A tough scoreless 90 made way for an academic win in the shootout
PAPILLION, Neb. (May 29, 2024) – In a matchup between the high-flying Owls and the sieve-like Fuego, it took penalties for each side to properly hit the back of the net.
Once it got to that point, Wallis Lapsley’s PK heroics continued, and all four penalty takers made theirs with no problem to give Union Omaha the edge.
“Sometimes that’s just the way the game goes,” said defender Anderson Holt afterwards. “We couldn’t quite score, and we did everything to keep them out of our net. At the end of the day, we’re happy to win the penalty shootout.”
The first half was, in a word, uneventful. Direct balls over the top were the attack du jour, but only occasionally did they hit their targets. Fuego created the better chances through these, but despite 15 shots total in the first half, neither team properly threatened the goal.
The best action of the half came off a move that doesn’t exist in the stat books. A beautiful whipped ball over the top from Mechack found Aarón Gómez, who chested it beautifully to compose himself before he blasted it home. Except, Gómez was offside.
The second half, despite some tired legs, saw a bit more at least. Head Coach Dominic Casciato made note of this after the mach too, saying that while the team looked a little flat in the first half, they came out better in the second. Joe Gallardo, as he does, threatened early on with a ferocious curler that Carlos Avilez couldn’t corral. The Fuego goalkeeper then barely got a finger to it to parry it away from a lurking Gómez.
Coach Dom also injected a little more dynamism into the match with his substitutions. Lagos Kunga as always was looking to make something happen on the ball, and Missael Rodríguez was the same with his off-ball movement. Meanwhile, PC’s return to the pitch added some much-needed stability in the midfield as a classic #6.
In fact, all 5 subs for Union Omaha were made by the 76th minute after Adam Aoumaich came on for Gallardo. He and Rodríguez would each have solid chances cutting in from the wings, but just missed the net.
To give another idea of how this match played out, we saw seven yellow cards between the two clubs, but nobody could describe it as anything near a chippy match. Really, it was just a bit of a sloppy one, despite the Owls’ attacking prowess of late and Fuego’s defensive struggles.
And so it was that fans streamed towards the berm for Union Omaha’s third penalty shootout of the season, all at home, all in front of the Parliament.
There wasn’t too much tension in this shootout, though. After each team made their first, Wallis Lapsley gave us a little repeat performance of our first Jägermeister Cup match by saving Zahir Vazquez’s attempt. José Carrera-García’s shot sailed over the top left corner, while youngsters like Aoumaich and Rodríguez kept their cool to earn Union Omaha a 4-2 shootout win and a much-needed second point in the standings.
Said Anderson Holt, “I thought we fought hard tonight. Central Valley Fuego is a really strong team who play with a lot of passion. It’s never easy to play against them, home or away.”
After both home and away matches against Fuego were relatively tight affairs, there’s no doubt about that.
It’s a quick turnaround from here to a skirmish against Northern Colorado Hailstorm in the league on June 1st. After that, the Owls take to the skies to finally head to Tennessee, taking on Chattanooga Red Wolves for the first time this season on June 5th. Their next USL Jägermeister Cup match will be on June 13th, when they look for revenge against Spokane Velocity.
ABOUT UNION OMAHA
Union Omaha, the 2021 USL League One Champion and 2023 USL League One Players’ Shield Winner, is the only professional soccer team in the state of Nebraska. USL League One is a United States Soccer Federation-sanctioned professional men’s soccer league that occupies the third tier of American soccer, below USL Championship (tier two) and Major League Soccer (tier one). Union Omaha plays its home matches at Werner Park in Sarpy County, also home to the Omaha Storm Chasers of Minor League Baseball. The team is led by General Manager of Business Operations Alexis Boulos in the front office and Head Coach Dominic Casciato on the field.
