Despite a late surge, Union Omaha was unable to find the equalizer in a 1-2 loss to North Carolina FC.  The loss is the first of the calendar year for Union Omaha, the first for Union Omaha Head Coach Dominic Casciato, and first-ever loss at the hands of North Carolina FC.

Just prior to kickoff, the heavy, ominous clouds opened up and unleashed a brief period of pebble-sized hail.  Though both clubs had to contend with the elements, North Carolina started the match strong and were rewarded for it within the first few minutes of the match.

Within the first 30 seconds of the opening whistle, as Union Omaha possessed the ball deep near their own goal line, North Carolina’s Jaden Servania applied high pressure and forced a turnover in the box.  Servania’s teammate Oalex Anderson was the first to get to the ball and turned to face the goal.  Despite Union Omaha defender Junior Palacios there to cut off the angle of any shots, another Union Omaha defender, Marco Milanese challenged Anderson from behind and sent him to the ground.  The man chosen to finish the penalty kick is no stranger to Union Omaha history.

After the ball was placed on the penalty spot and North Carolina midfielder Rafa Mentzingen waited for the referee to blow the whistle, there were no doubt some fans reeling at the sight of Mentzingen shooting the ball.  For those that don’t remember, Mentzingen played for the 2022 Chattanooga Red Wolves and scored the match-winning goal in extra time of the playoff quarterfinal match, ending Union Omaha’s season.  Once the referee blew the whistle, Mentzingen slotted it home for the early lead.

That scoreline held until the 43rd minute, when North Carolina would double their lead.  After an errant pass from Union Omaha’s Luis Gil, North Carolina players quickly collected the ball and went on the counterattack.  In the video below, you can see the Union Omaha players on that side of the field outnumbered as the visitors worked the ball up the field.  Another point to watch is Union Omaha defender Marco Milanese.  As North Carolina’s Chris Lue Young receives the pass near the right flank, Milanese is caught overcommitting to the challenge and Louis Perez floats into the space previously held by Milanese.  Once the ball was placed at the feet of Perez, he was off to the races, operating in space with little challenge.  As Perez approached Union Omaha’s penalty area, he slightly angled his attack toward the center of the field and took a shot.  Unfortunately for Union Omaha, the ball took a deflection off defender Alexis Souahy’s outstretched leg and caught goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu off balance, unable to adjust to the sudden incoming ball.  The goal was Perez’s first of the season and first with North Carolina.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Owls at halftime.  Despite being down 0-2, Union Omaha held an impressive 75% of the possession with 89% passing accuracy.  Even the passing in North Carolina’s half was impressive, with the Owls carrying 73% accuracy.  Union Omaha also had more shots, more shots on goal, and had an 80% tackle success rate.  There were also four chances created, two of which came from midfielder Joe Gallardo.  While some fans at Caniglia Field had reached their weather limit and opted to leave at halftime, those who stayed around would be treated to an early threat from the Owls in the second half.

In the 53rd minute, Union Omaha defender Shaft Brewer Jr. carried the ball into North Carolina’s half, along the right flank.  His pass inside to Joe Gallardo saw the midfielder surrounded by three defenders, yet he was still able to turn over his right shoulder and gain a central lane and space to operate.  After a couple of touches, Gallardo unleashed a beautiful shot that caught North Carolina goalkeeper Nick Holliday flat on his feet.  It looked as though the deficit was about to be cut in half, but the ball slammed into the upper left corner posts, echoing loudly inside the stadium.  Fans were let down by how close they were to a goal, but continued urging on the home side.

The last 15 minutes of the match saw Union Omaha stepping up their urgency and forward movement.  All of that effort finally came to fruition in the 84th minute, when the Owls were able to get within one goal of North Carolina.  After a free kick was called just outside of the North Carolina penalty area, Union Omaha’s Joe Gallardo stepped up to take the kick.  The ball curled toward Nick Holliday, who reacted quickly to punch the ball overhead.  Fortunately for Union Omaha, Holliday was still under the crossbar, so the attempted clearance went directly into the bar and ricocheted into the back of the net.  The goal was as close as Union Omaha would come to equalizing and the match soon finished with the victory going to North Carolina FC.

