*Author’s Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I must state that I have an affiliation with the Omaha Parliament Supporters Group. Due to this affiliation, I will not be providing my opinion or commentary on the events involving Omaha Parliament.
At the time of initial writing, neither Union Omaha nor Omaha Parliament had made a statement regarding this incident. This story has been updated with Omaha Parliament’s official statement. Updates will continue if/when more statements are released. – Updated at 9:30 pm CT, August 4, 2024
On Saturday night during the later stages of Union Omaha’s 2-2 draw against Forward Madison, a fan was ejected from Werner Park for waiving a Palestinian flag on the stadium’s berm.
The fan, who goes by user @Deadunion402 on Twitter (X), is a five-year season ticket member and ardent supporter of the team. In a post to social media, he wrote:
“Ashamed of my club. @Union_Omaha I’ve brought the flag to multiple matches and have never been asked to leave. Kicking out a 5 year season ticket holder for standing against genocide. Dead union is debating on his future presence for the remainder of the 2024 season.”
Following the incident, members of the Omaha Parliament Supporters Group ceased drumming and chanting, and could be seen leaving the supporter’s area. This continued through the end of the match, and through the Unified Series match—an event which Parliament has supported in the past.
Sunday evening, Omaha Parliament released a statement acknowledging the 80th-minute incident and that the options given to the fan were to “put down the flag, or leave peacefully, with the latter action being taken peacefully.”
Parliament continued their statement indicating that “to our knowledge, there is currently no policy or code of conduct that was broken by the member.” Additionally, the statement reflects that this flag had been “brought through security…and had already appeared at several matches earlier in the season”.
Parliament leadership and the Union Omaha front office had conversations immediately after the incident. Those conversations continued today, while more conversations are expected during the week.
A request for a statement from Union Omaha’s front office has been acknowledged, but no statement has been issued.
The USL Fan Code of Conduct (retrieved August 4, 2024) cites: “The use of language or display of gestures, symbols, signs, or imagery that would reasonably be considered threatening, obscene, pornographic, or discriminatory in nature, including on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, ability, and/or sexual orientation.”
Additionally, Union Omaha’s policy on “Banners and Signs” says that “Fans are allowed to bring small banners and signs as long as they are not offensive and do not obstruct the view of other fans.” The team’s published Fan Code of Conduct does not specifically address flags nor expand further on the topic outside of USL’s guidance.
The flag has become a point of contention since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October 2023, but seemingly more so within the United Soccer League over the past few days.
On Saturday morning, the Northern Guard Supporters (@NGSDetroit) released a statement reporting that Detroit City FC had “agreed to comply with CBS’ request to censor supporters ahead of today’s nationally televised game.” This included the “additional restriction on displaying nation or country flags not related to the host country, the playing teams, or the players’ home countries during the broadcasted match”.
Northern Guard also cited the exposure that USL gives to the DCFC supporters as “the greatest atmosphere in U.S. Soccer,” something that is on display as DCFC were one of two teams (with Oakland Roots) chosen to feature home matches on CBS proper and one of three teams hosting twice on the CBS broadcast family (with Sacramento Republic and Colorado Switchbacks). The group found that “This move is particularly disheartening as it diminishes the opportunity for supporters to showcase the true essence of our unwavering support for the Club we love.”
It remains to be seen how the leagues and clubs will address such forms of protest going forward. What is certain is that this is not an issue that can be expected to go away lightly.
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
Union Omaha celebrates with traveling supporters and the Green Belt after a 0-1 victory at Greenville. Photo by: Katherine Rzonca / Omaha Parliament
It may have been a Battle for the Belt, but it was by no means a belter. In a slog of a game that found no real flow Union Omaha managed to pull out a 0-1 victory against Greenville Triumph on Saturday night. Marred by constant whistles, a couple of first-half injuries, and a blazing summer sun, the Búho backline stayed disciplined and helped Rashid Nuhu keep his first clean sheet since April 20 to support Pedro Dolabella’s second-half strike and ensuring all three points and the Belt would be coming back to Omaha.
Dominic Casciato seems to have found his preferred team sheet as he made no changes to either the starting XI or the bench. Given the energy and dominance shown in the last match against a Lexington side that had frustrated this same Greenville team, it made sense that he would want the same fast start and good control to help pin the Triumph back.
For Rick Wright’s league leading squad, there were three changes from the Lexington match, but none of them were purely tactical in nature. Battling injury, illness, and a red-card suspension, Greenville trotted out Carlos Anguiano (for Chapa Herrera), Tyler Polak (for Sebastian Velasquez, who still made the bench), and Brandon Fricke (for Daniel Wu). While still a capable force, the rotation provided some nervousness for the hosts on how well they would be able to deal with the Owls’ skilled midfield.
From the beginning of the match, it was apparent that skill might be having an off night. While the Owls were able to get a couple of dangerous runs early, including Lagos Kunga making it into the Triumph box off a press-induced turnover, but they were unable to do anything with it as the Greenville defense recovered well. When it wasn’t the Greenville defense doing the work, inaccurate passing and long balls would do the work for them. Several crosses or final balls would come into a dangerous area but would be just too far for anyone to get on the end of them. It would be a theme throughout the match.
This wasn’t just an issue for Omaha, though. The hosts had a hard time finding balls through the middle, but did find some success on the press. The Búho Backline always managed to recover, though. One such instance found Polak running free after taking a switched ball to get away from a clumped-up midfield. The run took him almost all the way to the box where he was able to find league-leading scorer Lyam MacKinnon. The striker turned only to find the Luca Mastrantonio had read the run and was ready to clear the danger.
The first major shift in momentum then came not because of an attack, but due to injury. During a play stoppage for a foul on PC Giro, Dion Acoff sat down on the pitch clutching the left side of his back. Though the broadcast showed no apparent contact cause for the injury, the playmaker had been treating it gingerly since an earlier spell of possession that saw him dribble past Ben Zakowski to sustain an attack. Dion was down for a couple minutes, but attempted to play through the discomfort. After running back on a Triumph break and deflecting a shot from Leo Castro into Shilo’s hands, the defender sat back down on the pitch to be replaced by Isaac Bawa after only 17 minutes.
Shortly after the substitution, the Owls would see their first really good chance at goal. A great long ball off of a free kick in the defensive half found the feet of Aáron Gomez inside the Triumph box. With the defender beaten, Gunther Rankenburg had no choice but to come out and challenge Aáron on the dribble. The forward found a trailing Joe Gallardo for what should have been a great shot at goal. However, Joe opted for accuracy and attempted to pass the ball into the far side of the goal. Fricke had good positioning to see the shot and deflect it wide for a corner, though Jaime Smith was also back in position to do his best keeper impersonation if needed. It was just another example of things being slightly off for the Omaha attack.
About this point in the match, the flow began to get severely disrupted by a flurry of whistles and yellow cards. Referee Andrew Musashe started by giving Steevan Dos Santos a card for running into Rankenburg on a 50-50 challenge that the keeper corralled into his arms and that the striker had pulled up on. After what seemed like an eternity of talking to Steevan, the ref finally pulled out a yellow card, much to the surprise of the broadcast commentators. A few minutes later Zakowski got a card for a lunging challenge on Luca. Minutes later, Aáron found his way into the book for dissent, apparently for arguing that Fricke’s challenge/elbow to the head of Steevan also warranted a booking. Any momentum that either side had started was pretty well killed by the stoppages and ongoing discussions.
On the plus side, this meant that the Owl defense was able to hold MacKinnon and the Triumph attack to mostly counters. The few times Greenville got into the attack they were either unable to get a shot off or Shido saved them easily. With no big chances the defense was holding strong.
On the down side, this also meant that there were 7 minutes of added time in the first half—time that would see yet another injury to a major piece of Omaha’s play style. Marco Milanese went down at midfield clutching his left leg after contorting his body to try to redirect a pass from Blake Malone toward one of our attackers. The wayward pass led to an attack for Greenville, which meant that Marco was down for quite a while before play was halted. The trainers worked on massaging the leg, but it would be no use to keep the defender in the match. In came Mechack Jérôme for the Owls’ second forced substitution in the first half.
The second half didn’t get much better for the attack, but a pair of early mental mistakes from Oliver Hald gifted the opener to the Owls. With no one around him, Hald took a hopeful ball from Isaac on his feet and turned to play back to his keeper. Rankenburg, not expecting the delivery, had to scramble off his line and poked the ball out to conceded a deep Omaha throw instead. From the throw in, Isaac found Steevan on the byline. With his back to the goal, Steevan played an overhead cross to six-yard box that seemed like it would be easily intercepted and cleared. However, Hald attempted to chest the ball back to his keeper, unaware that Pedro was running in to challenge the defender. The ball went too softly for Rankenburg to get to it, and Pedro was right there to fire into the net.
Omaha’s attack seemed somewhat energized by the goal for a few minutes with some quick transitions and a couple of threatening attacks coming, but it also allowed some good counter chances for Greenville. Isaac and Mechack had really good periods of play to shut them down, but by the 60’ the pressure really started to mount on the defense. The Owls, on the road and with an advantage, took the opportunity to become more compact and try to absorb anything the Triumph would throw at them.
The entire team showed all of their defensive prowess to contain the attackers, even forcing MacKinnon off as a tactical substitution in the 70’ while the hosts chased the game. Several times forward players such as Missael Rodriguez and Zeiko Lewis came back on defense and made crucial interventions to stop promising attacks. These would usually result in an Omaha counter attack that provided some threat, but mostly required Greenville to expend energy in response and help the clock tick down.
By the late stages of the game, Triumph looked completely out of options to break down a team that showed no signs of the mental lapses that plagued them in previous matches. With the away supporters clearly chanting “UNION! OMAHA!” and spurring on the team, the Owls frustrated the opposition and professionally ended the defensive slog of a match. With the final whistle, the Belt and the Table returned to where it belonged.
The Positives:
The biggest positive I can take from this game is the fact that for the first time in (seemingly) forever, the Owls kept a clean sheet. It wasn’t pretty, but it was determined and physical. In my lineup discussion show, I mentioned that this game might come down to a mental error in one of the back lines. That turned out to be the case, and while there were a few mental mistakes in the beginning—mostly centered around attempts to play out of the back and not putting enough on passes—but the majority of those were gone by the time it mattered most.
If you really look at what Greenville didn’t accomplish, it’s quite staggering considering how they performed in a 1-0 defeat to Lexington the week prior. In both cases a mistake of a goal caused the Triumph to chase an equalizer for a long time. However, where Lexington gave up 26 shots for the 88+ minutes they were resisting, Omaha only gave up 5 shots in the 41+ minutes of their resistance. This meant a full team defense, collapsing on the ball, and challenging the dribblers and passers into mistakes. Where Greenville couldn’t equalize against Lexington because of accuracy issues (3 shots on target), against Omaha they couldn’t even get a faint look at goal.
I’ve already shouted out Missael and Zeiko for their contributions—specifically Zeiko’s bullying (but legal) challenge on Hayden Anderson in the 90’+5’ to win a goal kick and pretty much seal off the game. But everyone contributed to the defensive effort tonight with Pedro and PC clogging up the middle and quickly winning back possession when needed, or Joe and Brandon pulling in to stop the passing lanes in the defensive half and keep the game from opening up.
Of special note were Isaac and Mechack, though. Isaac, in his first real minutes, got put into an unexpected scenario having to cover for Dion—and he did it without trying to be Dion. We lost Dion’s speed up the wings, but we didn’t need it. We needed a defender to make smart decisions, run up when needed, and hold down the right side in place of a man who makes so many non-scoresheet plays for us. Isaac answered that call.
Mechack also answered his call in replacing Marco. He was able to concentrate on staying back, kept his positioning well, and managed the game. We didn’t need him to be Marco, we needed him to be Mechack, and the veteran presence and decision making showed up in the most crucial of times. He even managed to out dribble a pressing striker with a calmness that made you believe he could see exactly what the Greenville man would do before it happened. I’ve criticized Mechack’s performance before, but tonight showed how valuable he can be when he’s on his game.
The Negatives:
As good as our defense was, our passing and offense was often just as bad. Thankfully, so was Greenville’s mostly. There didn’t seem to be a good rhythm between the players at all. It wasn’t completely gone, but it was just off enough to where things that normally come off (free kicks and lofted crosses) missed their mark. Sometimes, it was by the most painful of margins before opening up a threatening attack. Others, it was just sloppy play.
