April 24, 2024 • 12 mins
It's a big moment for soccer in this town. Kick off is set for 7 p.m. CT on Wednesday, May 8 at Caniglia Field on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
One of my passions. It's prettyobvious. I talk about it all the
time. I just love sports.I love going to actual sporting events.
I love to be there. Iused to be a regular play by play
broadcaster. It's kind of fun justto be a fan now. And when
I moved to Omaha, one ofthe first things that I wanted to do
was start watching Union Omaha matches inperson. That is something that I was
(00:20):
able to accomplish. Was blessed tokind of get connected with the front office
of Union Omaha right when I movedin last year, and one of the
names I needed to know very quicklywas Dominique Cassiato, and he happens to
be the manager, the head coach, if you will, of Union Omaha,
and he's joining us on the phonelines. Coach Tom, thanks so
much for being a part of ourshow today. Thank you for having me.
(00:43):
How you do it, I'm doingfantastic, sir. I really appreciate
you taking time out of your weekto do this because now you're in the
full fledged season at this point forUSL League one. And before we talk
about the real reason that we're goingto chat, which is a huge match
that you guys have coming up herein the next couple of weeks. Take
me through kind of the season sofar. This is a club last year
(01:03):
representing our city in Omaha, whowas top of the table by the end
of the season, and not onlywere they able to accomplish that, but
now you're heading in with high expectationsonce again this year. We'll take me
through kind of how you feel theclub has gone so far in the first
you know, month or so ofthe real proper season. Yeah, we've
(01:23):
had a really positive start, obviouslybacking up what we did last year.
So far, we have been ina little bit of a conundrum, I'll
say really because the league with theschedule. One of our early games was
canceled. Say, it almost feelsas if our season has been caught on
pools a couple of times. Butyou know, we're happy with the results
we've got so far. We playedsix games with one, five tied one.
(01:48):
We've got two good games coming upnext week. Yeah, So we
talked about, you know, thesoccer season. Soccer is an interesting sport.
It's starting to catch on you hearthese awesome, you know, news
stories about what this stadium could bringto downtown Omaha. In the excitement behind
all of this, the World Cupcoming to the United States, I think
people are going to get more andmore familiar with this game. But this
(02:09):
is a grueling sport. These guys, you're asking a lot of them.
They're traveling, you know, five, eight, ten, twelve kilometers per
match, and they're you know,traveling around the country playing. You have
to kind of juggle their health andmaking this team work. But one thing
that this club has really held itsout on is success not only in League
One but in the US Open Cup, and that seems to be a trend
(02:30):
for this club. Coach, whatwhat do you think about the first couple
of matches you've played in this bracketso far, including a couple of wins
in Omaha to start this bracket.Yeah, yeah, it's been great for
US. I mean, if youlook at the history of the club,
it's obviously a short history, butthey've always found a way to be successful.
(02:52):
And you know that goes to theOpen Cup as well. And you
look before my time, probably agreat run to the quarter finals, beating
a couple of them less teams away. Last year we beat El Paso Locomotive
obviously a team from the USL Championshipbefore we went and played in Saint Louis
in front of twenty thousand plus people. And then this year, you know,
(03:12):
we've had three rounds so far.The Open Cup. We went to
Boston to play Western Massachusetts Pioneers.We'd be pretty handley for zero. After
that we played the Moine Menace,had a bunch of xm ols guys playing,
which was interesting, and we didthat at you and know, at
Conniglia Field, which was great toplay in the local university stadium. Able
to win that game three to one. And then this past week obviously playing
(03:37):
against El Paso again second year ina row, you know, the team
with more resources than us and youknow, in the league above us.
But I don't think you'd be ableto tell that if you watch the game.
You know, we always find away to win or find a way
to get what we want. Andwe did that on Wednesday night and really
pleased have done so. And Ithink anyone that came to the game would
(03:57):
have enjoyed it, would have foundit exciting. Obviously enjoyed us winning on
and we shoot out at the end. Very exciting stuff. And we're speaking
right now with the manager or inAmerican terms, if you will, head
coach of Union Omaha is Dominique Castiato, and I guess coach dom I think
my perspective is a little bit warpbecause I just love the sport so much.