After the match, Union Omaha midfielder and goalscorer Joe Gallardo shared his thoughts on the day.  “It was one of those days where things didn’t happen for us, unfortunately,” Gallardo said.  “But I feel like we still played good as a team and we’re just very unfortunate with the early penalty and the second goal that hit off our player and went in.”  Regarding his goal, Gallardo said, “I just wanted to test the goalie and tried hitting it hard at him and thankfully it went in.”

Union Omaha forward Steevan Dos Santos also shared his thoughts.  “Tough day for us, but I think overall we had a good game,” Dos Santos said.  “It’s just learning from our mistake, the penalty, and it’s like the second goal was a deflection off our defender and there was nothing we could do about that, but we have to learn from our mistake and try to do better next game.”

Head Coach Dominic Casciato provided some insights, as well.  “Disappointed to start a game that way,” Casciato said.  “I think after that, we really controlled things.  But then they get another goal off a deflection right before halftime.  Second half, we were pushing, but we just didn’t do enough to get a second goal.  We let ourselves down.”  When asked about returning to Werner Park, Casciato said, “It’s been tough for us going from one location to the next and it’s really like an away game all the time.  We’re not familiar with the surroundings.  It’ll be good to get back to Werner Park and be at home.”

With the loss, Union Omaha dropped 3 spots to finish Week 5 in 7th place.  The Owls turn around quickly and travel to American Legion Memorial Stadium on Wednesday to face top-ranked Charlotte Independence.  After that, Union Omaha will have nearly a week of rest before traveling to St. Louis on April 26th to face off against MLS club St. Louis CITY.

Match Summary

Attendance: 1,665

Goal Summary:

3’: NC – Rafa Mentzingen (PK)

43’: NC – Louis Perez (assisted by Mikey Maldonado)

84’: OMA – Joe Gallardo (unassisted)

Substitution Summary:

55’: OMA – Pedro Dolabella replaces Joe Brito

67’: OMA – Alex Steinwascher replaces Luis Gil

88’: OMA – Stefan Mueller replaces Marco Milanese

45’: NC – Raheem Somersall replaces Jaden Servania

68’: NC – Preston Popp replaces Louis Perez

68’: NC – Garrett McLaughlin replaces Oalex Anderson

85’: NC – Shak Adams replaces Rafa Mentzingen

90’+1: NC – Gustavo Fernandes replaces Luis Arriaga

Discipline Summary:

17’: OMA – Conor Doyle (yellow card)

46’: OMA – Shaft Brewer Jr. (yellow card)

73’: OMA – Alexis Souahy (yellow card)

78’: OMA – Junior Palacios (yellow card)

5’: NC – Christian Lue Young (yellow card)

14’: NC – Michael Moldonado (yellow card)

25’: NC – Daniel Navarro (yellow card)

31’: NC – Jaden Servania (yellow card)

71’: NC – Preston Popp (yellow card)

UO can get to within 1 point of idle Charlotte Independence with win over NCFC

Union Omaha’s win against Central Valley Fuego last weekend broke a nine-match winless streak within the league, and seemed to verify that the previous match against El Paso Locomotive was more indicative of how the team will play for Dominic Casciato than the season opener against Forward Madison. Looking more and more like a team that’s found its identity, UO will host a team it has never lost to this weekend in North Carolina FC. NCFC come into the match with a level 1-1-1 record, and will be playing their first league match away from WakeMed Soccer Park this season.

