With all of the media’s attention just down the road in Lincoln, Nebraska for the Josh vs Josh vs Josh fight, the true battle last Saturday (April 24th)took place in Papillion, Nebraska.  Under a beautiful evening sky, Werner Park played host to the season-opening match for Union Omaha.  In front of 2,786 fans, Los Búhos showed off their much-anticipated 2021 roster against South Georgia Tormenta FC and finished with a 2-0 win.

From the opening whistle, the theme of the night was speed and physicality.  Both teams were hot off the line and put their offensive prowess on full display.  Fans didn’t have to wait long for Union Omaha to break the deadlock, though.  In the 22^nd minute, Evan Conway sped past the Tormenta backline, chased down a long feed from Connor Doyle, and found the net under pressure.  For the second time in as many seasons, Evan Conway scored the first goal of the season for the Owls.

Tormenta responded well after the goal was scored, keeping possession in the Union Omaha half for most of the remaining time in the first half.  Despite several opportunities to even the match, they couldn’t seem to slot one past Union Omaha goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu.  Repeated set pieces just outside of the Union Omaha 18-yard box also failed to produce positive results.  The teams would go into halftime with a 1-0 advantage for the Owls.

The physicality of play seemed to escalate at a steady pace leading up to halftime, giving center referee Mark Allatin plenty to think about during the break.  Even before the halftime whistle was blown, Union Omaha fans were clamoring for more fouls to be called.  Having prime position in several situations to use his authority, he often shook his head and allowed play to continue.  With a couple of verbal warnings and zero cards shown, his night was about to get busier.

After the second half whistle, players on both sides seemed to reignite first-half feuds quickly, resulting in the first yellow card of the night in the 49^th minute.  This was the first of nine second-half yellow cards handed out by Mark Allatin.  Fans were vociferous in their displeasure, players on both teams often challenged his decisions, and a meeting with the captains did little to quell tempers for the remainder of the match.  Allatin was busy in the second half, but so were both defenses.

Tormenta bore the brunt of the defensive play to start the second half.  Union Omaha forwards Greg Hurst and Evan Conway were constantly mixing the roles up top, requiring Tormenta to communicate frequently about marking duties.  With a Union Omaha midfield consisting of Connor Doyle, Nicolas Firmino, JP Scearce, and Devin Boyce, Tormenta often resorted to playing their midfield and defensive lines farther back into their own third of the field.  The middle third of the field, however, witnessed the majority of the contests.  South Georgia was able to muster a few attacks into Union Omaha’s final third, but few were able to penetrate the penalty area and even less resulted in shots on goal.

Union Omaha’s defense played well and absorbed many of the attacks from South Georgia.  After repeated attempts to attack the Owls using the flanks, Tormenta resorted to feeding the middle of the field early in attack and working hard to get into the penalty area.  South Georgia forward Azaad Liadi was a constant threat against the backline.  Joshua Phelps also played a major role in the setup of attacks.  Union Omaha goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu didn’t have to go to ground too many times, but was tasked with minding the crossbar more frequently.  The backline, made up of Damia Viader, Daltyn Knutson, Illal Osumanu, and Ferrety Sousa, did well at forcing Tormenta to the middle, keeping a steady line, doubling-up on the ball, and winning aerial battles.

 The second half seemed to be destined to end in a 1-0 win for Union Omaha, but Greg Hurst had other plans.  In the 83^rd minute, Tormenta had an errant pass after a goal kick and Greg Hurst capitalized on the opportunity by sweeping the loose ball into possession, taking on a defender, and slotting the ball to the low corner of the goal.  Making his home debut for the Owls, Greg Hurst wasted very little time in making an impact on his new team.  Confident with the insurance policy, Union Omaha turned their focus to absorbing attacks, killing the clock, and walking away with the victory.

The match is still available on ESPN+ for replays.  Union Omaha takes the next week off, then heads on a journey filled with six away matches.  The win gives Union Omaha three points in the standings and places them in a tie for first place with six other clubs.  Their next opponent will be Fort Lauderdale on Friday, May 7^th at 6:30 PM (CST).  The match will air on ESPN+, but stayed tuned for news of a watch party in the Omaha area.

