OMAHA, Neb. (Oct. 29, 2026) — “It doesn’t matter what game it is. Just get back on the field at some point.”
That was Brandon Knapp’s goal from the moment he went down in late April. It could have been a couple months, or it could have been the USL League One Final. He just needed to get back on the field.
Knapp had played all but 14 minutes of the club’s first six league matches, and was 87 minutes into a victory over Indy Eleven in the Prinx Tires USL Cup when he crumpled to the turf after an aerial duel. His night was over, and as he was told later, likely his season.
“There were doubts about that, you know, getting back by the end of the season. Being told you may not be able to play again this year sucked,” he said.
It was early on in his third season with the Owls. He had a championship ring. He had become part of the furniture at the club. Now, he was facing the longest stoppage of his career.
After years of highly competitive youth soccer, with countless summer weekends spent on the road, Knapp got a prime opportunity to play at St. John’s University. It’s not often that a self-described “timid little freshman” will step in and start 14 matches for a Division I program. For that athlete to then go on to captain his team as a sophomore?
“It’s kind of unheard of,” said Knapp. “But the coaches and my teammates all trusted me. I will say it was pretty difficult being a sophomore captain, having a lot of guys older than me while being one of the leaders of the team. But I think as I got older, I grew into that role very naturally, and it was a good journey at St. John’s.”
For all his success up through college, the jump from college to the professional ranks was where everything threatened to grind to a halt. For a while, it truly did.
“It kind of took me by surprise with how difficult it is to get a pro contract. I actually took a whole year off, and I was basically just a trialist. I didn’t get a contract at all in 2023, and I tried out at multiple different clubs and different leagues, and just didn’t catch on anywhere. Nothing worked.”
After a year in the wilderness, Knapp went on trial with Union Omaha in the 2024 preseason. The Owls were coming off a 2023 in which they won the club’s second Player’s Shield under new head coach Dominic Casciato, but after playoffs defeat in a penalty shootout, they were looking to one-up that performance in 2024. In short, Knapp’s last chance to break through was with a club harboring sky-high aspirations.
“I knew coming in that it was going to be hard. You’ve got to come in and just give your best go, lay it all out there. It ended up working out, and I’ve loved every second being here.”
That didn’t mean it was full speed ahead, though. There was still quite an adjustment for him to make in order to keep up.
“Oh my gosh, coming in you notice right away that everything’s quicker. Guys are much bigger and stronger,” said Knapp. “I’m a, what, 24-year-old kid coming out of college, playing with guys in their 30s that have played in the MLS, who have had great careers, just super talented players. So it was great to learn from them and be along for the ride with those guys.”
Knapp played 1,659 minutes in all competitions in that rookie year, contributing every way he could in their run to a second USL League One title. One match could see him substituting in as a defensive midfielder, while the next may have been a start on the right wing.
That versatility carried over into 2025, where he was often asked to deputize at right back due to injuries in the squad. It was in one of those matches, a 4-1 victory over Charlotte Independence in August, that he hit another milestone: his first time wearing the captain’s armband as a professional.
“All I wanted to do was help the team win, make an impact wherever I can, and just continue to grow in that role. I love playing in different spots and and seeing the game in different ways,” said Knapp. “You feel so much more comfortable as you go through every practice, every game, every year. I think that’s really what it was for me. It’s just getting comfortable in the environment so that I can really show my true self, show my voice and my leadership qualities.”
Expectations were high coming into 2026. Now under head coach Vincenzo Candela, the team had risen from the bottom of the table in mid-2025 to nearly host a playoff match, before once again stumbling on penalties. Knapp even wore the captain’s armband twice more in April, heralding his arrival as a true fixture for the Owls. Then, catastrophe.
“It wasn’t ideal, with such a good team and playing a lot of minutes and being a leader. It was just so exciting to be a big part of the team in the early parts of the year, especially with our super high expectations coming in.”
One of the most difficult parts for Knapp was the earliest stage of recovery, right after surgery on his leg. Given the doubts about his timetable for return, too, it came down to a question of mentality above all. Luckily, he had support the whole way.
“Starting from the club, it’s been great. I have great teammates and a great roommate that helped me a lot in getting through that. It was difficult, right? I wasn’t there every day at the beginning of the season, and you’re not playing at all, even in practice, so it’s hard to feel like a part of the team. But the guys have been great, the staff’s been great, everybody in the club has been supporting me to get back to this point, along with my family supporting me as well. I couldn’t ask for a better support system.”
Knapp approached his recovery with a simple question: “What can I do to get better today?” Despite the nebulous timeline, he kept his focus on improving day-by-day, and before he knew it, he was at the point where he was training with the squad and truly nearing a return to the pitch.
That, of course, is the other difficult part of the journey.
“I’m used to, you know, being myself on the field, and when I first got the ball back and got into training a little bit, it was very hard. I was just not feeling like myself, so it was hard to get confidence back at first. I can see the end goal of getting back on the field and helping the team, but I know I’m not there yet.”
He wasn’t living up to his own expectations to return to his April form, where he was a 90-minute player week in and week out. After taking a step back, though, Knapp was able to re-center himself and take that final step from 90 percent to 100.
It couldn’t have come at a better time. He made his return to the pitch late in Omaha’s scoreless draw at Madison, with playoffs looming just a week later. Just like he hoped, he came back before season’s end, with his eyes now on a second title in three years with the club.
“I tried so hard throughout the whole year to get to this moment. Finally getting back on the field was a huge step… it was a little bit emotional, after being told you may not be able to play again this year. But getting back was awesome, and hopefully I can continue that in the playoffs here. We’re all super excited for a big playoff run.”
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.