The free kicks, corners, and crosses didn’t come off as well as normal either. Often they were well past any attacking player or entirely too close to Rankenburg to be effective service. You can maybe point to the turf or the smaller dimensions of the field, but to do that would be just looking for an excuse. The real fact is things were just a hair off.
And that’s ok. Teams are going to have off nights with their passing and touch. At least this time it happened to be on a night where Greenville were just as off. I wouldn’t expect another gift like that against a good opponent for the rest of the season.
What’s Next:
Union Omaha continues their road trip by visiting Northern Colorado in Jägermeister Cup action on Friday, July 19. The Hailstorm leads Group 3 by 2 points with 3 matches remaining and also leads in total goals scored with 16 (4 better than Omaha). The last meeting was a 1-2 loss for the Owls in League One play while the previous Jägermeister Cup match ended 2-2 with Omaha picking up the extra point in PKs.
While the Hailstorm attack is potent, they will be without the competition’s Golden Boot leader as Bruno Rendon must serve at least a one-match suspension for getting a straight red card in their match against One Knoxville last night. Unless the League overturns the suspension on appeal, this could be a huge absence considering his scoring history against Union Omaha.
Interesting Facts:
Union Omaha lost every major offensive category on the night, except for shots, shots on target, and touches inside the opposition box. They recorded 70% passing accuracy and only 54% accuracy in the final third. Most of this disparity came in the second half where they kept only 36% possession while defending their 1-goal advantage.
The Owl defense did a great job of neutralizing Lyam MacKinnon. The Triumph striker managed only 2 shots (1 on target), significantly lower than his 4.22 shots-per-90 average. That shot on target was in the 3’ from outside the box and an easy save for Shido. He was shut down the rest of the match and limited to a total xG of 0.07.
Pedro Dolabella’s hot run continues. He’s now scored in 6 of his last 7 matches (all competitions) and 5 of his last six in League One play. He’s still two behind Lyam MacKinnon for the League One Golden Boot and three behind Bruno Rendon for the Jägermeister Cup boot.
The eight matches (all competitions) that Rashid Nuhu has played without having a clean sheet is tied for his longest stretch with the club. The last time was from August 2 to October 7, 2023—a span of 2 months and 5 days. This current stretch had gone 2 months and 23 days.
Key Events:
Greenville Triumph Yellow Card: 13’ – Evan Lee (Tactical Foul)
Union Omaha Sub: 18’ – Isaac Bawa ON; Dion Acoff OFF (Injury)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 24’ – Steevan Dos Santos (Bad Challenge)
Greenville Triumph Yellow Card: 27’ – Ben Zakowski (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 31’ – Aáron Gómez (Dissent)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 38’ – Marco Milanese (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 45’+1’ – Pedro Dolabella (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Sub: 45’ + 8’ – Mechack Jérôme ON; Marco Milanese OFF (Injury)
Steevan Dos Santos had a brace, Pedro Dolabella scored, and the Owls had a 2-0 lead inside of 20’ en route to a 2-4 victory. This time, the victim was Lexington Sporting Club in the first visit back to Toyota Stadium since a 3-0 defeat last year that sparked Omaha’s unbeaten run to the Players’ Shield. European Championship golden boot leader OG also made a couple of appearances, scoring once for each side, and Nico Brown made a second-half strike to set a scoreline that somewhat flattered the hosts’ actual performance.
Dominic Casciato made two changes to the USL 1 lineup that lost to Forward Madison two weeks ago. Steevan Dos Santos and Lagos Kunga came in up front replacing Missael Rodriguez and shifting Joe Gallardo to a winger position. This shifted the defense to form a back line of Marco Milanese, Luca Mastrantonio, and Blake Malone with regular starter Mechack Jérôme making the bench.
For the hosts, Darren Powell made two changes to his last starting XI that drew against Spokane Velocity in their last league action. Azaad Liadi took his place at the top of the 5-4-1 formation in place of Alexis Cerritos while Ebenezer Ackon started in the back line for Jorge Corrales. This was a similar lineup (with the exception of a starting Cerritos) to the side that stymied Greenville in their Jägermeister Cup match in an attempt to disrupt the high-powered Owl attack.
*Narrator Voice* That plan would not work out as intended.
From the outset, Lexington looked happy to absorb the attacks and play long through balls to either Brown or Ates Diouf. Omaha stayed on the front foot for most of this time, finding some success up the wings, but mostly keeping possession and cutting out any attempts by the Lexington attack to get in behind. It wouldn’t take long for the first warning shot to come in for the Owls, though.
In the 6’, with mounting pressure on the Lexington defense, a penetrating run by Aáron Gómez found Steevan inside the left box. Holding up play, he laid the ball back to Joe just outside the area. With the space created, Joe dribbled into the area and put a powerful and curving shot onto goal. Amal Knight’s reflexes kept the ball out, and a foul on the clearance gave Lexington a chance to breathe. Still, it was a sign of things to come.
Only a minute later the Omaha press would set up the opening goal. Off an intercepted long ball, Ackon attempted to dribble out from the Lexington third, but was held up by a physical challenge from Lagos. Working with Dion coming up to cut off any escape, Lagos poked the ball away from Ackon and started dribbling back toward the middle of the pitch. A quick give-and-go with Aáron in the middle sprang Lagos, now on the left side, to dribble into the area against a backpedaling Modesto Méndez. The crossed-up defender made a desperate challenge just as Lagos went around him and took the forward down right in front of the ref. Without hesitation, Erick Pavon pointed to the spot.
Pedro put the ball confidently into the left side of the goal as Knight guessed wrong for his team-leading 5th goal in USL 1 play.
The goal only emboldened the Owls as they continued to press and shut down anything in the midfield, with Lagos running his heart out to contribute to the controlling effort. Several times he’d put in a foot at the right moment or make a timely challenge right as an attack seemed to be brewing. This exemplified the team defense, especially from the midfielders that kept the hosts at bay. Between this type of shutdown play and the fluidity of Omaha’s passing and possession, Lexington was having a hard time dealing with the onslaught.
Then, in the 20’ for the second match in a row, Steevan would break through again.
Playing out from the back, Blake found Lagos in a ton of space up the right side. Diouf made his way over to close the space down, but Lagos’ speed coupled with some good physical play, saw the defender beaten in a dangerous crossing area. The cross came in and took a slight deflection off Ackon before finding Steevan on the far right side of the six-yard box. Using his own physicality to fend off Chinenye Uche, the Cape Verdean launched the ball from an extremely tight angle past Knight and just inside the far post.
At this point in the match, and almost right on script, the game started to open up a little bit for Lexington. The hosts managed to find more passing lanes, settled down the play, and started seeing some success from their pressing attack.
In one instance, Blake had a bad turnover in a dangerous area. Marco had sent a free kick in the defensive third over to Blake to restart play. The defender had a slight slip, which was just enough time for the pressing Liadi to take the ball off him and start toward goal. While this was a huge chance for Lexington, the Owl defense recovered immediately and PC Giro along with Luca collapsed to form a wall in front of Rashid Nuhu. Liadi was only able to get off a blocked shot, but it is still the kind of lapse we’ve seen far too often from the defense when holding a lead.
Fortunately, every time the press worked for Lexington, Omaha found a way to recover and keep the ball from troubling Shido. They also managed to stay calm and work possession to find their own scoring chances, including a big one from Steevan in the 34’.
Passing the ball around the back in an attempt to beat the Lexington press, Pedro took the ball at the edge of the defensive third and started to push up. The play in the back had pulled the defense up just enough for Steevan to be free behind the center backs, with the right back playing him on. A perfect ball over the top found Steevan’s feet with only the advancing Knight to beat. Steevan attempted a simple chip, but the Lexington keeper had stayed up just enough to get a hand on the ball and deny the attempt. It was a save worthy of at least nomination (if not winning) save of the week from the talented number 1.
But as brilliant as that save was, Knight would then give away a howler of a goal just a few seconds later. After recovering from Steevan’s attempt, Lexington attempted to play out of the back to find a lane to push the ball up. As the ball came into Knight, he took a couple of heavy touches that put the ball out to far in front of him. With Aáron and Steevan still up pressing, it was a simple matter for Aáron to nick the ball from Knight, then pass over to Steevan for what is likely going to be the easiest assist and goal the pair will see all year.
If that didn’t take the air out of the stadium the fourth goal absolutely did as the Owls were determined not to take their foot off the gas this early again. Another dangerous through ball almost found Steevan again, but the forward was pulled back on a yellow-card-inducing challenge from Uche. On the free kick, from about 30 yards out, Joe sent a ball bending down that popped up high in the air off the crossbar. As Knight dove to make a potential save and was out of the play, the battle came down to Marco and Abel Caputo jockeying on the goal line to control the ball. In the end, Caputo won out to get a head on the ball, but that header went right into the Lexington goal. Even though Marco would’ve easily tapped home without his intervention, Caputo’s OG just added another painful reminder of the hosts’ first half performance.
Though Omaha couldn’t add to the most prolific first half in the team’s history, they maintained the pressure and domination through to the halftime whistle. More attacks and shots from Lagos and company threatened to add a fifth, but Lexington survived to regroup and possibly salvage some dignity on their own field.
Coming out of the locker room, it seemed the break did good for Lexington to settle down and try to work something out. They looked better in passing and possession, although part of that was due to Union Omaha sitting back a little more and holding the 4-goal advantage. The first 15 minutes was a lot more evenly matched, and more what we would have expected from a talented, if not often disjointed, Lexington side.
The best chance for Omaha of the early second half came on a counter attack started by Pedro in the 56’. An out ball to Lagos at the center circle found him with a lot of space to run. Pulling a second defender over, Lagos poked a through ball to Steevan who was running up the right side. With only one defender to beat, Steevan attempted to take the ball on for another shot at his hat trick. However, Uche, already on a card, made a brave sliding challenge that got all of the ball and thwarted the attack.
But it wouldn’t be long before sitting back and inviting pressure would come back to haunt Union Omaha. A heavy touch from Marco forced the defender into a weak pass out of the back. Diouf was there to intercept the ball and spring Lexington on a counter in the attacking half. Diouf found Liadi all alone in the center, drawing Blake from the back side and on to the ball. Liadi touched the ball through to Cerritos, who now had a crowd of defenders around him. A simple pass to the wide open left found Brown running up in support. With nothing between him and Shido, the former Greenville standout hit the far corner of the net to pull one back for the hosts. It was the kind of defensive lapse that, while disappointing, was unfortunately not surprising.
Lexington would continue pressing for more goals and finding more space as the Owls kept playing to hold on to the now 3-goal lead. There were moments of good counter and crossing play from Omaha, but what dangerous play there was fell mostly to Lexington. A great diving save from Shido kept out an oddly-bouncing shot in one of the most threatening passages of play as the match ticked down into the late stages.
By stoppage time, with the match pretty much decided, there was still self-inflicted danger that Union Omaha had to avoid. Shido, attempting to play the ball on his feet with two attackers near him, attempted an short outlet to Luca to relieve the pressure. Quick feet from Caputo deflected the ball and allowed Diouf to find Cerritos with space at the top of the box. The striker pulled his shot wide right, but a deflection set up a Lexington corner.
The corner sequence was put out of play by Pedro leading to a long throw from Corrales. The throw made it’s way into the box and found Blake’s head for what should have been a clearance away. Unfortunately, the ball bounced off the defender’s head and looped past everyone into the far corner of the goal. OG had it’s brace, but the Owls still had their three points.
When the final whistle blew, Union Omaha found themselves second in the USL 1 table, equal on points and ahead of Forward Madison on wins, just three points off Greenville Triumph with two games in hand. For Lexington, the loss kept them in 11th place, 6 points (and -10 GD) out of playoff spots and only 1 point clear of the Wooden Spoon.
Up next, it’s Belt Week for Búho nation! The lads head off to Greenville, Belt in hand, in a top-of-the-table clash against our long-time rivals. The Triumph had an off week to prepare, but now get to think about how the Owls just destroyed a Lexington team that beat them in their previous match. It should be a good one.
The Positives:
The first half was probably the best half of soccer we’ve seen this team put together, with the possible exception of the 4-goal barrage to turn around the Charlotte match on May 17. The attacks were dangerous, the passes were cutting and creative, and the defense was able to collapse when needed to keep the momentum going. It’s not that Lexington didn’t have any chances, but the pressure forced them into so many miscues that it kept the defense from having to constantly chase Diouf and Brown.