With the loss, South Georgia remains winless, has zero points in the league table, and sits in last place, below five clubs who have yet to play a match.  South Georgia returns home to play FC Tucson this coming Saturday, May 1^st.  Their match will air on ESPN+ at 6 PM (CST).

Welcome back to the premier data driven Union Omaha recap column. I hope you’ve had a fantastic off-season and you survived the 182 days between competitive Union Omaha home games. Let’s dive in.

1) JP Scearce is a literal monster.

We here at Data Dump are big JP Scearce fans, especially after a fantastic interview last season. However, given the amount of love JP receives from other members of the WGaH Media Empire (*cough* Luke *cough*), we haven’t felt the need to shine the flashlight. However with a game last his on Saturday, it has become impossible NOT to shine the flashlight.

As you can see below, JP won more duels than the entire starting Tormenta midfield combined: 15 to 13 and was involved in 30 duels compared to 31 duels for those three guys.

(Special shout out to former Owl, all-around good person, and aspiring League One fashion icon, Kobe Perez, who looked decent while making his Werner Park debut.)

Overall, sure JP could have been a little more accurate with his passes, but look at the ground he covered!

2.) Illal was critical.

Illal had 13 tackles won (forced loss of possession), defensive blocks (stopping a shot), interceptions (stealing a pass), and recoveries (collecting a loose ball). Six of those 13 happened in the box and ten of the 13 were within 25 yards of goal.

Combined the two centerbacks for Tormenta had nine tackles won (forced loss of possession), defensive blocks (stopping a shot), interceptions (stealing a pass), and recoveries (collecting a loose ball).

3.) We’re still Union Omaha.

Instead of revisiting ALL of our favorite 2020 Data Dump tropes, I’m going to focus on a single one: time of possession. In 2020 our average percentage of possession in a win was 39.4%. Our first win of 2020? 42.1%. Sounds about right.

Now if you felt we had more possession in the first half than we did in the second, it sure looks like you are correct! Check out these first half v. second half Union Omaha heatmaps.

If you felt we took our foot off the gas a little bit in the second half, these images will kind of confirm that thinking. Most notably for me is the lack of touches in the middle of the field in the second half.

As someone who picked the Owls to score four goals in the weekly pick’em, I am filling that easing up into the “potential red flags” file in case it becomes a problem in the future. In the meantime, after one game it seems that the team reloaded, hasn’t missed a beat (what up Evan Conway), and looks like a team ready to compete for wins in any league in America, but especially our own!

Preview: Union Omaha vs. South Georgia Tormenta FC

	USL League One 2020 Stats
	Union Omaha	Tormenta FC
Final Record	8-5-3 (2nd Place – 29 Points)	5-4-7 (8th Place – 19 Points)
Home	5-1-2 (2nd Place – 16 Points)	2-3-3 (8th Place – 9 Points)
Away	3-4-1 (2nd Place – 13 Points)	3-1-4 (6th Place – 10 Points)
Goals Scored	20 (Tied for 6th Place)	19 (Tied for 8th Place)
Goals Conceded	15 (9th Place)	22 (Tied for 4th Place)
Clean Sheets	6 (Tied for 2nd Place)	4 (Tied for 5th Place)

It’s time for Spring Cleaning, which means you need to make room for all of your Union Omaha gear because the 2021 season is right around the corner!  On Saturday, April 24^th, Los Búhos start their second season in USL League One with a match at home against South Georgia Tormenta FC.  It’s been a long offseason, but well worth the wait.

As you probably already know, Union Omaha finished their inaugural season in second place.  Even though USL League One Final was cancelled due to COVID-19, the Big Green Belt is pretty nice.  It’s easy to get a sense of unfinished business among the fans, so you can only imagine that same sense is exponentially higher in the locker room.

The roster is filled with leaders from last season, as well as new, hungry players looking to etch their place in the clubs history.  If you’ve followed the roster changes in the offseason, it’s clear as day that the Front Office is working hard to make sure last season wasn’t a fluke.  With the influx of quality players, it’s going to be interesting to see the lineup on their first match day.  The situation isn’t as clear when looking at Tormenta FC.

After only winning two of their first ten matches in 2020, Tormenta FC made a managerial change: then-manager John Migalrese moved aside to serve as the club’s Technical Director and Vice President of Soccer Performance and Ian Cameron took over in his stead.  The club improved, winning three of their last six matches, but still only managed to finish in 8^th place. 