That identity appears to be one where the starting formation disappears pretty much after the opening kickoff. The last two matches featured a starting back four from left to right of Stefan Mueller, Junior Palacios, Alexis Souahy and Shaft Brewer Jr. In actual practice, Conor Doyle almost becomes a third center-back when UO are on the attack. This allowed Brewer to constantly press high, sometimes almost to the point of leaving Souahy and Palacios a little exposed to the counter-attack if they aren’t able to communicate assignments to each other quick enough. Brewer was also mixing with what can only be described as a collection of constantly moving parts in the upper middle-third. Joe Brito and Noe Meza were the announced and actual starting forwards, but it can’t be argued that Joe Gallardo was actually Omaha’s most forward pressing player last weekend. He, Meza, Brito and JP Scearce (along with eventual subs Alex Steinwascher and Steevan Dos Santos) seemed to be taking turns at the top, each of them waiting for the right time to either start the counter-attack following a Fuego mistake, sometimes even creating the opportunities on their own defensively.

However, we did see Luca Mastrantonio make his Union Omaha debut. We can’t say for sure whether or not his appearance was planned (it was a halftime substitute, but he did sub on for the already booked Brewer), but Union Omaha’s look in the back was distinctly different because of it. Palacios shifted to his more natural position on the right, and as a player that plays a little bit more of a physical style, it led to a little bit less of the controlled chaos we had seen the previous 135 minutes.

Given NCFC’s style of play, a defensive lineup that averages being positioned further back might not be the worst idea. North Carolina have either out possessed each of their opponents this season, or been on the right side of a 50-50 game. They also love, and I mean love to cross the ball. They’ve put in an incredible 59 crosses over their first three games. By comparison, Omaha have made only 23 in their two games. A performance like the last one for the Omaha defense might be necessary, a performance that included 23 clearances.

NCFC’s stable start to the season hasn’t been what we’ve been used to seeing the past couple of years, but it might be due to the bevy of players they brought in that are very familiar with the league. North Carolina made additions like Mikey Maldonado, Devin Benton, Daniel Navarro and Rafa Mentzingen this past offseason. Those four players alone have combined to play all but 13 minutes so far this season. They have, however, handed this year’s starting spot at goalkeeper to the young Nicholas Holiday. Holiday has started all three games so far, after starting only 13 the previous two seasons. He has, however, only seen six shots on target in those three games, allowing half of those into the net.

And finally, the weather could certainly play a factor this weekend. A cold front moves in Friday night bringing a line of thunderstorms that will turn into steadier showers with colder, more sustained winds than we’ve seen in the metro the past several days. The turf itself shouldn’t be impacted a whole lot, but the conditions themselves might slow down play considerably and perhaps force NCFC to keep the ball low to the ground more than they’d like. In general, look for UO to face a stiffer challenge from this weekend’s opponent than they have typically in the past.

It was a fast and loose affair, but Union Omaha was able to leave Fresno with all three points.  The 2-0 scoreline gave the undefeated Owls their first league victory this season and second across all competitions.

Coming off of a strong performance in the US Open Cup on Wednesday night, which saw them defeat USL Championship club El Paso Locomotive, the Owls looked to ride that wave of confidence in their next league match and spoil the home opener for Central Valley Fuego.

The Owls were put on high alert soon after the opening whistle, when Central Valley Fuego’s Othoniel Jaramillo had a close-range shot in the 4th minute of play.  Union Omaha’s goalkeeper and reigning Golden Glove winner Rashid Nuhu was able to get low and save the shot.  The early pressure was the only shot on goal that the Owls would see for the rest of the first half.

While Central Valley Fuego was able to get off six shots inside of Union Omaha’s penalty area, Union Omaha found more open windows from outside the box, with four shots outside and two shots inside the box.  The Owls finished the half with two shots on goal – one inside the box and one from distance.

A match between Central Valley Fuego and Union Omaha seems to be synonymous with heavy discipline from the center referee.  In the first half alone, the two sides combined for 16 fouls, with the Owls often seen as the aggressor, being the cause of 11 stoppages.  It’s a surprise that there were only three yellow cards handed out before the halftime whistle, but the center ref was kept busy in the second half.