(04:20):
I have to kind of, youknow, like slow my role a
little bit. But the US OpenCup is kind of an interesting concept that
is, you know, really masteredin England, your homeland. The FA
Cup is kind of the grandfather tournamentof the sport itself. And how do
you best describe what this tournament is? Because you're mentioning a bunch of different
(04:41):
clubs with different levels in different waysthey build their team. What makes this
tournament different than say, you know, when people go and watch you guys
play generally in league play. Ithink everybody loves the magic at a cup,
right, and I think the magichit a cup is down to the
fact that you can get these matchups. David Versus got like, you can
you can have a team from thethird division or a fourth division play against
(05:04):
the top team from the from thefirst division. Right last year when we
went to Place and Lewis, theywere top for the MLS at the time,
I don't think he'd lost the game, and everybody loved those stories.
If you know, smaller teams areable to go there and win, and
it's a chance for the players aswell to make a name for theirselves,
right. You know, a lotof the players at our level have tremendous
(05:25):
ability, but maybe just haven't hadthe right opportunity. So I think for
a lot of players, it's anopportunity to showcase theirselves and get an opportunity
that maybe they haven't had in thepast. And I think people love seeing
that, right, They love seeingthe underdog go against the big boys,
and you know, rooting for theunderdog, rooting for the guys that maybe
haven't had a chance that deserve achance. For sure, you you one
(05:47):
coach of the Year in League onelast year. You led this team to
the top of the table. Theyear before that, you mentioned this team
ended up the Union. Omaha madea really deep run in the US Open
Cup, but it was cut offby a team called Sporting Kansas City,
which is just down the road inKansas City, and Sporting Kansas City is
an MLS team now. But beforewe talk about the draw that you landed
(06:11):
with them, again and the factthat you guys are going to play.
Actually here in Omaha, there's alittle bit of drama with the MLS.
We know that's the top level ofprofessional soccer in this country, but there's
a little bit of drama with theparticipation of the MLS and this tournament,
this US Open Cup. Can youdescribe that for me kind of like what
why only certain teams have elected toplay in this and what the future kind
(06:33):
of holds for that. Yeah,to be honest, I'm not privy to
it, you know. I thinkfor us, obviously we want to compete
against the best teams in the country, the biggest club. We want to
compete against MLS clubs. I knowpart of concern was around fixture congestion about
having too many games, especially withthe league's cup competition. They play with
(06:56):
the team from Mexico, so Ithink that was part of it. I
don't know all the details and I'mnot exactly sure how that's going to play
out in the future. What Ido know and what I can control is
our participation in the tournament. We'regoing to take it seriously. We're going
to put our strongest team out andwe're obviously going to go and try and
win the game and go as faras we can in the competition, and
(07:17):
that's what we can do. Wecan't get caught up with what MLS are
doing and why they're doing it,so I'm sure they have their reasons.
I'm not prevy to all of them. We're just trying to be gregarious participants
and as well as we can.We're speaking with Union Omaha manager Dominic Casciato,
and you're going to be down thereon the pitch again at Caniglia over
(07:40):
on the campus of the University ofNebraska Omaha for the round of thirty two
of the US Open. You're oneof four teams at your level that have
made it to this round and theeight MLS teams that are playing are involved,
and you guys actually have drawn oneof them, and that is Sporting
Kansas City, which ended that incrediblerun for Union Omaha a couple of seasons
ago. Can you explain to uskind of the what would be a good
(08:05):
result here? Obviously you want towin the match, but this is the
first time, as far as Iknow, I don't think this has happened
before where an MLS team has actuallyplayed in Omaha. This is certainly the
first time an MLS team has cometo Omaha to play union Omaha. Is
there something that you can describe thatwould make people understand, like what the
difference is between where they sit inthe pyramid of American soccer and where you
(08:28):
guys are. Yeah, I thinkwe play in a converted baseball stadium.
And you know, a few weeksago Sports in Kansas City ad into Miami
in town played against in to Miamiwho have Lionel Messa, who's probably be
the greatest player of all time,and they had to move from their stadium,
(08:50):
which I think is about a thirtythousand seat of capacity stadium to play
Arrowhead Stadium, which holds a lotmore people. And we've never played in
front of Thief and certainly not astadium Maharrowhead and had it sold out.
So I think I think you kindof get a little bit of a glimpse
into the difference in the level.But you know, once you get on
(09:11):
the field, it's eleven against eleven, and you know they have to run
and work and play in the sameway that we do. So you know
we're going to go into it withno fear certainly with respect for the opposition,
but we're going to go into itwith no fear and you know,
do the best we can to winthe game. This match is going to
take place two weeks from tomorrow,on the eighth of May. The reason
(09:31):
we're talking today is because tickets haveofficially gone on sale for this match at
Kinniglia Field. This is going tobe an incredible thing for people who enjoy
the sport and enjoy you know,local sports in general. And there was
quite an atmosphere at Kniglia when theDes Moines Menez came, another team that's
you know, just a couple ofhours away, and they brought some supporters.