The Front Office for Tormenta FC was also busy, seeing literally half of their roster exit, including all of their forwards.  The strength of their current roster lies in the middle of the field, both on defense and in the midfield.  With the forwards included in the roster, it’s tough to say how dramatically they’ll affect the final score. 

Look for Tormenta FC to clog up the middle third of the field, disrupt play early with aggressive challenges, strive to steal a goal here and there, and end the season with a lot of draws.  They’ll likely follow a gameplan involving three D’s: disrupt, delay, defend.  With the speed up top and the strength in the midfield for Union Omaha, Tormenta FC is going to have to risk pressing early on the counterattacks, wait for the backline to set up, and bunker in for anything in the final third.

Meanwhile, Union Omaha has added quite a few players to load the already strong roster.  With players signing up top and in net, the Owls look to reinforce their options with depth and versatility.  USL League One recently ran an article of ten players to watch for in the coming season and three of them were on the roster for Union Omaha.  Now imagine reinforcing that roster with equally adept players, some with proven results in the league last year.

There’s plenty of excitement around Union Omaha and it’s only going to get better as the team showcases their grit and pedigree against clubs like Tormenta FC.  It’s going to be a great day, so make sure to get to the stadium early, tailgate with the fans, buy some new merchandise, and make some noise until the final whistle.  ¡Viva Búhos!

Can you believe it’s been over five months since the USL League One Final was supposed to have taken place? Let’s all take a quick moment to raise a middle finger to the most uninvited guest in the world, COVID-19.  Alright, shake off that memory and get optimistic about the 2021 season.  Much like that board game you ordered off Amazon during quarantine, let’s unwrap this new, shiny game and get familiar with the rules and changes to the newest edition.  We all love reading the rules, right? While there haven’t been a lot of changes to the coming season, there are enough to be mindful of as Union Omaha starts their campaign next week. 

If you haven’t looked at the schedule yet, you’ll notice a couple of teams that weren’t in the league last year, as well as a team that isn’t in the league this season. After winning only one match in 2020, Orlando City B will sit out the 2021 USL League One season.  With Orlando City B focusing on filming a “Space Jam”-esque soccer-centric movie with Disney, or at least that’s my lame theory (editor’s note: fantastic theory), Union Omaha can look forward to two new competitors: Toronto FC II and North Carolina FC.

Toronto FC II is no stranger to USL competitions, having competed since 2015.  The USL League One 2020 season proceeded without Toronto FC II as a result of borders closing due to COVID-19.  The Reds little brothers look to continue riding a high extending back to 2019, when the team finished the season in seventh place – the highest they’ve ever finished a campaign.

North Carolina FC has competed since 2016, but will join USL League One for the first time since its inception.  The former Carolina RailHawks have competed in NASL (2016 & 2017), USL (2018), and USL Championship (2019 & 2020).  Interesting factoid: In 2016, North Carolina FC played a home friendly against English Premier League side West Ham and finished with a 2-2 draw.

Another change for the 2021 season is the playoff qualifiers being expanded to six teams, up from two teams in 2020 and four teams in 2019.  USL League One announced that the top two teams in the final league standings will have a first-round bye, while the no.3 seed will host no.6, leaving no.4 to host no.5.  This change could certainly bring great excitement to the end of the season because 2020 saw seeds 5-9 separated by only four points.

On a more technical side: In accordance with recent FIFA and IFAB approval, USL League One will join MLS, NWSL, USL Championship, and NISA by making changes to the structure of the substitution format.  This can be a bit complicated, so I’ll do my best to water it down:

1. Each team is allowed five substitutions.  Teams will each be given three windows of opportunity to substitute their players.  If teams substitute players at the same time, it will still count as one of the three windows for both sides.
2. Substitutions made during halftime, between the end of regulation time and extra time, or between the two halves of extra time will not count against the three windows.
3. If a team uses a concussion substitution, the other team will be allotted an extra, regular substitution.
4. Referees will not be placed in a position to determine if a player should be substituted, nor what type of substitution a team should use for the situation.

If no one has told you yet, USL League One is set to have its first national broadcast (ESPN2) on Sunday, May 16^th at 3 PM (CST) when Union Omaha visits Greenville Triumph.  This will be the first meeting of 2021 between the clubs who were set to face off in the USL League One Final in 2020.

