Freezing temperatures and over a thousand miles of travel weren’t enough to disrupt Union Omaha, as the USL League One side cruised to an easy 4-0 victory against USL League Two’s Western Mass Pioneers at Lusitano Stadium in Ludlow, Mass.
With the thermometer hovering around 30 degrees and the 106-year-old stadium being battered by 40 mile-per-hour wind gusts, it seemed possible that both teams would get off to a cold start.
Instead, the defending USL League One Players’ Shield Winners rocketed out of the gate, as forward Joe Gallardo slotted a 4th minute goal that deflected off a Pioneer defender, giving Omaha a 1-0 lead.
For the rest of the half, the combination of the wind and Omaha’s relenting pressure caused the Pioneers to struggle to build momentum. One Union attempt found the crossbar, and a 30th minute cross into the box from Gallardo required some panicked defending from Western Mass to diffuse the chance.
The impact of the home side’s lack of practice time and hodgepodge roster, which contained many players that were new to the squad, was evident through the game.
In the second half, Omaha’s pressure became too much to bear.
The 67th minute saw Steevan dos Santos continue the form he showed in the 2023 USL League One regular season, scoring with his right foot to give his team the 2-0 lead, with the assist going to Brazilian midfielder Pedro Dolabella.
Six minutes later in the 73rd minute, Joe Gallardo added a second goal to increase Omaha’s lead to third. He would score his third right-footed goal in the 89th minute, earning the hatrick and capping the game off at 4-0 for the away side.
Facing a team that had only trained together twice, Omaha goalkeeper and captain Rashid Nuhu spent most of the game focusing on staying warm and admiring his side’s form, seeing no official shots on target. While it wasn’t the most difficult conditions the Ghanaian goalkeeper and Fordham University alum has played in, it was close.
“I wouldn’t say it was the worst, but it was up there,” Nuhu said, “For sure, very cold and it’s hard with the atmosphere, with no fans out here.”
Despite the shutout, he showed respect to the Pioneers.
“They’re tough, I know them,” said Nuhu, who played for the Westchester Flames in 2016 and for New York Red Bulls U-23s in 2018, when USL-2 was known as the PDL. “I knew it was going to be tough. We had to stay on our game and stay focused the whole game. If not, we could lose.”
Omaha Union moves on to the Second Round of the U.S. Open Cup in a game against a yet to be determined opponent that will take place on either April 2 or 3. This marks the third consecutive year that they’ve won their first cup game; they made the Third Round in 2023 and advanced all the way to the quarterfinals in 2022, their first ever time playing in the competition.