(09:54):
Obviously you talked about they kind ofhad the ghosts of MLS as part
of their roster there for that specificmatchup. But I think that that this
is this is going to be likea turning point I think for people in
their awareness for not just your club, but also the sport in Omaha.
From your personal perspective, how importantis it for people to you know,
pay close attention to what you guysare trying to accomplish this year for Union
(10:16):
Omaha. Yeah, Look, Ithink everybody wants to be recognized for their
work, right And I think we'reworking really hard on a day to day
basis to put a successful products onthe field. And you know, that's
been the case in the day oneof this club's existence. You know,
before I came in as a headcoach, the other coaching staff, you
(10:37):
know, the general manager, thefront office all been working really really hard
to put a great product on thefield. And obviously there's people that know
about us. There's people that cometo every game, and then there's people
that maybe haven't been exposed to usyet. So hopefully a game like this
allows us to spread our footprint inthe local area, you know, get
more people to our games, andjust let more people know that we exist
(10:58):
and we have a quality we putout on the field every week. And
I can tell you this right now, this is going to be a hot
ticket this Sporting Kansas City matchup atKenniglia Field. Generally Union Omaha playing at
Werner Park in Papillion. You canfind tickets online. All you got to
do is go to their website UnionOmaha dot com slash tickets. You're gonna
be able to find everything that theyhave to offer, including kids club group
(11:22):
tickets, single match and you'll seeme because I'm at a lot of these
matches because I just have a greattime. This is one of my favorite
things to do since I've moved toOmaha. I haven't been here yet a
year, and I definitely have goneto I think seven matches so far that
Union Omaha has played at in town. So I'm a huge fan. I
can't wait to see more people outhere. And when you go, you're
going to see coach Dominique Cashiata.It's going to be out there and coach
(11:45):
Tom. We can't thank you enoughfor what you've done already in your short
time here in Omaha. But thankyou so much for joining us on this
show and good luck with your upcomingfixtures, including against Sporting Case. I
appreciate it. Thanks for having them. Dominicuasciato, the head coach for the
Union omahaal unbelievable stuff that they doout there. Always appreciative of their time
and they're part on our show aswell. What could I come back?
(12:07):
It's a little trivia time. Ithink Tuesday Trivia on the Way on news
Radio eleven ten kfab
One of my passions. It's prettyobvious. I talk about it all the
time. I just love sports.I love going to actual sporting events.
I love to be there. Iused to be a regular play by play
broadcaster. It's kind of fun justto be a fan now. And when
I moved to Omaha, one ofthe first things that I wanted to do
was start watching Union Omaha matches inperson. That is something that I was
(00:20):
able to accomplish. Was blessed tokind of get connected with the front office
of Union Omaha right when I movedin last year, and one of the
names I needed to know very quicklywas Dominique Cassiato, and he happens to
be the manager, the head coach, if you will, of Union Omaha,
and he's joining us on the phonelines. Coach Tom, thanks so
much for being a part of ourshow today. Thank you for having me.
(00:43):
How you do it, I'm doingfantastic, sir. I really appreciate
you taking time out of your weekto do this because now you're in the
full fledged season at this point forUSL League one. And before we talk
about the real reason that we're goingto chat, which is a huge match
that you guys have coming up herein the next couple of weeks. Take
me through kind of the season sofar. This is a club last year
(01:03):
representing our city in Omaha, whowas top of the table by the end
of the season, and not onlywere they able to accomplish that, but
now you're heading in with high expectationsonce again this year. We'll take me
through kind of how you feel theclub has gone so far in the first
you know, month or so ofthe real proper season. Yeah, we've
(01:23):
had a really positive start, obviouslybacking up what we did last year.
So far, we have been ina little bit of a conundrum, I'll
say really because the league with theschedule. One of our early games was
canceled. Say, it almost feelsas if our season has been caught on
pools a couple of times. Butyou know, we're happy with the results
we've got so far. We playedsix games with one, five tied one.
(01:48):
We've got two good games coming upnext week. Yeah, So we
talked about, you know, thesoccer season. Soccer is an interesting sport.
It's starting to catch on you hearthese awesome, you know, news
stories about what this stadium could bringto downtown Omaha. In the excitement behind
all of this, the World Cupcoming to the United States, I think
people are going to get more andmore familiar with this game. But this
(02:09):
is a grueling sport. These guys, you're asking a lot of them.