So, we’ve covered a lot of ground here, but at least you’re well informed ahead of Union Omaha kicking off their season on April 24^th at 6 PM (CST) against South Georgia Tormenta FC.  Grab you Búhos gear, bring some friends, go to the tailgate, fill the stadium, and prepare for another great season at Werner Park.

The season is starting in waves so we still don’t have a regular cadence going, but we are one step closer to normal this weekend. Not only does Union Omaha play live soccer in front of their fans in a friendly against Sporting Kansas City II, but we also have multiple league games for the first time this season. South Georgia Tormenta and Richmond Kickers begin their seasons this weekend, hosting Fort Lauderdale CF and traveling to New England Revolution II respectively. I’m incredibly confident that the only thing that will disappoint this weekend, are our picks.

So how disappointing were we last week? Well, we were going to be disappointing as a group pretty much no matter what because the blog in general pretty much guessed this one right down the middle. But those that thought a Fort Lauderdale-Revs II opening week game was going to lead to a bucket load of goals are likely doing their best Jean-Luc Picard impressions right about now. Liam is probably checking his hair out in the mirror, because that’s what winners get to do.

Here’s a recap from last week:

	Ben	Jon	Liam	Luke	Rich	Riley	Ryan
Fort Lauderdale 0-1 New England	0	0	3	0	1	1	0
Total	0 pts	0 pts	3 pts	0 pts	1 pt	1 pt	0 pts

	Record	Points
Liam	1-0	3
Rich	1-0	1
Riley	1-0	1
Ben	0-1	0
Jon	0-1	0
Luke	0-1	0
Ryan	0-1	0

And here are the predictions for week 2:

	Ben	Jon	Liam	Luke	Rich	Riley	Ryan
New England Revolution II v. Richmond Kickers (Saturday, 18:00)	1-2	1-2	1-0	1-2	0-2	0-2	1-2
South Georgia Tormenta v. Fort Lauderdale CF (Saturday, 18:00)	1-1	2-1	2-1	2-2	1-0	2-1	1-1

I for one am excited to get to watch Revs 2 host Richmond, I hope I’m able to find myself ready to watch by the time that one kicks off. I don’t think I’ll be double-screening in order to catch Tormenta v. Fort Lauderdale (I’ll probably be double-screening).

Who doesn’t love a predictions league?  I know, right?  If you’ve ever run a predictions or fantasy league, how often did you ask yourself why you volunteered to organize it?  At least once a week?  It’s like pulling teeth, I know.  But for this group I’m willing to run a USL League 1 predictions competition and force them to prove me wrong. If these people think I’m annoying already, wait until I’m pinging them once the day before picks are due and twice the day they are due.  So, how is this going to work?  It’ll be quite simple:

1. One point for correctly predicting the match winner
2. Two points for correctly predicting a draw
3. Three points for correctly predicting the final linescore

So what does the winner get?  Well, nothing.  Admiration from the readership I guess, but even that’s not guaranteed.  As long as Luke doesn’t win I’m content.  We’re going to post these updates once a week, hopefully the morning of the week’s first match.  This week’s schedule is simple, obviously:

Week 1

	Ben	Jon	Liam	Luke	Rich	Riley	Ryan
Fort Lauderdale CF v. NE Revolution II	0-0	1-1	0-1	2-1	0-2	1-3	3-2

My goal is that by late May, all of you reading this will receive confirmation of what you’ve been thinking all along: these people have no idea what the hell they’re talking about. I, for one, look forward to embarrassing myself all season long!

I tracked Elo ratings across the league during the 2020 season.  Elo ratings are intended to go on in perpetuity, so I simply started with the 2019 season and worked my way forward.  Using personal liberties, I adjusted each team’s starting point in the 2020 season in hopes of finding a balance between recognizing the higher performing teams from the previous season while also accounting for the volatility that exists in lower league American soccer.  The resulting ratings for 2020 weren’t as accurate as I had hoped they’d be.  Perhaps this was because of the shorter season, but the ratings seemed to fluctuate more than the IMDB ratings for the last two seasons of Game of Thrones.  And just like the show’s last season, things just didn’t feel right in the end.