Just before the halftime whistle sounded, Union Omaha was able to take the lead with a goal from Noe Meza.  In the 45th minute, Shaft Brewer Jr. was able to steal the ball from Central Valley’s Jesus Partida.  The loose ball was scooped up by Joe Brito and it was off to the races, as Brito took a path along the right flank, Brewer Jr. slid toward the center, and Noe Meza was able to exploit some space behind the defenders.  Right as Brito passed the midline, he sent a beautiful, curling long pass directly into the path of Meza, who fended off two Fuego defenders and took a shot high on the near post for the early lead.  The goal was Meza’s first of the season and Brito’s second assist across all competitions.

The second half was a continuation of the chippy affair, seeing 17 more fouls added to the total tally.  Union Omaha would go on to contribute 12 fouls to that count.  As mentioned before, the ref was busier in the second half, handing out five more yellow cards before the end of the match.

Union Omaha fans were able to get a first look at new additions to the roster, as Luca Mastrantonio and Marco Milanese earned minutes before the final whistle.  Mastrantonio replaced Shaft Brewer Jr. just after halftime and Milanese was subbed on for Luis Gil in the 89th minute.

Just before the aforementioned 89th-minute substitution, Union Omaha was able to find the insurance policy on the victory, thanks to Steevan dos Santos.  In the 88th minute, second-half substitute Alex Steinwascher took the ball from well inside Union Omaha’s half, dribbled past several Fuego defenders and found the perfect window to feed a through-ball up to an advancing Steevan dos Santos.  The Cape Verdean carried the ball just outside the goal area before slotting it near post.  That was the second goal across all competitions for dos Santos.

Overall, there were great performances across the board.  The midfield unit of Luis Gil, JP Scearce, Joe Gallardo, and team captain Conor Doyle moved swiftly around the field to continuously apply pressure and pick up the loose balls.  Defenders Alexis Souahy and Junior Palacios held the middle of the backline tight and worked well to thwart attacks from Fuego.  Goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu earned his first league clean sheet and second across all competitions.

The win vaults Union Omaha up from ninth place after Week 3 to fourth place.  This is the second time that Union Omaha has visited Fresno, California and the Owls remain undefeated in Fresno State’s Soccer Stadium.

Week 5 brings the Owls back to Caniglia Field for a clash with North Carolina FC.  The match takes place on Saturday, April 15th and kicks off at 2 PM CT.  Don’t forget to wear your sweater for the match, as the club is hosting a “Sweater Weather” themed promotional day.

Attendance: 570

Goal Summary: 

45’: OMA – Noe Meza (assisted by Joe Brito)

88’: OMA – Steevan dos Santos (assisted by Alex Steinwascher)

Substitution Summary: 

57’: CV – Villyan Bijev replaces David Díaz

57’: CV – Zahir Vazquez replaces Othoniel Jaramillo

69’: CV – Andrew Forth replaces Omar Lemus

77’: CV – Harold Hanson replaces Diego Casillas

78’: CV – Sam Strong replaces Alex Cerritos

45’: OMA – Luca Mastrantonio replaces Shaft Brewer Jr.

61’: OMA – Steevan dos Santos replaces Joe Brito

72’: OMA – Pedro Dolabella replaces Joe Gallardo

73’: OMA – Alex Steinwascher replaces Noe Meza

89’: OMA – Marco Milanese replaces Luis Gil

Discipline Summary:

37’: CV – Jesus Partida (yellow card) 

60’: CV – Jordan Chavez (yellow card)

18’: OMA – Joe Brito (yellow card)

41’: OMA – Shaft Brewer Jr. (yellow card)

55’: OMA – Conor Doyle (yellow card)

75’: OMA – Pedro Dolabella (yellow card)

90’: OMA – Rashid Nuhu (yellow card)

90’+3: OMA – Alexis Souahy (yellow card)

