Rashid Nuhu’s return to goal not enough to spark Owls
PAPILLION, Nebr. (April 9, 2025) – Union Omaha never quite looked settled into a match against Richmond Kickers, and they were made to pay for it.
Darwin Espinal stabbed home a goal in the 82nd minute to put the Roos through to a three-point result. Richmond outshot Union Omaha by a 14-6 margin, and 6-2 in shots on frame, reflecting just how much they wrested control of the match even before their late winner.
“We talk about making sure we have fire and outrun everyone we play against, so we just didn’t do enough of that tonight,” said Head Coach Dominic Casciato.
The Kickers had the run of it from the off. It took all of three minutes for them to call Rashid Nuhu into action in the captain’s first match of 2025, with Joshua Kirkland’s close-range shot forcing Nuhu to parry the ball over the bar.
It took until the 22nd minute for the Owls to fashion a proper effort of their own, with Dion Acoff turning on the jets to chip a through ball into the box before it rolled out of play. Sergio Ors Navarro could only get a slight touch to it though, and the ball trickled harmlessly wide. Union would begin to press from there, but without any true incision; if their 59.5% passing accuracy in Richmond’s half wasn’t evidence enough, the 0.32 xG (expected goals) stamped that message in ink.
Unfortunately, that was just about the high water mark of the match. The second half, for the most part, was even more sedate than the first. It started off very strong, though. Just a minute in the ball shuttled out wide to an in-form Acoff for him to drive at Richmond’s backline. His ensuing cross found Aarón Gómez right in front of goal, and it took great reflexes from young James Sneddon to deny Gómez the opener.
After that, it became a long test of who would blink first, and the Owls would use one of their three eyelids to do just that. (The least we can do is leave you with an owl fact; owls have one eyelid for blinking, one for sleeping, and a horizontal nictitating membrane for cleaning their eyes.)
Richmond would once again force Nuhu into a save when Simon Fitch sent him sprawling on a curler from outside the box. Emi Terzaghi would pounce on the rebound, just being played onside by Acoff on the far end, with his cross poked away by Nuhu as well… but directly into the path of the onrushing Espinal, who beat Acoff and Kallman to the ball to punch it home and deliver a gut punch to the visitors.
Omaha couldn’t scrounge up any attempts on goal after that, despite almost ten minutes of stoppage time, and a notoriously difficult place for the Owls to play only bolstered that reputation after the whistle blew for full time. Union Omaha is still searching for their first win in the capital of Virginia.
Said Casciato post-match, “We certainly didn’t create enough to get anything out of the game, so it’s disappointing, but we’ll learn from it and look forward to San Antonio next week in the [Open] Cup.”
Union Omaha returns home to play for the first time this season, with a showdown looming versus San Antonio FC in the U.S. Open Cup. You can catch them at Caniglia Field on Tuesday, April 15th at 7:00 pm, with tickets on sale now. After that, it’s their first match in the revamped USL Jägermeister Cup as the Owls flock to Albuquerque to face off with New Mexico United on Saturday, April 26th at 8:00 pm.
ABOUT UNION OMAHA
Union Omaha, the 2021 and 2024 USL League One Champions and three-time USL League One Players’ Shield Winner, is the only 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 American soccer, below USL Championship (tier two) and Major League Soccer (tier one). Union Omaha plays its home matches at Werner Park in Sarpy County, also home to the Omaha Storm Chasers of Minor League Baseball. The team is led by General Manager of Business Operations Alexis Boulos in the front office and Head Coach Dominic Casciato on the field.
