Western Mass Pioneers Ready For U.S. Open Cup Test Against Union Omaha
Last year's USL League 1 regular season champions will visit the Lusitano Stadium on Thursday in the Pioneers U.S. Open Cup first round match.
Having drawn the 2023 USL League 1 regular season champions, head coach Federico Molinari knows a tough challenge awaits his Western Mass Pioneers on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
“I think we got a tough draw,” said Molinari. “But having said that it’s 90 minutes and in 90 minutes anything can happen.”
As Molinari had gotten his team together to hold a couple of training sessions before welcoming Nebraska’s Union Omaha, it was hard to not think about the differences between both teams’ preparation for this match.
“We don’t have the preparation that they have,” Molinari said. “That’s the reality: they started probably in February, we started a week ago.”
Similar to the other USL League 2 clubs competing in the first round of the U.S. Open Cup, the Pioneers are relying on a group of college players that were on Spring break in the last two weeks. This has made it difficult to gather up players for training sessions, but Molinari managed to squeeze two sessions in the last week. Having gotten the home draw also saved Molinari the task of having to get the players time-off school to go play in Nebraska.
Being a USL League 1 side, Union Omaha started their league season on March 16th with a 2-1 victory over Jermaine Jones’ Central Valley Fuego F.C. Omaha displayed a great ability to create from the wings and capitalize on set pieces while playing an efficient pressing game. However, Molinari wasn’t fazed by his rival’s league debut.
“Anything can happen,” he said. “You can be the favorite team or have superstars, but if that day is not your day, or that day the players who have to create plays don’t have their day and you have one or two chances and put them away — you never know what can happen.”
Union Omaha will also have nine days after their encounter with the Pioneers to prepare for their next USL League 1 match against the Chattanooga Red Wolves SC. With the time provided, Omaha are expected to feature several of their starters on Thursday.
In search of achieving a cupset, Molinari hopes to also have his fans behind him. Especially as the temperature is expected to drop under 32° F just before kick-off.
“I hope we can have our fans with us,” said Molinari. “I think because it's a U.S. Open Cup game and because we play against a professional team we're gonna have a good good attendance anyway. But that will be an extra help.”
Union Omaha are coached by former El Paso Locomotive FC manager, Dominic Casciato. Casciato formerly worked as a video scout at FC Midtjylland, an assistant for the New York Cosmos and spent three years at Espanyol’s academy.
Having established himself as a big-name manager in the USL, Molinari is looking forward to coaching against him.
“You see the resume that he has and it's because he is a very, very, very good coach,” Molinari said about Casciato’s record. “He has to have been managing very well in all the places that he’s been during all this time.”
Molinari has managed in six editions of the U.S. Open Cup and advanced to the second round twice, but this is the first time he’s faced a professional team in the first round.
“They are the favorites,” Molinari said. “There’s no question about it, but we’re going to try to compete for the ninety minutes.”