They're traveling, you know, five, eight, ten, twelve kilometers per
match, and they're you know,traveling around the country playing. You have
to kind of juggle their health andmaking this team work. But one thing
that this club has really held itsout on is success not only in League
One but in the US Open Cup, and that seems to be a trend
(02:30):
for this club. Coach, whatwhat do you think about the first couple
of matches you've played in this bracketso far, including a couple of wins
in Omaha to start this bracket.Yeah, yeah, it's been great for
US. I mean, if youlook at the history of the club,
it's obviously a short history, butthey've always found a way to be successful.
(02:52):
And you know that goes to theOpen Cup as well. And you
look before my time, probably agreat run to the quarter finals, beating
a couple of them less teams away. Last year we beat El Paso Locomotive
obviously a team from the USL Championshipbefore we went and played in Saint Louis
in front of twenty thousand plus people. And then this year, you know,
(03:12):
we've had three rounds so far.The Open Cup. We went to
Boston to play Western Massachusetts Pioneers.We'd be pretty handley for zero. After
that we played the Moine Menace,had a bunch of xm ols guys playing,
which was interesting, and we didthat at you and know, at
Conniglia Field, which was great toplay in the local university stadium. Able
to win that game three to one. And then this past week obviously playing
(03:37):
against El Paso again second year ina row, you know, the team
with more resources than us and youknow, in the league above us.
But I don't think you'd be ableto tell that if you watch the game.
You know, we always find away to win or find a way
to get what we want. Andwe did that on Wednesday night and really
pleased have done so. And Ithink anyone that came to the game would
(03:57):
have enjoyed it, would have foundit exciting. Obviously enjoyed us winning on
and we shoot out at the end. Very exciting stuff. And we're speaking
right now with the manager or inAmerican terms, if you will, head
coach of Union Omaha is Dominique Castiato, and I guess coach dom I think
my perspective is a little bit warpbecause I just love the sport so much.
(04:20):
I have to kind of, youknow, like slow my role a
little bit. But the US OpenCup is kind of an interesting concept that
is, you know, really masteredin England, your homeland. The FA
Cup is kind of the grandfather tournamentof the sport itself. And how do
you best describe what this tournament is? Because you're mentioning a bunch of different
(04:41):
clubs with different levels in different waysthey build their team. What makes this
tournament different than say, you know, when people go and watch you guys
play generally in league play. Ithink everybody loves the magic at a cup,
right, and I think the magichit a cup is down to the
fact that you can get these matchups. David Versus got like, you can
you can have a team from thethird division or a fourth division play against
(05:04):
the top team from the from thefirst division. Right last year when we
went to Place and Lewis, theywere top for the MLS at the time,
I don't think he'd lost the game, and everybody loved those stories.
If you know, smaller teams areable to go there and win, and
it's a chance for the players aswell to make a name for theirselves,
right. You know, a lotof the players at our level have tremendous
(05:25):
ability, but maybe just haven't hadthe right opportunity. So I think for
a lot of players, it's anopportunity to showcase theirselves and get an opportunity
that maybe they haven't had in thepast. And I think people love seeing
that, right, They love seeingthe underdog go against the big boys,
and you know, rooting for theunderdog, rooting for the guys that maybe
haven't had a chance that deserve achance. For sure, you you one
(05:47):
coach of the Year in League onelast year. You led this team to
the top of the table. Theyear before that, you mentioned this team
ended up the Union. Omaha madea really deep run in the US Open
Cup, but it was cut offby a team called Sporting Kansas City,
which is just down the road inKansas City, and Sporting Kansas City is
an MLS team now. But beforewe talk about the draw that you landed
(06:11):
with them, again and the factthat you guys are going to play.
Actually here in Omaha, there's alittle bit of drama with the MLS.
We know that's the top level ofprofessional soccer in this country, but there's
a little bit of drama with theparticipation of the MLS and this tournament,
this US Open Cup. Can youdescribe that for me kind of like what
why only certain teams have elected toplay in this and what the future kind
(06:33):
of holds for that. Yeah,to be honest, I'm not privy to
it, you know. I thinkfor us, obviously we want to compete
against the best teams in the country, the biggest club. We want to
compete against MLS clubs. I knowpart of concern was around fixture congestion about
having too many games, especially withthe league's cup competition. They play with
(06:56):
the team from Mexico, so Ithink that was part of it. I
don't know all the details and I'mnot exactly sure how that's going to play
out in the future. What Ido know and what I can control is
our participation in the tournament. We'regoing to take it seriously. We're going
to put our strongest team out andwe're obviously going to go and try and
win the game and go as faras we can in the competition, and
(07:17):
that's what we can do. Wecan't get caught up with what MLS are
doing and why they're doing it,so I'm sure they have their reasons.