The mentality to keep pressing for goals after going up 2-0 early also shows that they learned from the Chattanooga match. There was a bit of a let off after going up early, and Dom had mentioned the lack of “aggression” that led to the Red Wolves equalizing before half. This team was determined not to let that happen, and fully subscribed to the “best defense is a good offense” approach to keeping Lexington out of sync.
Team defending was also an extreme positive. From the defenders closing ranks to keep Blake’s turnover from really hurting to Lagos and PC working in midfield to recover the ball, the team did a lot to frustrate Lexington attackers just as it seemed they would get some momentum. I love seeing midfielders defend well because I know that leads to great counters, odd rushes, and goals. The team has embraced Dom’s philosophy of team-supportive defense, which is required when you play a pressing style with overlapping wingers.
Even in the second half, the concepts were there. Miscues happen, but the team was still trying to do the same things, just without control of the ball as much. Eventually, other teams may find a way to break through, but if you’ve done your job right, a single miscue shouldn’t affect the overall game.
The Negatives:
That is, of course, if it is only a single miscue. Both of the goals were created off of defensive lapses—specifically poor touches that allowed a press that had been mostly ineffective to create chances. We even got away with one earlier thanks to the team defending I mentioned.
Marco’s is pretty straightforward. A bad touch and and attempt to salvage it turned into a quick counter against some dangerous players. It was a moment of either lost concentration or just physical mistake. It gave Lexington something to cheer for and a little hope when they’d been rendered mostly harmless for the hour prior to that goal.
But for the second goal, I’m looking at the captain a little. I’m not going to fault Blake too much for the own goal. He beat his man, tried to head the ball away (or out) and got an unlucky bounce. That’s soccer. However, the chance was a product of play forced from an attempt to play out of the back instead of just booting the ball down the pitch and making the Lexington attack waste time in setting up again.
Shilo’s decision making didn’t cost us the game there, and his other play has been really good as he commands this back line as he has done for the past five years. It is indicative of the mental switch-offs that seem to affect each one of our players from time-to-time.
I don’t expect the team to be perfect by any means. But if you’re looking for a negative in a 4-goal performance, that’s the best I can do.
Interesting Facts:
As I mentioned, this was the most prolific goal scoring first-half in Union Omaha history. It’s also the seventh time this year the Owls have scored at least 4 goals in a match (all competitions). That is by far the most in our history, and we’re only about halfway through all our matches this year.
It seems like Steevan is a scoring machine for us this year, but his brace marked the first goal involvements in USL 1 play since scoring the winner against One Knox on April 12. He also has 3 goals in the Jägermeister Cup (2 matches) and has 5 goals in the last 4 matches (all competitions).
This is the first match this season where Pedro’s average position put him inside the center circle or in the defensive third where the attack has scored this many goals. Normally, he drives out attack and that can be seen by his advanced attacking position. Without further analytics on his average position by half, this might be because the Owls were sitting back defending the lead, but it’s still an anomaly—and a good sign that the attack is finding other avenues to threaten opponents.
Union Omaha held Lexington to 3 shots, 0 on target, and only 33% possession in the first half, while tallying 7 shots, 5 on target, and 67% possession. For the whole match Lexington only mustered 10 touches inside the box and 3 shots inside the box—only one of which (the goal) was on target).
All of the Union Omaha players wore a pink and purple band on the left wrist for this match. This was to honor 8-year-old Daleyza Ortiz Garcia, a Lexington native who was tragically killed in a car accident in late May. Pedro pointed to the wristband after scoring the opener, and Dom, in postgame comments released by the club, dedicated the win to her expressing “May she rest in peace”. Love and healing be to her family. Some things are bigger than football.
*Note: Official stats attribute yellow card to Lexington’s Azaad Liadl, but in-stadium announcement gave Pedro the card. Based on the play, a card to Pedro makes more sense. Awaiting official clarification.
Steevan Dos Santos continues showing off why he’s just as dangerous as he always was. An early brace set Union Omaha on the path to a 4-2 victory over the visiting Chattanooga Red Wolves Thursday night in Jägermeister Cup play. Ricky Ruiz and Stefan Lukic managed to draw Chattanooga level before halftime on two well-taken goals. But an unbending second half onslaught, led by Lagos Kunga and Pedro Dolabella, ensured the 3,061-strong crowd were rewarded for braving the potential bad weather to see this in person.
Coach Dominic Casciato made four changes to the side that lost to Madison last week, starting with the return of Wallis Lapsley to his Jägermeister Cup spot. Lapsley, who sat out the last Cup match against Spokane, was joined by Lagos Kunga (starting in place of Aáron Gómez) and Brandon Knapp (taking the place of Marco Milanese). Finally, Steevan Dos Santos got his first start since returning from injury, rotating the players around the formation and allowing Dion Acoff a much deserved rest week.
Scott MacKenzie countered with three changes to the team from their comeback victory against Tormenta last Saturday. The backline saw Yahir Paez and Declan Watters replace Leo Folla and Owen Green while the ever-dangerous Chevone Marsh took a seat on the bench to make way for Stefan Cvetanovic.
It appeared, pretty quickly, that those changes didn’t work out as well as MacKenzie had hoped for.
Chattanooga started the game well enough taking quite a bit of possession of the ball. Union Omaha’s press was decent enough, but the Red Wolves kept finding ways to get around the defenders and work the ball into open areas. The defense managed to hold off any chances that developed out of their possession, but it wasn’t a great sign for the first couple of minutes.
But the first sustained bit of possession for Omaha turned into the opening goal. After the Chattanooga defense headed a long free kick out for a corner, Joe Gallardo stepped up to remind the Red Wolves that conceding set pieces isn’t always the best strategy. His looping in-swinger to the back post found Steevan’s head, even with three visiting defenders positioned between him and the incoming pass. From there, the Cape Verdean directed the ball easily past TJ Bush for the 1-0 lead.
The quick goal seemed to make Chattanooga even more determined to keep the ball and find an equalizer. The visitors enjoyed another sustained spell of momentum over the next 15 minutes with the Owls unable to maintain possession or release the pressure. The Red Wolves kept finding passing and dribbling lanes through the middle to get into some good attacking positions. The final ball always seemed lacking, however, as the chances would go harmlessly out of play or into Wallis’ hands.
It was the Owls who would find and put away the next dangerous attack. After PC Giro won a free kick on the right side, just inside midfield, Joe stepped to the ball again and delivered a perfect long pass toward the back post. The ball found Blake Malone around the six-yard box who headed it back across the goal area. With the defense and keeper flooding toward Blake, Steevan was able make an unmarked run and poke the ball over the line to double the lead.
From there, Union Omaha found a lot more possession and success in attack as Chattanooga seemed a little shell shocked having given up two goals mostly against the run of play. Lanes opened up for through balls and runs, although they often were just enough off the mark to miss some huge chances. The front line and midfield started finding more success in the press with the Red Wolves finding it harder and harder to work through midfield and maintain as much of the ball as they’d enjoyed in the first 20 minutes. A couple of brilliant saves by Bush and some wide shots seemed to be the only thing keeping the game at 2-0.
The pressure even managed to get to MacKenzie, who must have felt the match was getting out of hand because he made the unusual move to make a double substitution well before the halftime whistle. The largely ineffective duo of Omar Gómez Tapia and Yahir Paez went off in the 36’ for Owen Green and the very lately available Ricky Ruiz, in his first action since suffering a concussion 13-days prior in a loss at Charlotte Independence.
Though unusual, the change seemed to be effective and it didn’t take long to prove so. Within 3 minutes, Green made a run to get in behind Blake and to the end of a long forward ball from Ualefi. The sub put a ground cross right into the path of Mayele Malango who just missed getting to it in a fortunate break for the Owls. It was a warning shot that the Red Wolves weren’t going to stay quiet.
If that warning shot wasn’t heeded, the next one would have to be. In the 40’, on a quick transition after an easily saved shot from Joe, Malango found himself in acres of space in the center of midfield. With several defenders back, the Chattanooga forward laid the ball off to Cvetanovic to enter the right side of the Omaha box. Just as it looked like he’d be stopped by six Owls congregating to the ball, he managed to just get a cut back off and into the path of a trailing Ruiz. The substitute’s shot fired almost immediately from outside the area beating all of the defenders and a diving Wallis to pull one back.
Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the end of it for the half. The game had opened up and both teams were finding some success in attack, but another banger put more life back into the visitors.
In the final minute of stoppage time, the Red Wolves found another opening after having two close range shots blocked away. Recycling the ball, Jamil Roberts found Stefan Lukic who placed an unexpected knuckling shot from the left side just past Wallis and into the right side goal. It was a well-taken punch that had Chattanooga hoping to complete the turnaround and left Omaha thankful that halftime was finally upon them.
Of course, that hope turned into disappointment a lot sooner than the visitors would have liked.
The second half started pretty evenly—for about three minutes. That’s when the Owls really started flying at the Red Wolves and pinning them back. Dominating the creative attacking play, if not fully dominating possession, Omaha started firing away at the stunned Chattanooga defense—so much that of the starting outfield players only Luca Mastrantonio and Mechack Jérôme would fail to get a shot off. Everything was running the hosts way.
So it was no surprise when Lagos finally put Union Omaha in front in the 54’. After a bit of kick around on a throw in, Joe took the ball up the right and cut inside torching Green as he did so. Dribbling up toward the box Joe found Missael running overlap to the left side of the box. Once again, Green found himself unable to win back possession as the forward’s dribble left the defender on the turf. A quick charge then beat Gustavo Fernandes and allowed a point blank shot at Bush. Bush saved that, and another quick shot, but the ball rebounded back to Missael to try to round the keeper. As two Chattanooga defenders moved up to stop the shot, Missael managed just enough of a toe on the ball to get it to Lagos. Lagos put his boot through the ball and struck the back of the net for the lead.
By this point the Owl attacks were splitting the Red Wolves wide open with great consistency. Two minutes later, Pedro Dolabella almost found the scoresheet but hit the post. Lagos and Missael found another couple of chances that easily could’ve gone in. The midfield was stepping up and cutting out every outlet and run of possession that Chattanooga could muster. When Omaha did turn the ball over, good marking and quick thinking got the ball back before any threat could manifest.
Just as it seemed that Omaha might regret missing so many chances, Pedro finally restored the two goal advantage. In the 67’, Joe’s quick feet cut the beginning of a Chattanooga run before it could get out of the attacking third. Pushing the ball up, he found Nortei Nortey running up the center. As the midfielder approached the box, the defense collapsed toward him opening Pedro up on the right side of the area. Running on to the ball, the Brazilian hit a first time shot with a much higher degree of difficulty than his earlier miss. The cross-body strike went to the far post and easily evaded Bush for the Owls’ fourth goal of the night.
This time Omaha wouldn’t sit back and allow Chattanooga the chance to equalize as they’d done in the first half. The defense stayed switched on and compact, countering well and occasionally looking for a fifth goal. They were able to take any teeth that the Red Wolves may have had in attack, and for most of the final 25 minutes it seemed the visitors wouldn’t be able to mount even the semblance of a comeback.
That is until a quick counter called Wallis into unexpected action. In the 84’, PC sent a free kick into the box that was headed away and sprang Malango up the left side on a lightning fast break. With only PC and Knapp able to rush back to defend, Malango made it all the way inside the Omaha area. With nothing left in front of him, the Chattanooga forward squared the ball to Chevone Marsh who had been trailing the play. Expecting a wide open net, Marsh tried to just pop the ball into the net. However, Wallis made an amazing recovery from his position on Malango and dove across the deny the goal. The rebound was just as dangerous with Stefan Lukic barreling down and looking for a brace of his own. But Luca made the run back step for step and put the midfielder off just enough that his strike went wide of the net, securing the two-goal lead and preserving a certain Save of the Week nomination for Wallis.
As nerve wracking as that sequence was, it would be the final major attack for the Red Wolves. Omaha continued their effective press, maintained possession very well, and held on for a professional performance to close the match out. When the final whistle sounded, the once-bogeymen from Chattanooga had fallen to the Owls for the third consecutive match.
The win put Omaha briefly at the top of Group 3 in the Jägermeister Cup standings (though Northern Colorado’s victory Saturday night returned the Hailstorm to the top spot). They extended their lead for the Wild Card slot, putting home their 12th goal of the competition, 5 goals ahead of the nearest Wild Card competitors (Charlotte Independence and Central Valley Fuego FC). After a shaky start in the tournament, the Owls find themselves in great position to make the last four with three games left in group play.