UO Look to Parlay Cupset into First League Win of 2023

Following it’s U.S. Open Cup victory over El Paso Locomotive, one of only four upsets in the second round of the tournament at time of publishing, Union Omaha will take their positive momentum on the road for the first time this season as they play Central Valley Fuego in Fresno. Omaha won the only other match these two have played against each other on the west coast, a 1-0 victory that is as close to a Union Omaha trademark victory as it gets:

• Omaha outpossessed nearly 2:1
• 4 Rashid Nuhu saves (and a yellow card)
• JP Scearce goal on a header

However, Omaha’s win against El Paso seemed to buck that trend. As of now there still aren’t any official stat sheets to reference, but it was a game where Omaha felt very comfortable with possession and didn’t merely rely on floating the ball into the box (though Joe Brito did have a beautiful cross to assist the second goal). Based on head coach Dominic Casciato’s comments after the game, it seems that performance looked a lot closer to the style he envisions the team playing. So, look forward to seeing a lot of movement off the ball in the midfield as players look to pass to open spaces and not necessarily to open teammates.

If Casciato is right, and you’re looking for wide open play, this game probably has a better chance of delivering than most. Fuego has only played one league game so far as well, but it was a 1-0 win on the road in Chattanooga where they allowed six Chattanooga starters average position to be in their defensive half. They followed that with their loss to Monterey Bay F.C. in the Open Cup in a game where both teams combined to put 11 shots on target. Fuego appears to play a style that relies more on the counterattack, so hopefully both teams playing on short rest from the Open Cup will neutralize it’s potential effectiveness.

There is of course a high chance of lineup rotation from both sides coming into this one. Omaha only made two changes from it’s starting lineup against Madison, replacing Dion Acoff with Shaft Brewer Jr. and Alex Steinwascher with Steevan Dos Santos. Steinwascher did see action as a sub, as did the beforementioned Brito, a regular from 2022. New CB arrival Luca Mastrantonio was on the bench this past week, so a start for him this weekend seems quite possible. Don’t be surprised if we see Brito and Pedro Dolabella getting starts to rest guys like Luis Gil, Joe Gallardo, or even Noe Meza.

As for Fuego, they played a friendly against Pachuca last weekend. So while they aren’t necessarily playing three games in eight days, surely their guys went all out with a chance to play against a Liga MX side. However, they also played a nearly identical starting XI in their Open Cup game, with newly signed forward Othoniel Arce as the only player that didn’t start against Chattanooga (he replaced Villyan Bijev). Fuego have also yet to dress a full bench this year and have only played 14 different outfield players thus far. They also only used three subs in their Open Cup game, one that went 120 minutes.

So, it’s quite possible that Omaha is catching a fairly thin, fatigued Fuego team. One that’s possibly not yet playing with a full roster, and one that of course isn’t yet in midseason form. Fuego seemed to falter down the stretch against Monterey Bay, so look for Omaha to try taking similar advantage if needed in the final stretch of the game.

Union Omaha used the second half of their match to score two goals against USL Championship club El Paso Locomotive and solidify another Owl victory in the US Open Cup, winning 2-0.  This was the first-ever meeting between Union Omaha and a USL Championship club in competitive play.  The home match was also the first time the Owls ever hosted a higher-division club in the tournament.

As the two sides lined up for the contest, one major difference became apparent: experience, measured in different forms.  By the final whistle, three players made their club debut with the Locomotive and two of those three were starters.  With the group of players the Locomotive brought to Omaha, 12 had a possibility of making their Open Cup debuts.  Of those 12, there were 8 players who actually did make their debuts.  Lastly, Locomotive’s starting lineup had ages ranging from 17 years old, all the way up to 37.

Once the action began, the first half was filled with contrasting tactics and the side with the quicker adjustments proved to gain the advantage.  El Paso brought a high press, even including their wingers in pressing Union Omaha’s backline.  To counter this, Union Omaha routinely floated players into half spaces and used that space for quick ball movement away from pressure.  After the match, Union Omaha Head Coach spoke about staying true to their tactics and their identity.  “I think we had a really clear identity and I think in our first game of the season, against Forward Madison, we came away from that identity,” Casciato said.  “If we stay true to who we are, I think we’re going to win a lot of games.”