So for the 2021 season, I will be maintaining my own personal rating system.  It borrows some of the coefficients used last season, but will include methods that those who are familiar with RPI ratings will likely recognize.  Please reference my previous guest article from last season to familiarize yourself with the Elo formula I used if you’d like a refresher, and to compare it with what I will use for this upcoming season as you read.  Fair warning, I really enjoy talking and writing about numbers and formulas.  I almost enjoy it as much as the hosts of this podcast, a Union Omaha podcast, like talking about teams that aren’t Union Omaha. (Editor’s note: we all know the Ajax and Bayern fans are to blame.)  You know, on a Union Omaha podcast.  Anyway, let’s get started!

So, the main reason I maintained an Elo rating system last season was because I had never done one before.  I was intrigued with the facets of the formula that remain static over time, because the rating systems I’ve designed in other sports for the last ten or so years were fluid.  And by fluid, I mean the value of an individual game would change over the course of the season.  For example, in the 2019 college football season LSU played an early non-conference game at Texas.  LSU won this game by a touchdown, and it was considered a substantial result for them because Texas started that season strong.  The significance of this result had a pretty long shelf life, as Texas won their next three games and continued to impress.  However, Texas had a very mediocre finish to their season.  While LSU obviously ended the season as one of my highest rated teams, the win against Texas slowly became less valuable as the season progressed.  Those that follow college football as much as I do are well aware of a popular point made by talking heads across the country of how “Team A is a much different team now than they were last month”, so I like to develop systems that can account for that.  I had a couple bullets in this chamber to mock supporters of certain schools in this part of the country, but I want to remain friends with them so we’ll just move on with me hoping you understand the logic.

To calculate the value of a game, we will consider the following:

• Location of the match
• Final goal difference
• Each team’s current winning percentage
• The current cumulative winning percentage of each team’s previous schedule

Let’s go back to August 23^rd, 2020.  On this day, Union Omaha came from behind away to North Texas in a match that ended in a 2-2 draw (it feels good to remember that, doesn’t it?).  After this match, North Texas’ performance garnered a rating valued at 0.950, and Union Omaha a rating of 1.390.  These values will have more meaning later, once I reveal the full ratings from 2020, but all you need to know for now is that this was the value of the game on that night; a night that ended with North Texas having a record of 1-3-2, and Union Omaha a record of 2-3-0.  By the end of the season, North Texas’ performance rated slightly higher, changing from 0.950 to 1.045, while Union Omaha’s was considerably higher, changing from 1.390 to 2.035.  What happened here is the formula recognized North Texas’ improvement over the course of the season, and as more data was collected the value of the individual match adjusted accordingly, giving Union Omaha more credit for securing a draw away to a team that was better than its record indicated at the time.

So what goes into the calculation?  Do you really want to know?  If not, that’s ok.  Feel free to skip this section, I’ll let you know when it’s safe to return.  If you want to read at the same pace as the others, for some reason or another, may I suggest putting the kettle on, or perhaps asking Alexa to play a song of moderate length?  Why don’t you ask Alexa to play “Keep me Hangin’ On”?  No, not the original version by The Supremes, but the cover version by Vanilla Fudge.  Did you know that version existed?  It does, and it’s vastly different from the original.  Go on, give it a spin. 

Ok, only nerds here now.  So the formula itself isn’t complicated, it’s just that there are several calculations going on simultaneously, and different variables based on location and results.  Essentially, four numbers are always multiplied together:

• A goal difference coefficient similar to the one used in the Elo calculation (I increased it by a factor of 10)
• A number based on the opponent’s winning percentage:
  • If the match is a win or a draw, it’s the winning percentage itself
  • If the match is a loss, it’s (1 – winning percentage)
• A number based on the cumulative winning percentage of the opponent’s previous opponents.  Cumulative is used to account for an unbalanced schedule.  For example, if you played three games against two opponents, twice against a team with a 3-0-1 record and once against a team with a 0-0-4 record, that works out to a 6-0-6 record and a .500 winning percentage.  Same rules above apply based on the match result (actual percentage for a win or draw, (1 – percentage) for a loss
• A coefficient based on the match result and location:
  • Home wins: 0.667
  • Away wins: 1.333
  • Home losses: -1.333
  • Away losses: -0.667
  • Home draws: 0.333
  • Away draws: 0.667

What I’m hoping I’ve done with this formula is minimalize the difference of a 5-0 result vs. a 4-0 result, which is something I might not need to worry about anymore (Bye OCB!), give more credit to results by away teams, even if they are draws, and adjust results over the course of the season as we learn more about all of the teams in order to avoid those pesky narratives I talked about above.