Quotes From the Match:
Lagos Kunga:
Asked about how it felt to get the go-ahead goal – “It was good…just always shout out to my team. Now that I’m back in the starting lineup…I hope we can, I can, start integrating with the team and start building that connection. And, hopefully, there’s more to come.”
On how his dribbling skills have come along this year – “I came into preseason really hot, and then I had the hammy injury, so I was out the first few games. When I tried to come back, I tried to force it way too much instead of taking my time…I had people around me who helped me and … told me take it step by step. As time went on, I started picking up my confidence again. Dribbling is my game…I love when I have the ball and if I can make something, so I always want the ball.”
Dominic Casciato:
On his thoughts on the match and the first half – “I think they’re a dangerous team, and ended up being a bit of a chaotic game in the first half. I think we lacked a little bit of aggression…I think our pressing was generally pretty good. But then we let them off the hook on too many occasions. So, in moments where we pressed well, forced them where we wanted to force them, and then just to be aggressive and take the ball from them, we didn’t do that. And that let them get into our box too many times, so that’s something we’ve definitely got to address, but I think in the second half the guys responded really well. Obviously got the two goals and ended up being pretty comfortable in the second half, but first half for sure, there are things we need to address there, we need to be more aggressive.”
On Wallis’ save – “Yeah, That was a scary one. Again…they’re dangerous, they’ve got good players, I think they’re well coached. I think first and foremost, we could probably end it a little bit earlier…it shouldn’t get to our box, but Wallis makes a great save. And I can’t remember who it was tracking back, but whoever that was did a great job to put the guy off as well for the rebound, so good team effort there to make the save. You know, we focus a lot on keeping teams out of our box, so we’ve got to do a better job there.” (Author’s Note: Luca Mastrantonio was the player who tracked back.)
On Lagos’ ball control and dribbling success – “I think, probably the goal against Kansas City probably gave Lagos a lot of confidence. He had an injury earlier in the year that I think set him back a little bit because in preseason he was absolutely on fire. And I think he’s starting to get back to that level. You’ve seen some of the goals he’s scored in recent weeks has been breathtaking, and I thought he was very good again tonight.”
On the possibility of Isaac Bawa getting a longer-term deal – “Potentially. Obviously, we’re pleased with Isaac. He’s come into the team, integrated with the group really well. He’s a hard worker, he brings what we want to see in training. You know, if he continues to perform, he’s got every chance of earning a deal. We’re pleased with him, and, hopefully, we’ll continue to help him get back to 100 percent, and hopefully he can help the team in the process.”
Next Up:
Union Omaha travels…and travels…and travels for a full month before their next home match. Opponents include Lexington SC (July 6), the Battle for the Belt against Greenville Triumph (July 13), and the return Jägermeister Cup fixture against Northern Colorado Hailstorm (July 20). The Owls finally come home on July 27 to face…the Chattanooga Red Wolves.
The Positives:
The lineup was somewhat rotated, and yet we got the same result against a Chattanooga team that has no reason to really scare us anymore. The attack was creative, the pressure was constant, and the defense was (mostly) solid. Dom pointed to the lack of aggressiveness as something to work on, but it really didn’t affect the outcome in the end. There was never a sense that the Owls wouldn’t score again, and there was almost no threat from the Red Wolves. That means that Omaha controlled the game, dictated the pace, and was able to survive the chaos that led to an equalizer after going up 2-0.
All of the players looked confident, and almost all of them took a shot at goal. When you get that many shots off, that many on target, and 14 of them came from inside the box, it means you’re working the ball well and creating position. The midfield pressed and created turnovers while also managing to get back and cut off anything that tried to go through the middle (at least after the first few minutes). It was as complete a team performance as you will see, considering two goals still went in.
The Negatives:
Two goals still went in. Yes, they were bangers, but Dom’s point about cutting things off early and stepping up in aggression has to be addressed. While it never felt like Chattanooga could hurt us for the majority of the game, the fact is that they did hurt us. Twice. On chaotic plays where someone stepping up to take the cut back option might have prevented it. You’re never going to stop every shot, but the Red Wolves got two goals on a 0.39 xG. By the end of the match, they’d raised that to 0.93 xG…and only an amazing save by Wallis kept it at two goals.
The issue is that teams are taking those chances really well against us, so any little let off is giving life to an otherwise battered and defeated opponent. That may work fine against teams like the Red Wolves, but won’t get you to the top of the table. At least not for long and definitely not deep into the playoffs.
Interesting Facts:
Union Omaha put 25 shots up against the Red Wolves. The anomaly here is that 17 of them were on target. I’m still doing the stat tracking on this, but I believe that is the highest number of shots on target in club history.
That also means that TJ Bush saved 13 of those 17 shots. I’m going out on a limb and saying that is likely a League One career high for him, and possibly a record.
Union Omaha actually LOST the possession battle in this match (49.4% – 50.6%). They also lost the passing and passing accuracy stats, but dominated in the final third passes (104 – 78) and final third accuracy (58.7% – 53.8%)…which should explain the scoreline.
The Owls only took 1 yellow card. They also were out-fouled 10-20, but didn’t look pushed around at all.
Even though this is a recap of the Thursday night match, the Unified team went to Colorado to play a return fixture against Switchbacks FC Unified on Saturday night. The Unified Owls continued their lifetime unbeaten run with a 1-4 victory after leading 0-3 at halftime. Congrats again to our athletes who continue to represent our crest so well!
Finally, the Prideraiser Event has come to an end for the year. The final tally is 14 goals raising $3,584 for Omaha For Us. To all who donated, and everyone who put in a goal, well done! (A special shout-out to Chattanooga and TJ Bush. 9 of those 14 goals were against you. Thank you!)
Key Events:
Union Omaha Goal: 4’ – Steevan Dos Santos (2nd) (A: Joe Gallardo – 1st)
Chattanooga Red Wolves Yellow Card: Stefan Cvetanovic (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Goal: 20’ – Steevan Dos Santos (3rd) (A: Blake Malone – 1st)
Chattanooga Red Wolves Yellow Card: 34’ – TJ Bush (Dissent)*
Chattanooga Red Wolves Subs: 37’ – Owen Green ON; Yahir Paez OFF – Ricky Ruiz ON; Omar Gómez Tapia OFF
Chattanooga Red Wolves Goal: 40’ – Ricky Ruiz (1st) (A: Stefan Lukic – 1st)
Chattanooga Red Wolves Goal: 45’+5’ – Stefan Lukic (1st) (A: Jamil Roberts – 1st)
Union Omaha Goal: 54’ – Lagos Kunga (2nd) (A: Missael Rodriguez – 1st)
Union Omaha Subs: 64’ – Aáron Gómez ON; Missael Rodriguez OFF – Nortei Nortey ON; Steevan Dos Santos OFF
Chattanooga Red Wolves Subs: 65’ – Chevone Marsh ON; Stevan Cvetanovich OFF 66’ – Leo Folla ON; Declan Watters OFF
Union Omaha Goal: 67’ – Pedro Dolabella (3rd) (A: Nortei Nortey – 1st)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 68’ – Pedro Dolabella (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Sub: 77’ – Isaac Bawa ON; Joe Gallardo OFF
Chattanooga Red Wolves Sub: 84’ – Leopoldo Plascencia ON; Lucas Coutinho OFF
Union Omaha Subs: 87’ – Zeiko Lewis ON; Lagos Kunga OFF – Mark Bronnik ON; Pedro Dolabella OFF
Chattanooga Red Wolves Yellow Card: 88’ – Lucas Coutinho (Bench – Dissent) *Note: TJ Bush’s Yellow Card was shown and announced on the pitch, but was not reported in post-match stats.
In a match featuring the league’s best defense against the league’s hottest offense, defense would carry the day as the Mingos defended Brees Stevens Field on Thursday night with a 2-0 victory to deny Union Omaha a return to the top of the USL League One table. Usual culprit Christian Chaney found the back of the net on a penalty and almost assisted as Wolfgang Prentice sealed the match in second half stoppage time. Meanwhile, the Owls struggled mightily to find any kind of rhythm to their attack until it was too late to break down the stalwart Madison lines.
After an explosive run against Velocity the previous week, Coach Dom named the exact same starting side to take the field in Madison. The only major changes came on the bench as Zeiko Lewis returned from his international duty with Bahamas and new signing Isaac Bawa returned to Omaha to start his 25-day contract. Fans were pleased to see Dion Acoff in starting condition, after taking some heavy challenges in the previous match.
For Matt Glaeser’s team there were three differences in the lineup that was held by Tormenta to a 0-0 draw in their last match. Former Owl Ferrety Sousa replaced another former Owl, Devin Boyce. Michael Chilaka and Juan Galindrez took over for Timmy Mehl and Nazeem Bartman, respectively, hoping to spark the offense to a better form than their last outing.
The Mingos took the opening kick, and really didn’t give it back for a long stretch of the first 15 minutes. Every time Omaha would press forward, the disciplined hosts would find a way to pass around the pressure. Sometimes this was quick passing, sometimes it was longer balls to the attacking half, but each time there seemed to be a blue shirt winning the ball. This didn’t result in too many clear cut attacks, but it did keep the Owls off the ball and pinned back—a place that they don’t really perform the best.
The best chance Madison could provide to start involved Sousa against Dion in just one of the many key battles between the wingers. Sousa dribbled up the left side and managed to avoid challenges from both Pedro Dolabella and Dion while working the ball back toward the right attacking side. The Mingos appeared to get free and forward for a chance at goal, but Marco Milanese made a great run to track back and deflect what might have been a dangerous cross out for a Madison corner. The chance went for nothing in the end, but it would be a sign of things to come for the remainder of the half.
The teams, for the most part, didn’t threaten each other too badly at this point in the match. Omaha started growing into possession, but found Madison gumming up the middle of the park and making it difficult for the Owls to get any attacking momentum. On the other side, the Mingos probed the attacking channels, but each time they’d start a run the defense would collapse in and cut out any danger.
That is until the 17’ when Madison would make their first significant threat on Rashid Nuhu’s goal. Chaney received an outlet pass from the back just outside the attacking third. With his back to Luca Mastrantonio and unable to turn the defender, Chaney used an acrobatic diving kick to poke the ball forward onto Derek Gebhard’s run up the right side. With Luca peeling off to help Marco seal off Gebhard, Chaney was able to sneak in a run to the top of the box. Gebhard cut the ball back to the wide open forward who got a little to much under the ball and skied it over for a goal kick. While it didn’t force Shido into a save, it was a moment of danger that the defense was glad didn’t hurt them.
The next 15 minutes was more of the same as Madison continued probing, although the defense seemed not to let the earlier chance get to them. Omaha wouldn’t let anything pass through the midfield, but the Mingos started finding some openings by luring the backline up then sending runners for over the top balls. These would still usually get cut out by the Búho Backline, but the long passes back out to start a counter attack were won by Madison as neither could find a really good line of attack.
Finally, in the 34’, the Owls would start getting good looks at goal. After a good run up the middle, Pedro threaded a through ball to Missael Rodriguez making a run past his defender. As the Chicago Fire loanee got to the middle of the box, he let off Union Omaha’s first shot of the evening. It was mishit, and well wide of the mark, but it at least showed a flash that Omaha might be able to break down the stingy Mingo defense.
Then two minutes later and following a turnover in the attacking third, Marco pressed the Madison defense to regain control of the ball and ultimately win a corner kick. From the left side, Joe Gallardo put a curling in-swinger right onto Luca’s head. The Italian’s flick beat Bernd Schipmann at the far corner, but failed to beat the crossbar as the ball clanged unluckily away.
It wouldn’t take too much longer for Lady Luck’s full betrayal to take the form of an unfortunate, yet correct, penalty decision. With Marco being pressed near the Owls’ byline, the defender’s clearance went only as far as Stephen Payne, still in the attacking third. The midfielder had no one around him and was able to loft a ball meant for Chaney waiting at the penalty spot. Dion was in perfect position to intercept the pass, but he whiffed on the clearance. The ball bounced around off Chaney who managed to poke it toward goal, where an outstretched hand kept the ball off target. Sadly, that hand was Dion’s, resulting in a penalty kick and a massive protest that saw PC get a yellow card for dissent. The Mingo forward took his own penalty kick and sent Shido the wrong way for a 1-0 lead to the hosts.