I'm not prevy to all of them. We're just trying to be gregarious participants
and as well as we can.We're speaking with Union Omaha manager Dominic Casciato,
and you're going to be down thereon the pitch again at Caniglia over
(07:40):
on the campus of the University ofNebraska Omaha for the round of thirty two
of the US Open. You're oneof four teams at your level that have
made it to this round and theeight MLS teams that are playing are involved,
and you guys actually have drawn oneof them, and that is Sporting
Kansas City, which ended that incrediblerun for Union Omaha a couple of seasons
ago. Can you explain to uskind of the what would be a good
(08:05):
result here? Obviously you want towin the match, but this is the
first time, as far as Iknow, I don't think this has happened
before where an MLS team has actuallyplayed in Omaha. This is certainly the
first time an MLS team has cometo Omaha to play union Omaha. Is
there something that you can describe thatwould make people understand, like what the
difference is between where they sit inthe pyramid of American soccer and where you
(08:28):
guys are. Yeah, I thinkwe play in a converted baseball stadium.
And you know, a few weeksago Sports in Kansas City ad into Miami
in town played against in to Miamiwho have Lionel Messa, who's probably be
the greatest player of all time,and they had to move from their stadium,
(08:50):
which I think is about a thirtythousand seat of capacity stadium to play
Arrowhead Stadium, which holds a lotmore people. And we've never played in
front of Thief and certainly not astadium Maharrowhead and had it sold out.
So I think I think you kindof get a little bit of a glimpse
into the difference in the level.But you know, once you get on
(09:11):
the field, it's eleven against eleven, and you know they have to run
and work and play in the sameway that we do. So you know
we're going to go into it withno fear certainly with respect for the opposition,
but we're going to go into itwith no fear and you know,
do the best we can to winthe game. This match is going to
take place two weeks from tomorrow,on the eighth of May. The reason
(09:31):
we're talking today is because tickets haveofficially gone on sale for this match at
Kinniglia Field. This is going tobe an incredible thing for people who enjoy
the sport and enjoy you know,local sports in general. And there was
quite an atmosphere at Kniglia when theDes Moines Menez came, another team that's
you know, just a couple ofhours away, and they brought some supporters.
(09:54):
Obviously you talked about they kind ofhad the ghosts of MLS as part
of their roster there for that specificmatchup. But I think that that this
is this is going to be likea turning point I think for people in
their awareness for not just your club, but also the sport in Omaha.
From your personal perspective, how importantis it for people to you know,
pay close attention to what you guysare trying to accomplish this year for Union
(10:16):
Omaha. Yeah, Look, Ithink everybody wants to be recognized for their
work, right And I think we'reworking really hard on a day to day
basis to put a successful products onthe field. And you know, that's
been the case in the day oneof this club's existence. You know,
before I came in as a headcoach, the other coaching staff, you
(10:37):
know, the general manager, thefront office all been working really really hard
to put a great product on thefield. And obviously there's people that know
about us. There's people that cometo every game, and then there's people
that maybe haven't been exposed to usyet. So hopefully a game like this
allows us to spread our footprint inthe local area, you know, get
more people to our games, andjust let more people know that we exist
(10:58):
and we have a quality we putout on the field every week. And
I can tell you this right now, this is going to be a hot
ticket this Sporting Kansas City matchup atKenniglia Field. Generally Union Omaha playing at
Werner Park in Papillion. You canfind tickets online. All you got to
do is go to their website UnionOmaha dot com slash tickets. You're gonna
be able to find everything that theyhave to offer, including kids club group
(11:22):
tickets, single match and you'll seeme because I'm at a lot of these
matches because I just have a greattime. This is one of my favorite
things to do since I've moved toOmaha. I haven't been here yet a
year, and I definitely have goneto I think seven matches so far that
Union Omaha has played at in town. So I'm a huge fan. I
can't wait to see more people outhere. And when you go, you're
going to see coach Dominique Cashiata.It's going to be out there and coach
(11:45):
Tom. We can't thank you enoughfor what you've done already in your short
time here in Omaha. But thankyou so much for joining us on this
show and good luck with your upcomingfixtures, including against Sporting Case. I
appreciate it. Thanks for having them. Dominicuasciato, the head coach for the
Union omahaal unbelievable stuff that they doout there. Always appreciative of their time
and they're part on our show aswell. What could I come back?
(12:07):
It's a little trivia time. Ithink Tuesday Trivia on the Way on news
Radio eleven ten kfab
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