How Union Omaha soared into title contention

On the principles behind a record-setting winning streak

Heading into Week 20 of the USL League One season, Union Omaha were tied for the final playoff spot in the table and sported a net-zero goal difference. Fast forward six games and one calendar month, and Omaha is now just one point off first place with a +8 goal difference. Beat North Carolina FC next Wednesday, and they could top the table.

Six games up, six wins down, but what is Omaha doing to stay on top? They aren’t dominating the ball; Dom Casciato’s side has held just 46.8% of possession during their hot streak. They haven’t exceeded the 50% mark for the entire month of August.

What’s interesting about Omaha is that they’re middle-of-the-road in terms of most metrics. This isn’t a team with a gimmick or a numerically significant calling card. Indeed, they rank between fifth and eighth in League One in terms passes per match, crosses per match, long passing, and pressing aggressiveness. Moreover, Omaha is underwater in 2023 in terms of goals saved versus expectation amidst an uneven campaign from Rashid Nuhu in net.

This team excels because of a 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 shape that highlights their best players, allows for overloads in the attacking half, and provides flexibility in the defensive zone.

Let’s start with the offense. Omaha often tucks their wingers narrow, opening space for overlaps and allowing runs to the far post off of the forwards. One of the strikers - usually Steeven Dos Santos - rides the back shoulder of the defense and holds up possession, while the other is more mobile, making secondary runs and interchanging with those wingers in the half spaces. Deeper, Omaha uses a double pivot, keeping both central midfielders deep in build-up.

If you look at the heat maps from a given match, Omaha stands out for their abdication of what’s called “Zone 14,” the central area on the edge of the box. Ostensibly, this part of the field is where you want to run an offense. It allows for a full 360° of passing angles, and it gives ball-handlers the choice between threading a through ball or firing on net.

Casciato’s side is unique in their lack of centrality. The focus on width allows Omaha to work outside-in. Still, this offense isn’t reliant on crosses. Despite the low-possession, sideline-centric style, Omaha still builds with control and rarely defaults to hopeful crosses from deep.

You see those principles at play in the clips above. The first play highlights how the central midfielders and center backs pack into the same half spaces on either side. This necessarily forces the opposition to get narrow. Meanwhile, the full backs advances up field into the space afforded by this narrowness.

Same idea in the second play. You get that familiar action in the middle, but this time right back Dion Acoff cuts back deep against an aggressive press to serve as an outlet. Nevertheless, Acoff is almost used as a dummy to further draw the defense up and open a ball into the channel further ahead.

Omaha only goes long about 23% on pass attempts by their center backs and goalkeepers, which puts them exactly at the USL League One average. Still, you see that these aren’t useless lumps upfield. There’s a real intention when this side boots the ball. Those longer passes into the channels are played with a sense of precision and tactical purpose.

When Omaha breaks into the attacking half with control, they’re able to take advantage of their formation’s tenets. You see Acoff overlap off of narrow right winger Joe Gallardo in the first instance above, allowing the full back to move beyond the defense. From there, watch how Noe Meza - Gallardo’s opposite number on the left wing - has come central to form a trio with Pedro Dollabella and Dos Santos.

Similar stuff in the second play. Acoff and Gallardo engage in the two-man game, and the front three roves dangerously. You get another run in from the left winger, but it’s Joseph Brito instead of Meza this time. With both forwards deep in the box, Brito has space on the edge of a box for a cutback goal.

The natural gravity of the dual-striker style Omaha plays with is key here, but so is the role of the winger on the weak side. Because this team allows their full backs to overlap so aggressively, the Meza and Brito types aren’t required to hug the sideline. It overloads the defense down the middle and powers chances twice above.

Still, those forwards are more than capable of getting involved in build-up. That’s the beauty of using two strikers and a narrow winger on the weak side; you constantly retain a threat to challenge the defense in the middle. The first play above is indicative of as much; Dolabella drops in and draws eyes, allowing centerman Connor Doyle to get space. From there, Gallardo’s in, and Meza makes a dummy run under Dos Santos to free a headed goal.

Meza is first on the team with nine goals, which is why the run he makes is so potent. Still, Omaha has won their last four matches without Meza in the squad! Meanwhile, Doyle - the hockey assister abvoe - is one of two players on the team with more than 1,000 passes on the season and is a crucial creative presence in the pivot. You see how the team’s style highlights both stars here.

Meanwhile, in the second clip, Dolabella drops to receive yet again, and Dos Santos does the same to hold up the ball off of his strike partner. The defense is drawn to both runs, and Brito is off to the races on the open flank. Still, there’s a lurking presence on the right to keep the opposition honest.

Clearly, the Casciato offense is clicking, but what of the Omaha defense? They’ve conceded seven goals during their win streak but kept only one clean sheet. The back line has been solid if unspectacular in their own half, but there are similar tactical principles at play again.

You see their 4-2-2-2 defensive base above. It’s much wider-split in the high areas than usual in the screenshot as Omaha tracks back, but you get the picture.

Think back to that initial offensive play where Omaha’s center back-central midfield pairs draw opponents tight and narrow. It’s an inversion of the same principle when this team is out of possession. By staying so tight down the middle, they funnel attacking moves down the flanks.

That’s where Omaha springs their trap. The guests are forced down the sideline in this second screenshot, and the left back - Marco Milanese here - steps up against the move, pinching in tandem with a back-tracking Meza on the wing.

Still, Milanese’s aggression is support by back-end rotation from the rest of the squad. Acoff comes narrower, and both center backs hedge leftward behind their advancing teammate. There’s a dual utility here. Obviously, Omaha is well-positioned to make a stop. Additionally, however, they’re setting themselves up for Milanese to force a turnover, carry the ball into attack, and step up the attacking shape on the counter.

As they have the chance to win a seventh straight game to set the USL League One record, Union Omaha have been a joy to watch because of the clarity and efficiency of their style. Dom Casciato has instituted a fun-to-watch set of principles that emphasize the talent on his roster, and Omaha is soaring because of it.