The rest of the half was marred by frustration and sloppy play from the Owls as they tried anything they could to turn the momentum back in their direction. Peak to that frustration was a very bad sliding challenge from Joe on Jimmie Villalobos threatened to make things even worse before the half. Referee Atahan Yaya only saw it as a yellow card, to the massive displeasure of the Mingo faithful, but very much to the relief of Omaha to only be down a goal, and not also a man.
To start the second half, Dom brought on Steevan Dos Santos and Lagos Kunga for the largely ineffective Aáron Gomez and carded Joe. Between the substitutions and the halftime talk, the Omaha attack was almost completely turned around. Madison, seemingly content to let the Owls fly at them, found themselves in the same position that Omaha had been in the first half. Lanes started to open up on the right side and in the middle as Lagos’ dribbling and Steevan’s hold-up play began to look like the team that we saw the past two weeks.
While the possession and attacking looked better, it wasn’t until the 63’ that Omaha’s first really good chance on goal would manifest. Lagos managed to work his way to the attacking third where he faced two Mingos waiting to challenge. Instead of taking them on, he found PC running open across the middle in an attempt to switch play. PC took the ball and, fighting off a physical challenge from behind by Chaney, played the ball out to Marco on the left side. Marco took the ball in toward the box and was able to beat Payne off the dribble. With the defense collapsing toward him, Marco placed a perfect cross to Steevan waiting at the back post. It surely would have been the equalizer had Schipmann not showed some top class reaction to swat the ball away from the line just before it crossed over. Though there were pleas from the Owls that the ball had crossed the line, Yaya would hear none of it and the shot would go down as a great save by the Madison keeper.
The attacks would continue as Omaha had the much larger share of threatening possession throughout the second half. Madison seemed content to play counter, and while they had a couple of good chances, the feeling was that eventually their lines would break and an equalizer was coming.
Lagos’ runs penetrated the defense and often won corners or crosses into the area. The forwards started finding success on the press, with one midfield turnover falling to Luca. He quickly fed Marco on the attack who released Missael forward with his through ball. Missael’s cross to Steevan should have been a problem for the Mingos, but the striker returned Chaney’s favor from the first half and blasted the ball over the bar from about six yards out.
Even though the fight and attack looked like it would break through at any moment, it was Madison who would find the net and seal away the three points late. In the 90’+5’, a chaotic bit of play in midfield saw Chaney come away with the ball and start pushing forward. Mechack Jérôme stepped up to challenge the forward, but Chaney toe poked the ball past him and ran around on it like the defender was standing still. Dion was able to track back and get in front of Chaney, but the ball bounced off his foot and found Wolfgang Prentiss—unmarked after Dion had left him to pick up Chaney’s run. The Oakland Roots loanee, who had seen a chance from a similar position go wide earlier, didn’t miss this time beating Shido and putting the game away at 2-0.
With the win, Madison leapt over Union Omaha and into second place tied on points with table-topping Greenville Triumph (on wins). The Owls are three points back of the top, but with two games in hand on Greenville and one on the Mingos. Their next match is on Thursday, 27 June at Werner Park against Chattanooga Red Wolves in a Jägermeister Cup clash. It’s also Cancer Awareness Night, and we’re promised a commemorative purple kit that will be up for auction.
With any luck, we’ll also see them put some goals in as well.
The Negatives
I’m switching it up this week because I really do want to end a frustrating match week on a positive note. To do that, we have to get through the negative first—and by that I mean the whole first half.
I mentioned to some other League One media types that I didn’t recognize this team in the first 45’ of the match. I also don’t have to talk to Dom to know that it was well below the standards and expectations this team has for themselves. Whether it was due to Madison executing their gameplan, or us not executing ours well, the Owls found themselves in the position that tends to vex them most—when they can’t get possession out of their half and press up. Many times it was a bad touch, or a wayward pass more than it was an interception or good pressing. Madison did have a habit of winning more of the 50/50 balls, but even when we did get a ball, the receiver couldn’t seem to bring it down cleanly—either through a poor touch or the pass having too much on it to control. There were several times early that a potential attack was snuffed out because by the time the ball got under control defenders had swarmed to it.
And as this built up, the frustration built up with it. Defenders would get beat and resort to blatant fouls or shirt pulls (as what got Luca his yellow card in the 23’). Dissent to the referee got louder and ended up costing PC a yellow card as well. Joe’s yellow card late on was a terrible challenge that seemed borne out of that frustration more than any real attempt to get the ball. And while I will say that this should have gone both ways (Chaney’s bull rush at kickoff after his goal comes to mind), the only thing the players can control is themselves, and it seems very easy to frustrate them at the moment.
In honesty, halftime didn’t come soon enough and probably saved the match from getting out of hand. This is a rivalry match, no matter what the fans may think, especially given the league position and the meanings behind some of the matches recently. And Brees Stevens is not a hospitable environment for any visiting teams, much less an actual rival. When you start to lose your mentality, let the frustration get to you, and let the body language show it, you’re digging a hole that isn’t easy to get out of. And last night, they found themselves too deep in Mingo to recover.
Now for some statistical negatives. I’ve said before that as Pedro’s positioning goes, so tends to go the attack. While he finished the match just inside the attacking half on the right side, a lot of that came in the second half after Lagos and Steevan subbing on woke up the attack. Part of the reason he couldn’t get forward, however, can be found in the touches from our front three.
Aáron and Joe had 8 and 14 touches for the entirety of the first half. Missael only managed 17 in 84 minutes. The only one lower than them was Zeiko Lewis who had 9 touches in the 17 minutes he got to play. The inability to get the front three involved severely stifled this attack, and is a concern going forward. If teams figure out how to stand them up and take them out of the game, it’s going to be hard for Omaha to win. Especially when the only two shots on goal the defense gives up go in.
The Positives
Ok. Now that’s out of the system, there are some positives to take from this. First off, this easily could have been a 0-0 draw. The team defense concept remains stout, and it took an unfortunate bounce to hand Madison the lead in the first half. The second goal came as a direct result of the team pressing too hard for an equalizer (as well as a bit of a mistake from Mechack allowing Chaney by him so easily). Against a team like the Mingos, that would’ve been a really good result on the road, and should give the team confidence going forward—if they can keep the mental mistakes at bay.
The second half attack was almost unstoppable. Once again, Lagos sparked the majority of the motion forward and took the pressure off Dion on the right side. Steevan’s veteran presence and energy helped as well, but it was the younger forward that kept pushing and pushing. His dribbling once again got the ball in dangerous areas that had Mingos scrambling to defend. His average position was slightly right of center but in the attacking third. Only Steevan and Missael logged more advanced average positions. He literally took the game on his shoulders and rallied the troops to some very good chances to equalize, or even go ahead. If it weren’t for a couple of desperate tackles and the amazing Mr. Schipmann, this game could have ended completely differently.
If only that energy had been there from the beginning.
The Unified Team played against Forward Madison’s Unified Team following the match. In true fighting spirit, and avenging the first team’s display from earlier, the Unified Owls won by a final scoreline of 4-0. This continues a run of form that has never dipped in competition. Though I’m still waiting to confirm this, I believe this makes the Unified team undefeated across all seasons. Win or lose, though, this team continues to be a source of pride for the club, the fans, the community, and athletes everywhere. Well done, Owls!
Interesting Facts:
This was the first time since July 22 last year that Union Omaha has lost by more than one goal. That was also an away game at Lexington that ended 3-0 to the hosts. Of course, we all know what happened after that match…
This was also the first time in 14 matches against Forward Madison that either side has won by more than one goal, and the first time since 2021 that the first match of the season between the two wasn’t a draw. Rivals or not, they always play close with the Owls still holding a 4-3-6 (W-L-D) advantage in the series.
This is the second match in a row where Omaha’s opponents scored on every shot taken on target. To my knowledge, that has never happened to this team before, but I am still researching that.
Union Omaha is still second in the league with Yellow Cards (28 to Tormenta’s 29), but no player on the team has accumulated more than 4 (Joe Gallardo).
Key Events:
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 23’ – Luca Mastrantonio (Shirt Pull)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 39’ – PC Giro (Dissent)
Forward Madison Goal: 40’ – Christian Chaney (4th) (Penalty) 1-0
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 42’ – Joe Gallardo (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Subs: 46’ – Steevan Dos Santos ON; Aáron Gómez OFF – Lagos Kunga ON; Joe Gallardo OFF
Forward Madison Sub: 70’ – Devin Boyce ON; Juan Galindrez OFF
Union Omaha Sub: 80’ – Zeiko Lewis ON; Missael Rodriguez OFF
Forward Madison Subs: 80’ – Wolfgang Prentice ON; Ferrety Sousa OFF – John Murphy ON; Aiden Mesias OFF
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 83’ – Blake Malone (Bad Challenge)
Forward Madison Yellow Card: 84’ – John Murphy (Hard Challenge)
Forward Madison Sub: 87’ – Cherif Dieye ON; Derek Gebhard OFF
Forward Madison Goal: 90’+5’ – Wolfgang Prentice (1st) (Unassisted)
Forward Madison Yellow Card: 90’+7’ – Wolfgang Prentice (Removing Shirt Celebration)
He’s starting to become inevitable. Pedro Dolabella scored in his third consecutive match (and fifth out of his last seven) to help lead Union Omaha to a 4-1 victory against Spokane Velocity at Werner Park on Thursday night. The return match in the Jägermeister Cup saw four different goal scorers, with Missael Rodriguez, Lagos Kunga, and Steevan Dos Santos all returning to the scoresheet. Though the Owls were able to avenge the loss in Spokane a few weeks ago, Luis Gil still managed to tally the lone goal for the overmatched visitors.
Having finally gotten a few days to breathe, and with the fixtures coming at a weekly pace for the foreseeable future, Coach Dom put out his strongest starting lineup for the Jägermeister Cup yet. Notably, Wallis Lapsley was on the bench in place of Rashid Nuhu, and Missael Rodriguez made his return from suspension to take his place back at the top of the formation. PC also got the start with the team confirming earlier that things were not as serious as originally believed after his subbing off against Chattanooga.
Spokane Coach Leigh Veidman put out a slightly different side from those that defeated Omaha in their last meeting. Having not scored a goal since that match (a loss to Madison and a draw/PK loss to Greenville) Josh Dolling got the start up front with Javier Martin Gil and Massango Akale looking to spark the offense. This was especially important with the continued injury absence of defender/playmaker Romain Métanire, who had proved a huge thorn in the Owls’ side in the previous meeting.
The changes definitely seemed to work in Omaha’s favor from the beginning of the game. The hosts held majority of possession, attacking momentum, and creativity as Spokane seemed to pin themselves back in a counter-attacking posture. As is typical of late, the Owls didn’t find a whole lot of great chances on goal, but their attacks centered around running up the wings and trying to spread the disciplined Velocity defense for future attacks.
Much of this was focused on Dion Acoff, the unsung but critical piece of Casciato’s attack plans early. He set the tone early with several great runs, crosses, and a dribbling ability that forced multiple defenders to come out and deal with the problems he posed. Marco Milanese would do the same on the left side, but Dion’s abilities on his side would open up the match, even if he didn’t make it onto the scoresheet.
The early pressure finally led to a couple of good chances after 13’, when Omaha found a good passage of play in the middle of the pitch. With some good pressure and midfield defending, Joe Gallardo picked up a wayward pass in the offensive half and immediately pushed forward. A quick pass to Missael opened up a good opportunity to find Pedro inside the box. The pass was slightly behind Pedro, and the Brazilian’s touch let him down slightly to give Spokane a chance to clear their lines. However, before Andre Lewis could even get started, PC provided a good intervention to keep the ball in the attacking third. Missael picked the ball up from there and the scrambling Lewis clattered into him causing a free kick in a threatening position.
PC’s shot from there would cause Carlos Merancio to make an incredible leaping save to keep the match scoreless, however, the pressure and midfield defensive control set the stage for how the match would proceed.
That pressure paid off in the 17’ as a midfield recovery in the defensive half launched a quick attack to open the scoring. With possession lost on a deflected pass, PC and Missael’s double team on Collin Fernandez recovered the ball and started the attack forward. Pedro pushed up toward midfield and tried a pass to the right wing that saw him fall awkwardly and not put quite enough to get the ball out wide. That didn’t matter to Dion who turned on his jets and beat Ariel Mbumba to the ball. With space on the right side, Dion pushed up and lofted a cross-maybe-shot to the back post. Literally to the back post, as the ball hit the woodwork and bounced perfectly for an unmarked Missael about 8-yards out. Taking only one touch to settle the rebound, the Fire loanee struck true, opening the scoring and adding to his team lead for goals in this competition.
