It’s that time of the year again, when I attempt to convince you to vote for one of five nominated clubs for Protagonist Soccer’s Club of the Year. We’ve done this four times before. In 2018, Inocentes FC from Ft. Worth, Texas won with an amazing story of immigrants finding success on the fields of the UPSL. In 2019, Pensacola FC won the WPSL title and the Club of the Year award. In 2020, one of the strangest of years due to the spiking pandemic, the Maryland Bobcats, fresh off a UPSL title and an announced move to becoming a professional club, took home the hardware. Last year, KC Courage were chosen as the Club of the Year for their heroic approach to supporting their players during the pandemic.

As always, our award is chosen by our readers. Our goal, as a staff, is to work together to narrow the field to 4-5 clubs in the lower league ranks, both men’s and women’s, and offer our choices to the readers of our site. It has yielded interesting results, honestly. Clubs seen as favorites have been passed over and dark horses have certainly surged across the finish line to take the silver. This year offered the first, in three years of pandemic, full seasons for all clubs nominated. In the end, it will be up to the readers to decide. Here’s to an amazing season of lower league stories. And here’s to our final nomination, Union Omaha.

The story of this nomination began last season, when Union Omaha won the USL1 Championship in late November. The team was dominant all season, finished top of the league table, 6 points clear of second place. In the playoffs, it was more of the same. Omaha thrashed FC Tucson in the semifinal, winning 6-1. In the final against Greenville Triumph, the Owls won 3-0 and hoisted the trophy. It was clear the club was good in USL League 1, but how would the success translate to higher-level competition?

In an interview with Protagonist Soccer in June of this year, Omaha’s GM, Peter Marlette, spoke with Josh Duder about the teams approach to the US Open Cup competition. “The goal, every season, is to compete to win every competition that we’re in. Whether that’s USL League One regular season; USL League One playoffs or finally, this year, US Open Cup, because the first two years we played, Open Cup got cancelled. So, we recognize that its going to be difficult to win every competition every year, but the goal is to compete and to have opportunities to win.”

Union Omaha entered the 2022 Open Cup in the second round of the competition and drew a tough competitor right away, legacy lower league club and defending USL League 2 champion, Des Moines Menace. Menace entered the second round after a 4-2 first round win over Minneapolis City SC. After giving up an early goal, the Owls would strike back just minutes later when JP Scearce would head a cross into the net. The rest of the first half and most of the second saw Union Omaha testing the Menace defense, but without success. The deciding goal would come in the 81st minute, when one of those testing crosses deflected off a defender into the goal for an own goal. 2-1.

If Des Moines was a test, the Owls’ third round opponent was a dissertation. The division three side drew MLS club, Chicago Fire. While the Fire have struggled recently in the first division, the difference in talent, means, pedigree, you name it, is staggering. Instead of being a blowout, the match showed just how good Union Omaha was. While Chicago scored two goals, both were pens, while Union’s Noe Meza and Alex Touche scored run-of-play goals against the MLS side. Touche’s goal would come in the final minutes of extra time to send the match to penalties. In penalties, goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu would save two pens for Union and the USL 1 side would advance.

In the fourth round, due to the weirdness of Open Cup draws, Union Omaha would face fellow USL 1 club Northern Colorado Hailstorm. Colorado had also advanced by beating an MLS side, Real Salt Lake. The clubs had faced similar tests to get there, so it seemed like an even matchup on paper. When the match kicked off, the difference in style was apparent, as Hailstorm worked to build up their attack and Omaha went direct, over and over again. The first half was scoreless, but Noe Meza scored for the Owls early in the second half.

In an interview with thecup.us after the match, Union Omaha’s head coach, Jay Mims described the goal. “We just pressure and pressure and pressure on them. What a wonderful goal scored early to get the crowd in it. What a special crowd tonight. Thanks to everyone that came out. It was loud, they were energetic, it was fun.” A second goal would provide an insurance policy and a 2-0 win.

At this point in the competition, the Owls had reached the round of 16, rarely charted territory for a third division club. In fact, with the win over Hailstorm, the club had won the $25,000 prize for being the last third division club standing in the Cup. With that prize would come a matchup with another MLS side, Minnesota United FC. MUFC would score in the sixth minute of the match, when Adrien Hunou scored in front of the home crowd. And while some might have thought the Cinderella run was over for Omaha, the team found a way back. Hugo Kametani would score in stoppage time in the first half and 6 minutes into the second, Joe Brito would score his first professional goal that would prove to be the winner. The MLS side held 75% possession but couldn’t find a way to get another goal. After the match, Mims saw that as part of the plan. "We knew we weren't going to come in here and dominate the ball and take over the game, we knew we were gonna have to defend for long periods of time. We also knew we'd come in and work hard and be savvy and be intelligent and create some chances." Two chances was enough and the Owls were headed to the quarterfinals.

You’d love a story like this to have a happy ending, but it wasn’t to be. In the round of 8, Omaha would face Sporting Kansas City. SKC had seen the previous matches and knew to be careful with a club that had already knocked off two MLS sides. They would dominate possession, just as MUFC would, but this time the MLS would score 6 times. Union Omaha managed a single shot on target the entire match. The carriage had turned back into a pumpkin and the run was over.

A vote for Union Omaha is a vote to celebrate a club who went on a run that inspired us all. Sure the odds were against them, but win after win convinced us they could do it. In the face of overwhelming odds, the Owls continued to win and we believed. Vote for hope. Vote for faith. Vote for Union Omaha.

- Dan Vaughn