Union Omaha has reclaimed the top spot in the league after a midweek win over Spokane Velocity FC. Now it’s on them to keep it.
Charlotte Independence would still be in position to win the Players’ Shield by a point if they win their game in hand, but that’s never a guarantee, and regardless the Owls will continue to try and beat the teams in front of them. To that end, their next opponent is none other than the defending champions, One Knoxville SC. The Tennessee-based outfit just completed a dramatic comeback on Wednesday, turning a 2-0 deficit against Fort Wayne FC into a 3-2 victory to stay in pole position for 4th place and a home playoff match in the first round. Of course, a win for Union Omaha would mark a big step towards clinching a home playoff match themselves.
Here are three more points of note heading into this weekend’s top-four showdown:
- Los Búhos are 3-0-0 in September, and all three of those matches finished with only 21 men on the pitch. Both Charlotte and Spokane had men sent off at Morrison Stadium, and those matches bookend the Owls’ dramatic 10-man win in Corpus Christi last weekend.
- A minor whirlwind of changes hit Union Omaha earlier this month, with two departures from the club along with a new signing. The upshot of that came on Wednesday, with Theo Klein making his debut for the Owls. Klein, a Frenchman capped by the Laos senior national team, is the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s all-time leading goalscorer with 23 goals, and scored for Union Omaha in their exhibition against FC Juárez.
- Of the top ten players in USL League One in expected goals, Union Omaha and One Knoxville account for four of them.
- Sergio Ors Navarro and Pato Botello Faz sit sixth and tenth, respectively, with 9.18 and 8.27 xG.
- For One Knoxville, Denis Krioutchenkov is in fifth with 10.14 xG, while Babacar Diene is eighth at 8.63 xG.
Union Omaha vs. One Knoxville SC kicks off at 7:00pm CT on Saturday, September 19th. Tickets for the match are available here. You can also watch the match on ESPN+.
ABOUT UNION OMAHA
Union Omaha, the 2021 and 2024 USL League One Champions, is the premier 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 the American soccer landscape, below USL Championship (tier two) and the newly announced top-tier USL Premier, launching in 2028. Union Omaha will play its 2026 USL League One home matches at Morrison Stadium in downtown Omaha. The team is led by Chief Operating Officer Alexis Boulos in the front office and by Head Coach Vincenzo Candela on the pitch.