Dion may not have gotten credit for the assist on the goal, but his work not only set up the score, it kept going through the rest of the game. On several occasions Dion set up great chances from the right side, taking on multiple defenders and usually getting the better of them, especially Derek Waldeck. Velocity’s defensive stalwart had a hard time containing play on the right side, and it led to a period of possession that didn’t result in any goals, but kept the foot on the gas against an already stressed Spokane defense.
Unfortunately, as Dom often laments, a momentary mental lapse would bring Velocity back into the match. Following a rare attacking chance for Spokane that resulted in a corner, Blake Malone committed a foul right in front of referee Jose Lara that couldn’t not be called. As the corner floated in harmlessly toward Shido, Blake lost marking on Marcelo Lage and reached out with a jersey pull to try to slow him down. The pull forced Lage down, and Lara immediately blew his whistle. The result was a yellow card for Blake and a penalty kick for Spokane.
Luis Gil took the penalty, and though Shido guessed correctly, the former Owl put the ball perfectly into the bottom left corner and past the keeper’s outstretched glove. Once again, the veteran scored against Omaha, but to his credit, the celebration was subdued and classy, especially considering the morale boost the equalizer should have given Spokane.
The goal against the run of momentum did spur Velocity to more attacking possession and momentum as the half drew to a close. Omaha maintained a mostly disciplined defense, but the pressure continued to mount as Spokane found more space in the midfield and on the wings to generate attacks. That didn’t render the Owls completely talon-less, specifically with a good defensive effort setting up Joe for a just-missed counter attack, but Velocity seemed to be on the front foot and trying to put down the accelerator even more.
They almost found their break when Blake again made a dangerous decision in defense. With the referee playing advantage off a badly timed sliding challenge by PC, Josh Dolling threaded a great through ball meant for Gil. Blake was beaten on the play, but a flailed arm seemed to catch Gil as he started to break away for the ball. Gil went down near the edge of the area, but Lara was surprisingly not interested. Protests ensued both on the pitch and off with Veidman getting a yellow card for his dissent.
Counting themselves lucky for the no-call, even more relief came in the form of the referee’s halftime whistle. The Owls had dominated most of the half, but with an unlikely equalizer and Velocity’s attack mounting, the break seemed to be the only thing that would settle the team and get them back on their game.
But the second half started about the way the first half ended. Spokane was mostly on the attack, with a lot of good possession, though they didn’t manage to generate a whole lot of good attacks. The play for both sides got a little sloppier in the midfield, as much due to Omaha attempting to relieve pressure and get a quick counter as Velocity attempting to press their advantage into something tangible.
The best chance for that something would come in the 59’ as the visitors were able to find some room in the midfield after intercepting a long forward ball from Mechack Jerôme. Through some crisp passing to get into the attacking third, Lewis found Mbumba with a through ball up the right side. Taking his defender to the byline, Mbumba found a cutback pass that was Blake’s Toe away from setting up Dolling for a go-ahead goal. The defender’s touch did just enough to put the ball off target and into Shido’s hands.
That wake-up call was all the Owls needed to get back on the offensive and take the match over. Within minutes Omaha started the kind of pressure that they’d displayed for most of the first half. They were able to cause chaos in the Spokane defense, eventually forcing Lage into a bad challenge that earned the defender a yellow card of his own. Multiple attacks and corners came in a short period that sent Velocity reeling.
It was such a sequence that finally saw Omaha go ahead on Pedro’s goal in the 63’. After Joe’s free kick caromed off the Velocity wall (and still barely missed) for a corner, PC was able to pick out a free-roaming Pedro for a headed attempt at goal. That attempt was deflected wide by a defender setting up another chance off the corner. PC decided what worked before would be best, and he placed a perfect ball into the middle of the six-yard box for Pedro again. This time the Mayor wouldn’t miss, leaping highest and directing a powered header past a helpless Merancio for a 2-1 lead.
From there Spokane would only mount some counter chances that good team defending would end up cutting each of those opportunities out. On the hosts’ side, chance after chance would mount with improved passing, some substitutions and fresh legs, and a few insane dribbles that delighted the crowd, frustrated the defense, and provided the slight smell of nutmeg to the Werner Park atmosphere.
Add that to the smell of burnt defender, and you get the circumstances that led up to the Owls’ third goal. With Steevan (freshly returned from injury) pressing Lage, the Velocity defender put his pass right onto his boot to start a counter attack in the offensive half. Lagos Kunga, on for Blake, had already started running forward and got on the end of Steevan’s through ball. With only Fernandez back, the super sub took him on and poked the ball through his legs and ran in on goal. With the smoke from the defender still fresh in his nose, Lagos fired toward the far side of the net. Though Merancio was able to get a hand to it, it wouldn’t be enough to stop the shot, nor even more smoke from the celebrating fans.
With a 3-1 lead, the final 15 minutes (including 7 minutes of stoppage time) belonged mostly to Spokane as they redoubled their efforts to grab something out of the visitor’s nightmare of a match. But as before, Omaha would not bow to the pressure with continued compact defense. There were a couple of good chances that Velocity missed, including a chaotic chance following a shot off the post that Joe failed to clear and almost fell to Martin Gil to put away. Thankfully, the bounces went in favor of the Owls and Spokane never capitalized.
But as every goal matters in the Jäger Cup, Omaha wouldn’t be completely content just to sit back and defend. Shortly after Mark Bronnik came an inch and a VAR away from his first goal, Steevan would reassert himself on the list of Owl scorers.
Velocity would press high in an attempt to get a turnover, but the Búho Backline was doing a great job of keeping possession and controlling the tempo. Luca Mastrantonio would notice that high line and send a ball forward that allowed Steevan to move past his defender, but also bounced in the perfect spot to keep Merancio from being able to come out and sweep the ball. Using his physicality to shield the defender off the ball, the Cape Verdean striker took possession and dribbled into the Spokane box. Feeling that he was about to get beaten, Cameron Miller pulled Steevan down drawing a whistle, a yellow card, and returning the penalty favor from the first half.
Steevan took the penalty himself and left no doubt about it. His no nonsense straight run and shot sent Merancio the wrong way and left Union Omaha celebrating their first ever Jägermeister Cup victory.
The win puts Union Omaha in second place in the West group, 2 points behind Northern Colorado Hailstorm. The 4-goal explosion, however, puts the Owls in the wildcard spot with 8 goals scored across the 4 matches.
The Positives
Pedro got the man of the match with his goal, but the true hero of this game was the defense—including Dion Acoff. I’ll get to some interesting stats for the rest of the defense in a bit, but Dion epitomized the idea that the best defense is a good offense all night. Some examples:
10 dribbles, 5 of them successful (led team), 2/2 tackles won, 2 possession won, 11 of his 24 passes were in the final third (including 5 crosses), and one assist—at least in our heart.
Dion’s ability to wreck the right side of Velocity’s defense was critical in opening up the rest of the pitch for exploitation. His speed let him get back in defense when required and kept our backline from facing overloads when Spokane was able to counter. Not to mention, he almost single handedly created the opening goal with his effort to beat Mbumba to the ball. Pedro is getting the glory, and he deserves it, but Dion is everything that is right with this system and the unsung heroes that enable it.
Of course the goals are always a positive, doubly so when they mean money for the Prideraiser. But focusing on Steevan Dos Santos’ return to the lineup and getting on the scoresheet is a big plus.
Omaha has proven they don’t NEED him to score. That doesn’t mean he isn’t wanted out there, and given the way his injury looked it’s a blessing that he’s been able to come back to the lineup so quickly. He played 30+ minutes in this one and didn’t look too behind the curve. He’s not a speedster, but his ability to hold off defenders, make good decisions, and strike when necessary are a good sign going forward. That it resulted in an assist (on Lagos’ goal) and a goal of his own is icing on the cake.
Besides that, PC’s quick return from what looked like a possible concussion is welcome, especially as he provided the assist on Pedro’s goal. He’s fitting in very well in the midfield as this team hits its stride, but it also puts us at full strength for the first time since his injury earlier this year. With the only piece missing being Zeiko Lewis (international duty), we should start seeing the team get more and more in sync as the minutes together rack up—that should scare some folks.
The Negatives
Almost every match, Dominic Casciato mentions mental mistakes that lead to goals for the opponent. This match was no exception. A panic by Blake led to the first penalty, his yellow card, and perhaps should have led to a second penalty that would have likely seen the young defender sent off in the first half
He’s not the only one who had some mental lapses, and it’ll seem a bit unfair to single these out considering he had a very solid game otherwise. But this is a prime example of what Dom is talking about.
In a match where, despite 50/50 possession, Union Omaha held Velocity to only 5 shots, 1 on target (the PK), and 0 shots through the biggest onslaught of possession the visitors could muster in the second half, those mental mistakes could have changed the tone and course of the entire match. In fact, I don’t see the Owls winning this match had they been down a goal and a man entering the second half.
In the end, the mistakes didn’t cost us, but if there’s any negative to take away from a 4-1 victory at home, it’s that.
The Rant
ESPN+ has got to do a better job on these broadcasts. Regardless of what people out there think, the independent media folks who cover this league don’t often get paid to do so. I’m not complaining about that…at least not here. But it does mean that many of us have day jobs that dictate how and when we’re able to provide coverage of the teams we love.
In this particular case, I’ve had to cover the last couple of weeks from a hotel in San Antonio where my day job decided I needed to be. Generally, this is no issue considering ESPN+ is good about having all of the matches, and providing them On Demand post match.
But…
The last few weeks, all of the USL League One/Jägermeister Cup matches have been plagued with broadcast issues. And this isn’t the broadcasters this time (the specific one for the Spokane match was pretty good). It’s the black screens. It’s the freezing video feeds. It’s the glitches that make us miss important changes in possession and sometimes the key passes that lead to goals. And when the feed glitches, 90% of the time it seems the replay glitches as well (if they are even able to show the replay).
What’s worse is that as frustrating as it is for the media types who can’t make it to see the game live, it’s even more frustrating for the true targets of the broadcast—the away and neutral fans.
With clubs having different broadcast deals (if any) for the away games ESPN+ is often the only way to watch when your team is on the road. It’s better than Golazo and CBS in that it actually gives an On Demand option, but that’s the end of it. A company as large as ESPN, with the assets of Disney behind it, doesn’t necessarily care about lower league soccer—I get that. But anything worth doing is worth doing well, if nothing else, for the fans.
To temper the rant a bit, I do understand that team infrastructure is sometimes the problem. We’ve all struggled through the crappy camera angles at some stadiums, the bad connectivity, the sound issues—that’s not all on ESPN. But the product reflects on ESPN, so it seems it would be in their best interest to work with clubs to help find a solution.
That is, of course, if they actually want to continue broadcasting these games. Business decisions are at the forefront of all of this, after all, often regardless of the impact to fans.
Interesting Facts:
Union Omaha loves stoppage time. This is the third match in a row where the Owls have scored a goal in stoppage time (first or second half). There have been six matches this year (all competitions) with a goal in one of the stoppage times, with Omaha scoring 7 goals in that time. 5 of those have been in second half stoppage time.
Pedro’s goal was his sixth across all competitions this year. He had six in all competitions for Union Omaha last year. He currently holds sixth place on the Owls’ all-time goals list with 12 across all competitions (2 behind Greg Hurst).
Speaking of all-time goal scorers, Steevan Dos Santos’ penalty puts him one goal in all competitions behind number 3 scorer JP Scearce (17 goals) it should be noted that JP needed 109 appearances to reach his number—Steevan has had 36.
None of the aforementioned are even close to Evan Conway’s goal rate. The Owls’ number 2 all-time scorer took 34 appearances to net 19 goals (a .56 pace), and second on total only to Noe Meza (23). However, Missael Rodriguez’ 7 goals in 12 appearances sets a .58 pace – the best for any Union Omaha player with at least 10 appearances ever.
Finally, this is the fifth time this year that Union Omaha has scored 4+ goals (all competitions). The last time they did that in a year was 2021. And yes…South Georgia Tormenta has been on the receiving end of a couple of those. (Happy Father’s Day!)