To calculate the overall rating of a team, I simply average these individual results.  But, I’m not always averaging the same numbers.  As the season goes on, I will remove matches that are considered outliers from the calculation.  This process will remove those cases where a team does something that kinda doesn’t seem normal for them.  Like that time in Old School where Frank the Tank outdebated James Carville but failed to remember it, things sometimes happen for no explainable reason.  Therefore, I will remove matches from each team’s overall averages throughout the season in the following manner:

• After 8 matches, each team’s worst and best performance aren’t included in their average
• After 16 matches, each team’s 2 worst and best performances aren’t included in their average
• After 24 matches, each team’s 3 worst and best performances aren’t included in their average

Thank you so much for being willing to read all of this crap above without seeing what the 2020 ratings looked like.  So now we’ll get straight to it, but I first need to remind the normal people that stopped reading the previous portion to come back.

NON-NUMBER NERDS: IT’S SAFE TO RETURN

Welcome back, normal people!  Let’s go over the final ratings for the 2020 USL League One Season:

1. Greenville Triumph: 1.568
2. Union Omaha: 1.316
3. North Texas SC: 1.270
4. Chattanooga Red Wolves: 0.919
5. Forward Madison: 0.685
6. Richmond Kickers: 0.483
7. FC Tucson: 0.446
8. South Georgia Tormenta: 0.024
9. New England II: -0.475
10. Fort Lauderdale CF: -0.752
11. Orlando City B: -1.873

I will of course be keeping up with the 2021 season as we go, but don’t expect to see an update for a while.  This model will not produce worthwhile results for a few weeks because each team needs to have a few games under their belt before ratings settle down and don’t bounce around so erratically. I usually don’t start looking at my college football ratings until most schools have played four or five games, so I’m expecting to publish the first 2021 ratings sometime in late May or early June.  Until then enjoy yourselves, and thank your lucky stars that you don’t have as much spare time as I do. 

Most soccer leagues have very simple schedules: you play a true round robin over the course of the entire season, and all you really have to look for is whether or not you have some stretches where you have a few easy games in a row or run a gauntlet.  However USL (like other American professional sports leagues) have unbalanced schedules.  You still have your easy and tough stretches, but you typically have to study the schedule a little more intensely.  So, let’s get at it. 

Stretch 1: Let’s get some points early

4/24: Tormenta
5/8: @ Fort Lauderdale
5/12: @ Revs II
5/16: @ Greenville
5/26: @ Madison
6/2: @ TFC II
6/6: @ Madison

So, anybody familiar with the upcoming Omaha sports calendar had a feeling this was coming when you combine the Omaha Storm Chasers’ schedule with state baseball tournaments taking place at Werner.  However, when you look at this stretch up close it’s not as bad as it could have been.  Sure, away to Greenville is the end of a stretch with three games in nine days, but having Fort Lauderdale and New England as the other teams is probably all you could ask for.  The latter half of that stretch is unusual with us playing only midweek games, but Madison and Toronto are in the same boat as us during that same time as well.  If you split this stretch up further, I think 7 points in the first four games would be fine, along with an even split of 4 points in the following 3.  However, lose two of those first four games and suddenly we’re needing at least 6 points in the last three, and one of the Madison matches becomes must win.

Stretch 2: Home sweet home

6/12: Revs II
6/19: @ Richmond
6/26: Tucson
7/3: Chattanooga
7/16: Madison

We finally start seeing Union Omaha in person again here, and it starts with exorcising some demons.  Only three teams beat us last season, and they’re all part of this stretch.  Last year, we only got 9 out of a possible 24 points against these five teams.  On the off chance that Jay Mims reads this blog, I hope he prints this page out, circles this part and pins it to the bulletin board.  I believe three wins out of these five is a must to build momentum.

