Battle of the Birds

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC

The problem with waiting until now to post this is that all the good "I wasn't accidentally added to the group text" jokes have already been made. But no, I have not been added to the Tormenta Coaching Staff group text where they discuss tactics and strategy. 

But we won’t let that deter us from our appointed rounds as we forge ahead, steadfast in the knowledge that South Georgia’s game plan is more secure than our National Security.

Omaha has been the class of USL1. I don’t think there’s any denying that. I suppose in the land of Alternative Facts you could deny it, but if nothing else, we try to spend our time in this reality. They were the best team in the regular season last year and also earned another star with their romp through the playoffs. 

And as Bryan from the League One On the Rocks podcasts likes to point out, Tormenta has never beaten Omaha. Is this the match that streak ends? 

While they lost some key players from last year’s squad (Pedro Dolabella, Steevan Dos Santos and Missael Rodriguez all immediately spring to mind), they’re still a dangerous team.

Omaha lost their only League One game of the season, a 3-0 loss to Greenville. They rebounded with a 2-1 win over Flatirons Rush, a USL2 team out of Colorado in their US Open Cup first round game with goals from Aaron Gomez and Joe Gallardo.

Making things more interesting is Tormenta has a very quick turnaround to their US Open Cup second round game on Tuesday. Manager Ian Cameron shuffled his lineup a little bit in their previous League One match against AV Alta, resting players like Conor Doyle and Sebastian Vivas and playing them in the Open Cup match. Omaha, meanwhile, has an extra day before their Open Cup match, but it's on the road at Des Moines. 

Presumably Cameron will make similar calculations with an even quicker turnaround this time. Add in the fact that South Georgia’s first road match looming next weekend and, honestly, my son's going to have a difficult task with America's Favorite Game* on Saturday. What that lineup looks like, I certainly couldn’t tell you. As we discussed, I’m not in that group text.

If I had to guess, I would bet that goalkeeper Sam Jones gets a start in the US Open Cup on Tuesday. Jones made his professional debut for Tormenta in their previous US Open Cup match against Harbor City (as fans were yelling “We want Sam” before he was subbed on.) Alex Ashton over at Southeast Soccer Report had an excellent write up of Jones journey through the Tormenta system. 

Cameron said they’d considered starting Jones against Harbor City, but with the weekend off, they wanted to keep starting goalkeeper Austin Pack in his normal rhythm.

“We know in Sam we’ve got someone that we can call upon who’ll play games this year,” Cameron said. 

It was important, Cameron said, to get Jones minutes early in the year to get the experience of playing as a professional and to get the feeling of it.

“Later on in the season, when he has to step up and start a game and help us win a match, that’s not those first game nerves,” Cameron said. “I’m proud of him and I’m proud of the academy to have another player who’s made a professional debut.”

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Omaha comes calling on Saturday.

The biggest question for Tormenta coming into Saturday’s match has to be “What’s wrong with Jonathan Nyandjo?” 

“But Luke,” you say, “Nyandjo has played really well this year and he scored a goal against Harbor City. Why would you ask that?”

The answer is pretty obvious. Nyandjo is the only Tormenta player who has scored this season who also doesn’t have a brace. He’s the slacker who only scored one goal against Harbor City FC in their Open Cup game. 

Previously Mason Tunbridge scored twice against Richmond. Yaniv Bazini scored two in Tormenta’s AV Alta and Niall Reid-Stephen found the back of the net twice against Harbor City. Nyandjo? Just a single goal. All will be forgiven if he gets a hat trick on Saturday (which would also help Tormenta in the Chaos BCS rankings the fine folks at the Walkin’ 90 Podcast are tracking this year.)

In all seriousness (I cringe writing that, but I do want this to be somewhat informative), Nyandjo and Reid-Stephen have both been excellent for Tormenta on the wings. They’ve given Ian Cameron what he’s wanted, which is dangerous players high and wide who can take on defenders, get off a cross and create problems for opposing defenses. Add in Taylor Gray off the bench and South Georgia has a trio of guys who can really run.