One of those tactics came about through set pieces.  In the 58th minute, Union Omaha had a series of quick shots in succession following a corner kick.  In the midst of all of the chaos, forward Steevan Dos Santos found defender Junior Palacios, who broke the deadlock.  “Yeah, this week, we had been going over set pieces,” Palacios said.  “We had been honing in on that and I was just anticipating the ball in the right space.  It fell to me and I took the opportunity to score.”

The Owls doubled their lead in the 75th, when midfielder Joe Brito crossed the ball into the Locomotive penalty area and directly to the feet of forward Steevan Dos Santos for the clinical finish.  In his first start for the club, Dos Santos finished the match with a goal and an assist.

The win was the first for Union Omaha in 2023 across all competitions.  More importantly, it was Head Coach Dominic Casciato’s first taste of victory as a head coach.  “It feels great,” Casciato said.  “I think we’ve got the best people in terms of players and the staff at this football club and that showed tonight.”

On Thursday, April 6th, the Owls will learn who their opponent will be in the Third Round of the US Open Cup.  Union Omaha also returns to League One action on Saturday, traveling west to play at Central Valley Fuego.  Kickoff is scheduled for 9PM CT and will be broadcast on ESPN+.

Goal Summary: 

58’: OMA 1 – 0 ELP – Junior Palacios (assisted by Steevan Dos Santos)

75’: OMA 2 – 0 ELP – Steevan Dos Santos (assisted by Joe Brito)

Substitution Summary: 

70’: OMA – Joe Brito replaces Joe Gallardo

71’: OMA – Pedro Dolabella replaces Luis Gil

80’: OMA – Alex Steinwascher replaces Noe Meza

45’: ELP – Christopher Garcia replaces Petar Petrovic

63’: ELP – Éder Borelli replaces Christopher Garcia

68’: ELP – Finnley O’Brien replaces Yuma

68’: ELP – Luis Moreno replaces Liam Rose

68’: ELP – Ricardo Zacarías replaces Josué Gómez

75’: ELP – Artem Kholod replaces Miles Lyons

Discipline Summary:

11’: yellow card to OMA Joe Gallardo

87’: yellow card to OMA Stefan Mueller

22’: yellow card to ELP Josue Gomez

49’: yellow card to ELP Louis Herrera

72’: yellow card to ELP Ricardo Zacarías

84’: yellow card to ELP Éder Borelli

Author’s Note: I finished writing this piece on the 25th of January and finished editing it on the 1st of February. It still feels overly self-indulgent, but at least one person in the last 2 months asked me about my 2023 plans and this answers that question so I’m going for it before the season starts and it is no longer relevant. Once again I want to reiterate how grateful I am for Luke for letting me explore podcasting, long-form journalism, and data-driven sports writing. I still give a hoot!

Sometime immediately after the final whistle of Union Omaha’s historic win against Minnesota United in the Open Cup my mother-in-law died for the first time. They managed to successfully revive her, but not before they’d told my wife she was dead. What followed was one of the worst nights of my life, as I dozed fitfully between updates from the hospital. Around 5:30a in the morning, after several more resuscitations, my mother in law died. My wife and I were stuck in our house with COVID at the time.

I had a complicated relationship with my mother-in-law, but soccer was something we bonded over. She was immuno-comprised and in physical decline and never made it to a Union Omaha game. The local team was not what we bonded over. But this isn’t a story about my mother-in-law and me, it’s about me and Union Omaha.

In the days after the game I managed to do an episode of Who Gives a Hoot? and it was a blessed escape from the pain that filled my heart and my house. But that was the last Union Omaha thing I had the heart and spirit to participate in. 