Key Events:
Union Omaha Goal: 17’ – Missael Rodriguez (4th) (Unassisted)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 32’ – Blake Malone (Bad Challenge)
Spokane Velocity Goal: 33’ – Luis Gil (2nd) (Penalty)
In a very scrappy, and occasionally boiling affair, the Owls went into the Den (also known as the C-H-I Memorial Stadium…) at Chattanooga Wednesday night and brought out a 2-5 victory to place themselves at the top of the USL League One table. Any Red Wolf enthusiasm that might have been felt after the weekend’s victory over Greenville was completely dashed as Pedro Dolabella scored one and set up another to lead the five-goal onslaught. Declan Watters and Chevone Marsh would score to set up some consolation, but the night, once again, belonged to the visitors.
Shoutout to the guy with the Union Omaha Scarf folded so those Volt eyes could stare at Omar Hernandez. Get in their heads! (Image Credit – Screen capture from ESPN+ broadcast. Copyrights ESPN and USL League One)
Union Omaha came out with an altered shape, as well as two changes from the team that lost to Northern Colorado last Saturday night. With playmaker Missael Rodriguez suspended, Coach Casciato opted to bring in Luca Mastrantonio to bolster the back line with PC making his first start back from injury in midfield. Lagos Kunga was left off the pitch, but made the bench as a super sub option.
Scott MacKenzie took the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fiddle with it” approach naming an unchanged side to a team that, despite the injuries, gave itself some hope with a 1-3 victory at the weekend.
The opening of the match saw a pretty familiar story. Omaha would dominate possession early, with some good passing and interplay against a Chattanooga that seemed content to sit back. The visitors had some good passages of play and controlled the ball, but as happens so often, weren’t able to create much out of it.
The hosts, on the other hand, were all to ready to stay coiled and strike. In the 4’, and playing out of the back, Stefan Lukic dribbled past the entire Owl midfield into the the attacking third. With defenders coming over to stop his progress, Lukic found Marsh cutting just inside Blake Malone toward the box. Blake made a good challenge to halt initial progress, but whiffed on the clearance and allowed Marsh to get back on the ball inside the box. While Mechack Jerôme would eventually come over and help wrangle the Red Wolf striker, it showed pretty quickly that this team could be dangerous if given the right circumstances.
After clearing that corner, Union Omaha would start tightening their grip on the first stags of the match. They continued to push up the right side, with Dion Acoff being as big a thorn in their sides as anything. Several runs, crosses, and won corners kept Chattanooga under pressure, even if few quality shots came with it. Conversely, the defense had shored itself up and was compact, disciplined, and very quick in reaction. As the clock struck 15’, the Red Wolves seemed to be missing those huge teeth.
And that’s when the Owls’ talons first hit home. Trying to control play through the midfield, Nortei Nortey sent a pass toward the middle of the attacking third to Aáron Gómez. With a defender on him, Aáron sent a flick of the ball on over the top of the encroaching back line. With their movement forward, Pedro’s run easily outpaced all of the defenders to the ball just outside the penalty area. Striding forward, the midfielder placed the ball perfectly between TJ Bush’s legs and into the far corner of the net for the lead.
It wouldn’t take long to show that the hosts weren’t as harmless as it had seemed. Not even four minutes after Pedro’s goal, the Red Wolves were awarded a free kick for Nortei making a slight pull on Leopoldo Placencia, and with Chattanooga seemingly having an advantage. Ricky Ruiz’ delivery was initially headed clear by Pedro but picked up by Owen Green on the right side. His cross then found Gustavo Fernandes at the back post who headed it back across the goal mouth. Slightly fooled by the ball, and with Leo Folla-all over him, Rashid Nuhu had no chance to react to Declan Watters’ blast into the roof of the net. It was one of those crazy moments that not much can be done about, especially as the score had already ticked over to read 1-1.
From there, Omaha would go back into dominating the majority of possession and making good chances happen. They continued their passing game which was doing very well to break down the Red Wolf defense while also piling up the interceptions to stop any more nonsense from in front of Shido. Their work would not take too long to pay off with a rapid 1-2 punch to take full control of the match.
With 27 minutes gone, Dion started yet another attack up the Red Wolf right flank. He found some good interplay with Joe Gallardo, who probably should have been awarded a free kick with a yellow card against Fernandes’ slide-from-behind method of defending. The ref played the game on, however, and karma did the rest after Dion won a corner down that side.
PC’s delivery was a nice high in-swinger just inside the front post side of the six-yard box. From there, Blake Malone leapt over everyone else to get his head to the ball and on target. Bush could only stand there and watch as, yet again, the ball went into his far corner.
Chattanooga would barely have any possession, much less a chance to respond, by the time the next goal went in. Joe Gallardo, taking a free kick from the left just outside the area, skimmed a shot that looked more like a low pass than an attempt on target. The quick skimming ball crossed up Bush, though, and for the third time he found himself picking the ball up out of the net.
The excitement of the half wasn’t quite over, though. After pinning the Red Wolves back again, Dion would play in Pedro with a great chance on goal. This time Bush would be up to the challenge, but it continued the theme of what had been a brutal first half for the hosts. Despite two great efforts from Mayele Malango (one off the crossbar, the other saved well by Shido), Chattanooga was ready to get to the locker room and try to regroup.
The second half saw Union Omaha take more control of the match, but by ceding most of the possession. With a two-goal advantage, and a Chattanooga attack that had been stifled for most of the match, the Owls elected to sit back and allow play to come to them. Through the first 10 minutes, only one good attack could be mustered while the defense weathered an intensifying wave of chances.
Even with the pressure mounting, Omaha was able to stand its ground well. Quick and accurate passes played between the back and midfield kept the opposing strikers off balance and unable to stop clearances. Gaps were closed quickly, and physicality started to match the intensity of the attackers. Though not much was being generated on either side, the match grew entertaining, if not a bit scrappy.
The lid finally blew off in the 62’. After waiting a frustratingly long time for PC to deliver a corner kick (thanks to the ref having multiple conversations with players in front of goal), the Red Wolves took the low line drive and pushed it out to Marsh to begin a lightning fast counter. With the troublesome striker outpacing him, Joe lunged into a sliding tackle that sent Marsh flailing and tempers flaring. Leo Folla was held back by Nortei and the referee from going after Joe, and several players had some choice words for each other. Especially hot seemed Jamil Roberts, who seemed to think that Joe should’ve gotten more than just a yellow for the challenge.
Just when it seemed like the situation would settle down and soccer could resume, a loud booing in the crowd indicated a most unlikely event had occurred on the Red Wolves’ bench. Still voicing displeasure about the previous call, Chattanooga assistants Jimmy Weekley and Luke Winter were sent off from the bench, having finally seen the red card come out of the referee’s pocket.
Once play resumed tensions rose higher, and things only got chippier. Over the next 20 minutes the fireworks would find the stat sheet, not so much goals or shots on target, but in the form of 18 fouls and 9 cards distributed between the two teams—and probably more based on the frustrated abuse levied on soccer balls and advertising signs (looking at you, Jamil Roberts).
The delays, fouls, and talkings to would mean a significant amount of additional time, so things got a bit nervy when Chavon Marsh reappeared to do Marsh things in the 89’. Despite being defanged for most of the half, the Red Wolves showed they still had claws when Leo Folla launched his long through ball from his defensive third all the way over the Omaha back line. With Marsh timing his run and route perfectly, the Owls were caught somewhat off guard and too slow to be able to catch up. Marsh took the ball in stride, slotted home past Shido, and gave the home crowd a lifeline for what would end up being the remaining 11+ minutes of the match.
If the supporters watching at home may have started monitoring their heart rates, Union Omaha were staying cold and deadly as they opened their offense back up to release another 1-2 punch. This time, the Red Wolves wouldn’t rise off the canvas.
Not 4 minutes after Marsh’s sucker-punch of a goal, Lagos Kunga would take matters, and defenders, to his own feet. Adam Aoumaich’s pressure caused a turnover at midfield that he quickly passed on to Pedro Dolabella starting a 4-on-3 attack. Pedro laid the ball right to Lagos, who continues to keep rubbing my nose in ever doubting his dribbling ability. The quickly developing forward split about a hair’s amount of space between Stefan Lukic and Declan Watters to leave them confused and embarrassed, while TJ Bush was left wide open on his far post side. Again.
And while Lagos’ goal may have been the silver bullet, Adam Aoumaich decided that you can never be to sure not long after. In a passage of play that was very similar to the Owls’ earlier rapid-fire goals, where Chattanooga didn’t see much of the ball. Pinned back, and off a throw in, the Red Wolves tried to press, but Lagos found Brandon in the middle of the attacking third to escape the pressure. Looking just to maintain possession, Brandon picked out Adam who found himself on the left and one-on-one with Owen Green just outside the box. Switching to his right foot, he got Green to start to move along with him and decided to have a go under the defender’s outstretched leg. Bush seemed completely unaware of a shot until the ball was rolling just beyond his grasp and into the bottom right corner for the last goal of the night, but the first goal of Adam’s professional career.
There was still some fighting left to be done before the final whistle as Brandon got caught in an ill-timed (and unnecessary) high-booted challenge against Omar Gómez Tapia right in front of the Chattanooga goal. While many of the Red Wolves players surrounded Brandon to remind him how uncool that was, TJ Bush would leave his goal and enter the fray. While there wouldn’t be any red-card offenses given, Bush was quite physical with Brandon, prompting another giant huddle of bodies for the referees, and cooler heads, to deescalate. When the final whistle blew just a few moments after, it seemed to have not only called an end to the lopsided victory, but also to any potential brawls that may have been ready to spring up.
The win puts Union Omaha back on the right path, and also at the top of the League One table with 16 points from 7 matches (over Greenville Triumph on goal difference). It also signals the start of a little bit of a rest period before they welcome Spokane Velocity in the return Jägermeister Cup fixture on June 13.
The Positives:
Yes, this team can score without two major playmakers. Yes, they can bounce back after a particularly frustrating loss. But the biggest positive is that they went on the road and controlled the game in multiple ways.
When they had to be in attack, their passing was a lot cleaner, more deliberate, and the decision making was much better than it had been. They attacked up the right early and often, which would later open up the middle and left for exploitation. Dion was a huge part of this, but letting Pedro play in a more advanced role gave the Owls the chance to create dangerous chances from their penetrating play or recycle the ball well to probe other parts of the Red Wolves defense.
When playing with the lead, and for most of the second half, they were still able to control the match, even without the ball. Chattanooga managed one shot on target during the second half (Marsh’s goal), but otherwise were pretty benign in their attempts. Good rotation on defense, disciplined marking, and an efficient counter threat kept the game in hand, even if they weren’t directly running out the clock, because it caused the Red Wolves to constantly reconsider their attacking options—something that led to frustration and some much lower percentage chances at goal (though some didn’t miss by that much, admittedly).
The ability to turn the offense back on after Marsh got the hosts within sniffing distance of rescuing a point also is a huge positive. Not because they threw numbers forward again, but because they did it without sacrificing their defensive shape. This is a huge credit to the team taking Dom’s system to heart and understanding game situations as they come. A panicked team easily could have let another Marsh run ruin an otherwise brilliant game. The Owls stayed cool and finished off their opponent professionally.
The Negatives:
While I love the physical play of the team this year, and that physicality got into the heads of the Red Wolves’ players and staff, the cards are becoming a problem. After this match, Omaha has accumulated 24 yellow cards and 1 red card in 7 matches (3.6 per game). The per game number is second only to Chattanooga with 4.2 per game (25 in 6 matches). This stat goes down a little when you consider that in 3 Cup matches, the Owls have only 6 cards, but that still puts them at 3.1 cards per game—and that matters as Cup match cards carry over to regular season and vice versa for the purposes of accumulation and suspensions.
But the point of this is something I’ve said before: a lot of these cards are needlessly taken. Some of the tactical fouls, time wasting, dissent, and just very ill-advised challenges (Missael’s last week and Brandon’s this week) will eventually take it’s toll on the availability of some of the players.
While the good news is that none of our individual players have more than 3 cards, it also means a lot of our players have multiple cards on their sheets. I don’t want the physicality, and some of the old shithousery, to stop as I think it helps motivate the team and frustrate the opposition. But they do need to be smarter about the fouls and cards that they are taking, before they come back to bite them again.
Also negative: I wish we’d scored more. But that’s just me wanting sprinkles on a damned fine sundae.
Interesting Facts:
This is Union Omaha’s sixth straight unbeaten in regular season play against Chattanooga (they did lose in the 2022 playoffs 1-0 after extra time). The last time they lost in the regular season at Chattanooga was on August 21, 2021.
This is the fourth straight matchup where the teams have scored more than three goals combined.
