May 30, 2024 – United Soccer League One (USL1)
Union Omaha News Release
PAPILLION, Neb. – 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…