I gave up my tickets to the Open Cup game against KC because it was the same day as my mother-in-law’s funeral. By the time I got home from all the family activities, I’d watched us give up two goals as I followed along on ESPN+ on my phone. As the next four goals went in I spent the rest of the game joking about sitting through my second funeral of the day. 

As the season went on, I struggled to remain connected to the team in the way I had been before. I spent a lot of time asking myself why and during that reflection I came up with two distinct answers. 

One, I’d been carrying around a lot of anger and resentment toward the team for the way I was treated at the start of the pandemic and around the start of the inaugural season. I’d wanted soccer in Omaha for so long that nothing, literally nothing, was going to stop me from being a part of it as much as I could. Accordingly, I kept myself pretty close to a number of people who hurt me deeply and prevented me from achieving something I’d dreamt about for years. I came to realize as long as I was deep inside the ecosystem the fans have created around this team, I was never going to heal those wounds. I needed more distance in my life. I watched two the biggest games in club history from my couch and missing out on the camaraderie of the Cup run inserted some distance. The process of disentangling had started inadvertently but I made a choice to continue it and let myself heal. 

Two, sports are really unfair. This should not be news. But I found it very difficult in the face of a life event that felt very unfair, the passing of my mother-in-law, to be deeply emotionally invested in a team whose fate was in the hands of League One referees. This was no shower realization, this I found out the hard way. Do you remember the night of September 14th? It was a Wednesday night and the Owls were playing the Kickers; a midweek, top of the table clash at Werner Park. Dozens (hundreds?) of folks turned out expecting to watch UO reclaim its rightful place at the top of the table. 

I was so optimistic. The funk of the summer was wearing off, and I was ready to fully invest in this team again. Instead, we watched the referees hand a 90+5 penalty to the opposing team. To me this felt deeply unfair and I felt helpless. Walking to the car that night, I realized that the feelings I was consumed with were an echo, a faint one, but an echo of how I felt at the end of May when my mother-in-law passed.  I finally accepted that I needed to be less emotionally invested in Union Omaha. 

Now, I picked a good time to bail emotionally because it’s been a rough ride for UO fans since then. We went draw, loss, draw, draw, loss, playoff loss. For me I was so relieved the season was over. I started to formulate this piece in my head as a way to process my thoughts on the season and my involvement in it.

As I did this other things happened in the world. The World Cup reignited my love of soccer. Jay left the team. Joy appeared in other places in my life. And I healed. I found myself starting to think it was a good thing I got laid off because I got to spend such incredible time with my family in a way that never would have been allowed otherwise. Found myself grateful for all the things that brought me to the place I am right now. We still miss my mother-in-law, we are still processing that trauma. I especially missed her in the build up to the France-England game in the World Cup. She would have been so fired up for that game. In short, the world went on and I realized I needed to put a period at the end of the sentence here.

I am always going to root for this team. And likely they will be the team I follow most closely in the world. But the reality is, I am not in a place to offer any unique insight to the Who Gives a Hoot? media empire. I appreciate the forum that Luke et al have given me here to share my voice and to be an outlet for my passions around this team. Maybe there will be something that compels me to do something here in the future, but it seems unlikely. If you’ve read or listened to my self-indulgent dreck in the past, thank you, it meant everything to me. And if you’ve made it this far in this piece, thanks for listening to me again. Viva Buhos!

Union Omaha Begins a New Era

Union Omaha’s 2023 season begins on Sunday, and opposing side Forward Madison are one of the few elements that fans will be familiar with while taking in this opening match (though Madison will look very different from last season, but more on that later). There are so many things that are different since Omaha’s last regular season game, that we have enough to include the bullet points below:

• Jay Mims is out as manager, replaced by Dominic Casciato
• The match will be played at UNO’s Caniglia Field (not a permanent change, but a regular season first)
• Possibly more than half of our starting XI will be new faces, including potentially the entire backline

