March 22, 2024 – United Soccer League One (USL1) – Union Omaha News Release
LUDLOW, Ma. – It was the Joe Gallardo show for Union Omaha, who made life hard for Western Mass Pioneers all night long. Los Búhos emerged from the swirling Northeastern winds with a professional win. Even if it took a while to properly put it away, the end result was a hat trick for Gallardo and a third straight Open Cup campaign with at least one victory.
All throughout the match, Omaha pressed their opposition, asking them to shake off their preseason rust to keep up. Western Mass’ regular season doesn’t begin until May. The Owls forced plenty of mistakes out of the USL League Two outfit, especially as they tried to play out from the back, and never truly let the smaller club get anything going.
For their own part, Union Omaha couldn’t have started the match any better. They’d hardly allowed the Pioneers’ a proper touch of the ball before it was centered to Aarón Gómez in the attacking third. He found Joe Gallardo scurrying into the box from the left flank, slid a ball in towards him, and Gallardo opened his body for what felt like an eternity before taking a first-time shot. The ball got a lift from the leg of defender Abdel Talabi, and sailed past the keeper into the back right corner of the net.
While Western Mass settled in after about 10 minutes, they still had trouble putting together complete attacks, and keeper Gianluca Cersosimo was pretty heavily worked throughout for the Pioneers. Omaha, meanwhile, consistently found space on the wings, especially when Blake Malone and Will Perkins bombed forwards. That front-foot approach also put them in a better position to press the Pioneers when out of possession, and plenty of misplaced passes would yield giveaways and corner kicks. Union came in as the more-prepared team, and it showed in their nose for the ball.
“The conditions were obviously not the best because of the weather,” said Gallardo, “but we knew both teams had to deal with the same conditions, so there were no excuses at the end of the day.”
While it was a bit of a sloppy affair at times given the weather and rust, it only ever boiled over into something more near the end of the first half, when Khalid Rose left his mark on a couple Owls out of frustration and earned himself a yellow card.
It showed also in Union’s attacks, though, as despite frequently gaining possession in dangerous positions, they were too indecisive or untidy in their own right to double their…