“I think that’s a young man really embracing what we’re trying to do,” Cameron said of Nyandjo. “When you’ve got the skill set where you can beat players, other players have to understand it’s really tough not to keep on wanting to take on players because you know you can and recycle the ball. What he’s done a really good job of in the last couple of weeks is recognizing when to use his burners and when to retain.”

Turning his attention to Reid-Stephen, Cameron continued his praise for his wingers.

“Naill, look, when you’ve got guys going to outrun people up top, it makes the game so much easier. Just watching him run is a joy because his mechanics are so smooth,” Cameron said. “He’s been scoring goals in the preseason and in the first couple of (League One) games, he’s had chances but didn’t quite bag it, but he’s responded and got two (last Thursday), which he really deserves. He’s a top player and someone who’s going to have a big career.”

Defensively, starting center back Anatolie Prepelita came out of the match against Harbor City after sustaining what appeared to be a head injury of some kind. If he’s unable to go, my guess either Callum Stretch or Thabo Nare likely to fill the center back role next to Jackson Kasanzu. But with another match Tuesday, a guess is all it is.

What to expect from Omaha:

Special thanks to Tim Howerton, Ranting Blue Penguin Media for a look at Omaha. Be sure to check him out on BlueSky and give him a watch on his next Omaha YouTube watch along. 

Asking what to expect from any team this early in the season is often akin to calling the flip of a coin, and Union Omaha is no exception. Despite returning a large core of starters from last year’s championship season, enough is missing that you can see some of the struggles on the pitch. Even so, there are still some things that you can watch for out of any Owl XI that Dominic Casciato runs out.

You can expect a lot of the offensive chance creation to come off the wings. Charlie Ostrem on the left and Dion Acoff on the right tend to start the majority of attacks up either wing. They are quick on the ball, have good footwork, and are able to put crosses into dangerous areas that could give defenses problems.

That is, assuming there is someone on the end of those crosses. Aarón Gomez has been a good target on the back posts, but new signings Mehdi Ouamri and Kemi Amiche have yet to have a major impact in that part of the game. What the latter two are good at is taking on a defender or two deep in the box and creating crosses or winning corners. The best chances Omaha has seen on goal so far has come from this type of play, and it has had to. It’s hard to replace the kind of dribble-and-shoot skills that the injured Lagos Kunga brought to the pitch.

The midfield can be expected to stay compact and hold defenses giving time for the wingers to return back to position. They are more than capable of turning those midfield turnovers into promising attacks, and Joe Gallardo will be key to many of those counter opportunities. Watch for him, Max Schneider, and either Brandon Knapp or Chello Martínez to work on gumming up the works and trying to feed the wings on an outlet—or even finding a quick through ball to Ouamri or Amiche.

The bigger question mark from the Greenville match is the defense. Their lapses led to two goals against the run of play that decided the match way too early. Coach Casciato brought in veteran defender Brent Kallman in the offseason, but you can’t replace the chemistry that Rashid Nuhu, Luca Mastrantonio, and Marco Milanese brought to organizing the defense. That chemistry will get better after a solid outing at Flatirons FC in the US Open Cup where Kallman and Milanese found themselves in front of capable 25-day signing Cole Jensen in goal. Despite their struggles, the Búho Backline has only allowed 12 touches inside the box (7 shots taken) across both games. Expect that kind of shutdown in the final third—it’ll take some creativity to get inside and create shooting space, otherwise, you’re looking at a bangers only kinda night. 

Tim went above and beyond here with his Omaha analysis. Many thanks!

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at Tormenta Stadium. My game story will be online at StatesboroHerald.com sometime Sunday and then, pending family commitments, I’ll have a post Monday morning getting us set for Tuesday’s US Open Cup Matchup. 

*For those who wisely don't follow me on BlueSky, America's Favorite Game is what I've taken to calling the game in which I give my son 11 picks to guess the Tormenta starting lineup. Despite the name, it has not caught on across America. Yet.