were questioning what kind of working relationship the team would have with the new city administration, after laying a lot of groundwork with the previous mayor on things like a new stadium. That Mayor Ewing and his wife took the time out to be at the match, walk around, talk to the people, and in the heat/humidity that seemed like an indoor swimming pool at times, speaks to the fact that they are willing to engage and see the value of having a robust sports scene in the metro area. I’m not sure that the mayor is a huge follower of soccer, but the atmosphere showed that this team can really be something for this community with the right investment—something that isn’t lost on a man like him.
But even better than that was the crowd around Hispanic Heritage Night. Speaking about it after the match, Vinnie shared his thoughts:
“It was wonderful because, you know, it felt like a proper Union Omaha home game. I heard the music before the game. I heard it during, and this is kinda what I love about the Union Omaha community. Especially, being of Hispanic heritage and being born in Colombia, you feel that love and that passion, and I wish we could continue it every weekend because it’s so unique. It’s probably the best crowd we’ve had all season. So I was super grateful that we have this support in the community, and we have to keep it going. We can do our part on the field by entertaining them, so hopefully they can continue to support us.”
Stefano also gave his love to the fans:
“The fans here is [sic] amazing. When I was in Brazil, I was talking to Prosper about the atmosphere here, the environment. So today was, a great crowd. So we’re happy to have fans like that—to help us to go fighting until the end. So it’s amazing to be here with these fans.”
Between the two events, I think the club and fans got this one pretty well.
The Bad:
We all know what the bad is: we can’t stop the other team from scoring. It’s not that Chattanooga isn’t good, but they are a known quantity. The team is averaging 34.2% possession per game. They are going to try to be quick and lethal on the counter. The more you turn the ball over, the quicker and more lethal that counter is. And that’s what we did twice tonight to set up their goals.
A lot of folks want to get on Brent Kallman for the header that started the second goal for Chattanooga, but it wasn’t just him. Ben starts the error by putting him in a bad position with a desperate outlet. Brent heads sort of in the vicinity of Chelo, but can’t make it accurate enough. The left side defense loses track of Lelin and lets him have an open shot. Even Shido didn’t look quite right trying to react (although after reviewing the goal, that was a rocket that would’ve been hard to get a hand to). All of these small mistakes turn into disaster—and it happens over and over again.
Asking Stefano what we need to improve before Knoxville, he told me this:
“I think, improve our decisions in the final third. The last pass, the last action. It’s like, do some little things, you know. We are doing good. We have a great team, great players, so just, focus a little bit on the last pass, they’re going to be fine.”
Vinnie went a step further with his answer:
“We gotta stop the mistakes. I feel like we’re scoring goals for both teams. So I think that’s our focus right now—making sure we do a better job of being focused for 90 minutes. Because, I still feel like we’re beating ourselves a lot of the time. A lot of teams aren’t really breaking us down, we’re breaking ourselves down. And so I think that’s one thing we really need to hone in this week, because Knoxville has talent. They’re a good squad. And it’s going to be another tough battle away from home.”
It may be a bit easier said than done, because we’ve been saying the same things all season. There’s some optimism around, but until we truly see those mistakes corrected, we’re going to be a good team that misses the playoffs. At least we know the coach and players see it, too.
What’s Next:
Next match we travel to Knoxville for our first meeting of the year. One Knoxville is sitting 4th in the table after a 2-2 draw in Madison last night. They have a midweek match against Richmond that is a makeup of one postponed earlier this year, while the Owls have the full week to rest and prepare for the trip. The match is at 6 pm Central on Saturday, 16 August.
Following that we return home to face Charlotte Independence at 7pm Central on Wednesday, August 20th. Charlotte sits 5th in the table after dropping a 9-goal thriller to Greenville last night, and will face Westchester SC before meeting Omaha. They’ll be looking for revenge against Vinnie, who defeated them in his inaugural match as the Boss Búho. Additionally, assuming Shido plays in both matches, this will be the 150th appearance of our captain across all competitions.
Key Events:
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 18’ – Marco Milanese (Bad Challenge – 4th)
Union Omaha Goal: 28’ – Mark Bronnik (2nd) (A: Pato Botello Faz – 1st) 1-0
Chattanooga Red Wolves Goal: 35’ – Jordan Ayimbila (2nd) (A: Omar Hernandez – 3rd) 1-1
Chattanooga Red Wolves Yellow Card: 38’ – Jordan Ayimbila (Bad Foul – 4th)
Chattanooga Red Wolves Yellow Card: 45’+4’ – Declan Watters (Bad Challenge – 4th)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 53’ – Pato Botello Faz (Bad Foul – 2nd)
Union Omaha Subs: 56’ – Benjamin Barjolo ON; Mark Bronnik OFF
– Dion Acoff ON; Marco Milanese OFF
Chattanooga Red Wolves Subs: 62’ – Yanis Lelin ON; Aaron Lombardi OFF
– Omar Gomez ON; Owen Green OFF
– Zahir Vazquez ON; Omar Hernandez OFF (Injury)
Union Omaha Sub: 67’- Stefano Pinho ON; Ryan Becher OFF
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 71’ – Max Schneider (Dissent – 8th)
Chattanooga Red Wolves Sub: 74’ – Pedro Hernandez ON; Greyson Mercer OFF
Chattanooga Red Wolves Sub: 82’ – Joshua Ramos ON; Jordan Ayimbila OFF
Union Omaha Subs: 83’ – Chelo Martinez ON; Brandon Knapp OFF
– Prosper Kassim ON; Laurence Wootton OFF
Chattanooga Red Wolves Goal: 85’ – Yanis Lelin (2nd) (A: Wynand Wessels – 2nd) 1-2
Chattanooga Red Wolves Yellow Card: 90’+4’ – Wynand Wessels (Bad Foul – 3rd)
Union Omaha Goal: 90’+6’ – Stefano Pinho (2nd) (A: Dion Acoff – 1st) 2-2
*This article has been edited to correct the spelling of Coach Vincenzo Candela’s name, further proving that autocorrect is the stupidest ducking thing ever invented.
Who Gives A Hoot? 