The scoring explosion has the distinction of a few superlatives for the Owls: most goals scored in a regular season game, most goals scored without a multi-goal scorer, and most goals between teams in a game (tied). They did score 6 against FC Tucson in the 2021 League Playoffs, but we try not to mention that as much because we like Wallis now.
Both teams more than doubled their xG stat (Omaha – 1.70, Chattanooga – 0.99). Adam’s goal had only a 0.02 xG, and still found it’s way in.
This is the second match in a row where at least one assistant for the opposing team has gotten sent off.
Key Events:
Union Omaha Goal: 15’ – Pedro Dolabella (4th) (Unassisted); 0-1
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…
Yep. That’s me in the corner, trying to enjoy a Modelo and deal with Denver. Solidarity Forever.
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)
Union Omaha’s goal well dried up quickly Wednesday night as they struggled to a 0-0 draw against Central Valley Fuego FC in Match 3 of the Jägermeister Cup. Though they were able to salvage an extra point by winning the PK shootout 4-1, it did little to erase an overall uninspired 90 minutes in which the Owls dominated possession but had nothing to show for it. Wallis Lapsley was again the hero of the day, stopping four shots in regulation and one penalty to secure the two points.
Coach Dominic Casciato continued showing some rotation for these matches as he made five changes from the team that started the 1-4 victory at Charlotte last time out. Lapsley resumed his normal place as the Cup goalkeeper while Zeiko Lewis, Brandon Knapp, Anderson Holt and Will Perkins all got starts. Just as exciting was the return from injury of PC Giro to the bench, seeing the team sheet for the first time since the trip to Knoxville on April 12.
For Jermaine Jones’ side there were three changes from the team that lost to One Knox in their last outing. Carlos Ávilez returned in net while Chris Heckenburg and Zahir Vazquez made up the remaining numbers in place of Mouhamed Dabo and José Carrera-Garcia.
It didn’t take long to realize that this game would be quite a bit different from the last match these two played two months ago. Fuego seemed content to play back and look for chances to counter or deliver long balls into the attacking third, which meant that despite Omaha owning most of the possession the visitors would occasionally find some dangerous routes in on goal. They were helped by some errant passes early and the Owls often defaulted to their own version of direct play in an attempt to make something happen on offense.
This did create a very early chance for the hosts as Luca Mastrantonio, under no pressure in the back, found the run of Aáron Gómez down the left side of the final third. He was able to outpace his defender, show some great physicality to hold off a challenge near the touch line, and find a trailing Joe Gallardo outside the box. From there, Gallardo picked out Pedro Dolabella with a cross that should have been a great chance on goal. Unfortunately, Pedro was felled by some contact and a bit of a jersey pull by Emmanuel Gómez that allowed Ávilez to claim the ball easily. Despite the obvious contact and shirt tug, the referee quickly waived off any appeals for a penalty as Fuego relieved the pressure. This would be a recurring theme with the officials who seemed willing to let a very physical game run its course.
While the Owls continued to own possession, the majority of attacking pressure was with Central Valley early. Though the defense stayed compact and dealt with most of the danger, Wallis was called into action to deal with the occasional shot.
One of those shots came in the 14’ when Alfredo Midence took advantage of the compact defense to find an unmarked Robert Coronado on the left just outside the attacking third. With lots of space to maneuver, he managed to get past the onrushing Will Perkins and dribble into the box. From there he unleashed a straight blast toward net that took all of Wallis’ reflexes and strength to parry away for a corner. Though true attacking chances like this would become less common, the Omaha keeper showed why he’s the best backup in the league.
The Owls would finally get a couple of decent chances about the middle of the first half. Nortei Nortey would see a great run by Zeiko Lewis on goal, but put the ball too close to Ávilez for the striker to get on it. Shortly after, Nortel would take matters in his own feet, dribbling across the top of the box and clearing space to shoot. His effort would be off balance and too wide and weak to trouble the keeper, but it was at least Omaha’s first official shot of the match. Finally, Aáron Gómez would find his way clear on a quick throw in from Joe Gallardo, only to be pulled back by Issa Yaya who earned a yellow card for killing off the attack.
However, the remainder of the first half continued to be marred by sloppy play, leading to several Central Valley chances, but nothing that would come to a goal. Bad back passes were either barely recovered by the back line or saved in spectacular fashion. By the time the Owls made it into the locker room at halftime, they could count themselves lucky not to be down in the match, despite an overwhelming advantage in possession.
Coming out of halftime, Coach Dom made two changes bringing on Lagos Kunga and Ryen Jiba for Pedro and Mechack Jérôme, and moving Anderson Holt off the left and into a center back position. Almost immediately you could see the impact of the substitutions and the break as the Owls came out much more controlled and dangerous in their attacks.
This showed as within 3 minutes of the restart Omaha would finally get their first shot on target of the match. Taking the ball in the attacking zone, Lagos showed off his dribbling skills to open up Joe Gallardo on the left side. Joe was able to use Lagos’ continuing run to cut back inside and dribble to the top of the box where he fired a low shot that Àvilez had to dive to keep out. The ball spilled out of the keeper’s hands and Aàron almost slotted home, but instead drove the ball directly into Àvilez’ still prone body allowing the Fuego defense to recover and clear the danger.
Despite the energetic and more deliberate style of play on display, that would be the final shots on target for the Owls. They did cause a few more moments of chaos from set pieces and pressing, but nothing managed to fall in the hosts’ favor. They were able to significantly reduce the bite in Fuego’s attack with much better skill and pressing than was shown in the first half. Central Valley responded by playing back, staying compact, and really denying that final ball that would’ve seen Omaha rewarded for it’s improved play over the last 45 minutes.
With the match drawn, the Owls would find themselves in their second penalty shootout of the competition. Once again, they would go first and choose to kick into the Berm end where many of the 3,020 in attendance joined the Parliament to try to spur their club to the extra point.
Luca Mastrantonio would take the first kick and fired to the keeper’s right. Despite guessing correctly, Ávilez couldn’t get to the well placed kick. Robert Coronado would take the same approach, bouncing the ball just before it reached Wallis and putting it over his outstretched arms to level the shootout.
Adam Aoumaich then stepped up and once again fired a lofted shot for his kick. He managed to keep it down this time and left the keeper no chance as it rippled the roof netting. Nahir Vazquez then had a chance to match, but his slight delay in the run up would not fool Wallis who dove to his right and stopped his fourth penalty kick of the year.
After that it was PC who took the ball for his first meaningful involvement in the match. The veteran showed his composure taking a no nonsense run up to the ball and burying it in the side netting, despite Ávilez seeming to know that the ball would be to his left. That put all the pressure on José Carrera-Garcia who tried to loft one into the roof, but ended up skying it over the bar and into the cheering Parliament.
With the door open to put the match away, Missael Rodriguez made no mistakes with his kick. A simple shot to the keeper’s left scored as Ávilez guessed incorrectly and the Owls would win yet another shootout by a count of 4-1.
The shootout win still wouldn’t be enough to move Union Omaha out of the cellar in their group, though it did move them into a tie at 4 points with Central Valley Fuego. Northern Colorado still paces the group with 6 points from 3 matches and Spokane holds second with 5 points, but has the wild card slot with 4 goals and a +1 Goal Difference.
Next up for the Owls is a home match against Northern Colorado on June 1, this time in USL League One play. Always a tough matchup, the team will look to return back to the form that has them second in the table with 13 points from 5 games, while Hailstorm is bringing up the bottom with only 2 points from 4 played.
The Positives
First and foremost, the return of PC is a huge positive in this match. Though he only played 23 minutes, he was still able to get into the flow of the game and took his PK with poise and control. He didn’t factor hugely in the match otherwise, but the fact that he’s back after a long absence is a huge plus.
Next is Wallis Lapsley. It seems every time he plays, there are nothing but positives to say about him. He really did save the points for the team yet again with timely saves, including in the shootout. Despite Fuego only registering 0.48 xG on 34% possession, the shots they did have were often quite dangerous. I’ve said before that I think Wallis could start for several teams in League One, for a few in the Championship, and would probably be a good backup option for some in MLS. Thankfully, he’s here when we need him.
Finally, I think that the turnaround in attacking play, control, and overall chemistry was excellent in the second half. Dom made the appropriate changes and the subs took advantage. Anderson did as good a job as he could on the left side and playing some wing, but having Ryen come in and let Anderson slide into center back helped shore up some of those opportunities Fuego had in the first half while providing a lot more creativity in attack. Lagos coming on for Pedro was a good change not because Pedro was doing poorly necessarily, but that Lagos put an energy into the match that Fuego hadn’t had to deal with up to that point. These changes helped the team cut out having to play the long ball and let them play a much more controlled and dribbling attack through midfield—which then opened up more of the long balls when needed later. It’s frustrating, and a little unfair, that the changes didn’t end up leading to a goal. But for the second straight match the team was able to respond to a substandard first half performance while almost completely neutralizing any threat the other team could mount. That ability will be critical as the season goes on.
The Negatives
The entire first half…again. This time there wasn’t a heavy rain or waterlogged pitch to blame for the sloppy passing and lack of creativity in attack. Dom said in his (very brief) postgame comments that it was “flat”, and that is a very nice way to put it.
When you have 67% possession in the first half, but can’t put a shot on target, that tells me the possession isn’t moving forward. The team was caught in the offside trap several times, but those were all on long balls trying to play past the Central Valley high line. They were able to play that high line because a lack of sharpness in the short passing game kept the threat out of the midfield, so there was little danger of a quick run with a well placed through ball breaking that line. Additionally, the long balls often seemed overly hopeful at best, desperate at worst.
That’s not trying to take anything away from Jermaine Jones’ side. They executed their gameplan, played the counter well, and set the offside traps that caught our strikers out. But we have to understand that teams are going to play this way against us, especially when we should have an attacking advantage against them. Being able to break that down is going to be critical going forward.
My final thought on this is that once again we played substandard in the first half. You can blame rotation, finally having a decent break for the first time all month, possible complacency playing an opponent that hasn’t been successful this year, whatever. It doesn’t bode well if that continues. Thankfully, for now, it’s only two games. That’s a blip that we need to make sure doesn’t become a trend.
Interesting Facts:
This is the first match between these two sides that has ended 0-0, and the first time we’ve drawn (after 90’) in the history of the matchup.
Union Omaha only registered one official shot on target in the match. This is the second time this year they’ve done that (0-1 win at One Knox). The Owls were held to one shot on target only twice all of last year (all competitions).
Wallis Lapsley has faced 8 penalty kicks this year and saved 4 of them (1 over the bar). That’s a save percentage of 57% for on target shots. Not bad considering PKs generally produce a 0.79 xG (79% of the time, they work every time)!
Adam Aoumaich’s PK is the first time he’s slotted a meaningful ball home in his professional career. It won’t count as a goal in the stat books, but we’ll take it!
Key Events:
Central Valley Yellow Card: 21’ – Alfredo Midence (Bad Challenge)
Central Valley Yellow Card: 29’ – Issa Yaya (Tactical Foul)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 32’ – Brandon Knapp (Bad Challenge)
Central Valley Sub: 37’ – Razak Cromwell ON; Issa Yaya OFF (Injury)
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 45’+1’ – Will Perkins (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Sub: 46’ – Lagos Kunga ON; Pedro Dolabella OFF – Ryen Jiba ON; Mechack Jérôme OFF
Central Valley Sub: 46’ – Ashkanov Apollon ON; Emmanuel Gómez OFF
Central Valley Sub: 56’ – Qudus Lawal ON; Alfredo Midence OFF
Union Omaha Yellow Card: 60’ – Anderson Holt (Bad Challenge)
Union Omaha Sub: 67’ – PC Giro ON; Nortei Nortey OFF – Missael Rodriguez ON; Aáron Gómez OFF
Central Valley Yellow Card: 68’ Raúl Mendiola (Tactical Foul)
Union Omaha Sub: 76’ Adam Aoumaich ON; Joe Gallardo OFF
Central Valley Yellow Card: 84’ Clayton Torr (Hard Foul)
Central Valley Sub: 90’+1’ – José Carrera-Garcia ON; Raúl Mendiola OFF
Penalty Shootout:
Union Omaha – Luca Mastrantonio – Scored (1-0)
Central Valley – Robert Coronado – Scored (1-1)
Union Omaha – Adam Aoumaich – Scored (2-1)
Central Valley – Zahir Vazquez – Saved (2-1)
Union Omaha – PC Giro – Scored (3-1)
Central Valley – José Carrera-Garcia – Missed High (3-1)
Who Gives A Hoot? 