With all of the above changes, previewing a match with so many unknowns can be rather difficult. Let’s look at what we can assume from some of the bigger changes and see what we can figure out. First and foremost, new coach Dominic Casciato. Casciato’s background from El Paso Locomotive, where he was assigned as an attacking specialist, suggests he’d introduce a more up-tempo style of play. I don’t think we can necessarily assume that’s going to be true, but I think it’s likely we can assume our attacking style will be quite different. Likely gone are the days of outside backs like Damià Viader, Ryen Jiba and Ferrety Sousa flexing up in the counterattack to contribute with crosses. Instead, we’re likely to see a team that values possession, moves the ball from station to station, and focuses on the attack from the center of the field while allowing outside players to be more creative off the ball.

So, which players did we add to contribute to this style? Start at the top with Steevan Dos Santos, a forward brought in from Tampa Bay Rowdies. He’s unlike any forward that’s ever played for Union Omaha, a taller player that is more accustomed to playing as a center forward, either as a lone-attacker or part of a formation with 3 forwards. This type of player wouldn’t be accustomed to playing in the 4-4-2 formation that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from Jay Mims’ coached teams. Noe Meza is the only player returning to the squad this year that played regular minutes as a forward, and he’s surely not going to be seeing much of the bench this season. So what kind of formation do we see and how does he fit into it?

Let’s go all the way back to the backline, where there are a lot more unknowns when it comes to personnel. Omaha are replacing their five most frequently used defenders from last season, but they’re mostly being replaced by known commodities; Stefan Mueller from RGV Toros, formerly of South Georgia Tormenta, Luca Mastrantonio from FC Tucson, Alexis Souahy from New Mexico United and Junior Palacios of Miami FC. Did I just name the starting four in the back? That depends on whether or not we’re playing four at the back, but for the sake of this exercise let’s assume that we are, because it also assumes Palacios being slotted at RB, while also capable of playing as a CDM. Palacios at CDM would open up the RB position for Omaha’s lone returning defender, Shaft Brewer Jr., who excited many at the end of last season when he started seeing more of the pitch.

So if Palacios plays as a CDM in a formation with four in the back, it’s very possible it would be part of a five-player midfield. Maybe something like a 4-2-3-1 where he plays besides Conor Doyle, with Joe Brito, JP Scearce and Meza in front of him from left to right, with Dos Santos alone up top. If you take the roster page on the Union Omaha website as canon, this would mean Meza and Palacios would both be playing out of position, but this is a formation I believe their playing styles would fit in nicely. It would look something like this:

As for Forward Madison, it’s year two for manager Matt Glaeser but it might as well be year one as a significant amount of roster turnover has led to only four players from last year’s squad returning. The new players are a hodgepodge of players with varying levels of experience, and whose most recent teams spans four continents. Leading scorer Jeremiah Streng is gone, having returned to Finland after the end of his loan spell. So has exciting midfielder Matheus Cassini, who ended up with South Georgia Tormenta. However, Forward Madison did bring in Christian Chaney, Fuego FC’s leading scorer last year that ended his season scoring in five of his last seven games. He’ll possibly pair with returning Nazeem Bartman, but as he was used as both a forward and attacking-midfielder whether or not they’ll play beside each other remains to be seen.

Their defense will be much more recognizable amongst USL League One circles. Stephen Payne joins from Richmond Kickers, Timmy Mehl comes in following two separate loan stints with Chattanooga Red Wolves, and of course former Union Omaha defender Jacob Crull signed with Madison after his lone season with FC Tucson. However with New Zealand international Sam Brotherton also joining the ranks, and USL veteran Mitch Osmond starting his second season in Madison, it’s very possible that not all three of these before mentioned newcomers will see the pitch Sunday, at least as starters.

Opening matches don’t only bring with them the unpredictable, as I mentioned above, but also of course bring with them hope and excitement. That should not only give both teams additional motivation, but both sets of fans as well. Look for this game to be an emotional one, as both sides start their journey towards lifting the USL League One trophy next fall.