Stretch 3: Enough score settling, time to get to work

7/24: @ Tucson
7/31: North Texas
8/7: Madison
8/14: @ Tucson
8/21: @ Chattanooga
8/28: North Texas

This stretch allows us to finally start finding some sort of weekly routine, but this is not the time lose focus.  Tucson are a wild card in my eyes this year, but if they turn out to be a good team this stretch become much more brutal.  Shak Adams twice in 21 days, North Texas running us around, all the while Chattanooga and what looks to be an improved defense is waiting for us on the road.  If I had to pick a time of the season that we stumble into our nadir, this is it.  10 points in these six matches would probably be a huge accomplishment.

Stretch 4: Hill Street Blues special (let’s be careful out there)

9/4: @ North Carolina
9/11: TFC II
9/19: @ North Texas
9/25: Tucson
10/1: @ Tormenta

I see this as a stretch where we can shoot ourselves in the foot if we don’t watch out.  We need to make sure we aren’t looking ahead to North Texas when TFC II come to Omaha, and be ready to bounce back against a potentially feisty FC Tucson if North Texas doesn’t go well.  I have a feeling if we just worry about ourselves and what we can manage we’ll be fine.  Losing only one in this stretch is ideal, it tells me we’re on the right track as we hit the home stretch.

Stretch 5: How bad do we want it?

10/6: Fort Lauderdale
10/9: Greenville
10/16: North Carolina
10/23: Richmond
10/30: @ North Texas

This is where we separate the wheat from the chaff.  Four straight at home, potentially a couple of bunnies each followed by some true tests.  A chance to let some potential playoff teams know what they’ll have to beat in November, and ideally this results in the road to the Cup ending in Omaha.  I think it’s always good to have some tough games before the postseason, but it would be nice to lock up that first round bye sooner rather than later to give us time to get into playoff mode. 

There we go, Union Omaha’s 2021 regular season is all set.  As I mentioned above, an entire season is a stretch of easy patches and gauntlets.  Let’s hope that we are part of everyone else’s gauntlet. 

Today (3/16/2021) was an exciting day! The Union Omaha Culture Kit was dropped! Just kidding, that was not even remotely the most exciting thing we had happen today. As most of you know, our home, and technically season, opener was announced by USL League One today. Our opener is against South Georgia Tormenta, which is exciting for many reasons.

Before we look at this season’s match-up, let’s look back at how last season went against the Bolt and his crew. We played Tormenta twice last season, September 11th and October 3rd. Let’s take a brief look at both matches from last season.

The September 11th match took place in Georgia and was likely one of the most baffling matches you watched last season. We had just come off a 3 game stretch where we drew with North Texas (the infamous Nuhu red card match) and had beaten Tucson and OCB in consecutive matches. This match also preceded a 3 game losing streak that included Dami having his ribs broken at Chattanooga, a frustrating home match against the Baby Revs, and a 1-0 loss to Richmond. The match ended 2-2 but I remember thinking how much fight the team showed throughout this match. Tormenta scored their first goal early (11th minute) and we looked a little shocked. 11 minutes later they scored again via a Nuhu own goal. If you were like me, you were getting a little worried but luckily our boys fought back. We scored twice in 11 minutes ourselves through an Elma Nfor goal in the 70′ and a Ferrety Sousa ROCKET in the 81′. While it was frustrating to watch, and not knowing what the next three matches would bring, I remember feeling great about how the team fought back and didn’t give up.

The October 3rd match at home was memorable for many reasons. I brought up Dami being injured at Chattanooga because this was his first match back, and it completely caught the fans in attendance by surprise. This was also the biggest margin of victory in the club’s short history. It also signaled a growth in confidence after a few frustrating weeks and struggles in front of the net. Evan Conway got the party started in the 38′, Dami came on in the 72′ and 6 minutes later made it 2-0, and finally JP Scearce finished things off in the 83′ to make it 3-0. The most lasting memory I have from this match was watching the coaches panic when everyone went to celebrate with Dami, not wanting his ribs to be reinjured.

Now to our season opener at home against Tormenta this season. Tormenta has had a coaching staff change, several players have moved out, and they’ve even brought a Union Omaha alum (Kobe Perez) into the team. With the team we have coming back, plus our additions, I see this match ending closer to the 3-0 and not the 2-2 draw we saw in September. Our boys will be ready to roll, ready to compete, and ready to prove that last season was not a fluke. Be prepared for an entertaining match-up and I can’t wait to see you at Werner Park on April 24th!