Fort Wayne FC Suffers Defeat at the Hands of League Leaders Union Omaha

On Saturday night Fort Wayne FC suffered their 1st ever defeat in USL League One action at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium. Union Omaha prevailed against the Fort Wayne side 2-0 which kept the Owls in pole position atop the USL League One table, meanwhile Fort Wayne FC fell to 9th in the league and one point adrift the playoff positions.

Union Omaha started the better of the two sides as in the 9th minute Sergio Ors Navarro struck the bar after Laurence Wootton was able to find him in space. Fort Wayne FC responded with a big chance of their own in the 27th minute after Michael Rempel intercepted a ball from Omaha’s Owusu, drove forward and eventually found Lillian Ricol on the back post whose volleyed effort struck the post.

Fort Wayne FC continued to have chances, most notably in the 36th minute, as Javier Armas found Taig Healy in the box with a beautiful lofted ball, but Younes Boudadi came up with a brilliant sliding challenge to prevent the shot. Union Omaha had a couple of shots from their top scorer, Diego Gutierrez who had his second shot saved by Bernd Schipmann.

Fort Wayne FC had the first big opportunity in the 2nd half after an errant pass by Owusu was picked up by the Englishman, Jack Thomas, on the left who used his pace to get behind the back line, but his shot went straight at the Owls’ goalkeeper, Cole Jensen. Again, only three minutes later in the 60th, Fort Wayne FC got through after some great attacking play by Kabiru Gafar whose cross found Thomas and ultimately resulted in Cole Jensen’s second save of the match. Less than a minute later Union Omaha found the breakthrough, switching flanks quickly to find Younes Boudadi who cut it back to Allen Gavilanes who fired it into the top left corner leaving Bernd Schipmann with no chance.

Fort Wayne FC responded quickly in the 65th minute as Michael Rempel was played through again on the left side and able to put in a teasing cross that just missed Kabiru Gafar.

Things heated up in the 71st minute as a hard challenge by Gabriel Cabral on Clarence Awoudor led to a yellow card for Cabral and a small confrontation between the two sides. Then in the 74th minute, Union Omaha delivered the sucker punch as a great ball in behind by Blake Malone to find Gavilanes who layed it off to Faz who found Sergio Ors Navarro who fired it past Bernd Schipmann.

After the second it was all Union Omaha who again found space in the 83rd to play Ors Navarro who forced an incredible save by Schipmann. Only a few minutes later in the 88th, things turned from bad to worse as Michael Rempel was issued a red card for bringing down Josué Gómez. Fort Wayne already seemed to have capitulated after the second by the Owls, but losing Rempel, who was one of the best players on the field that day, put the game truly out of reach.

Next, Fort Wayne FC faces 7th placed AV Alta on Saturday the 8th, in Lancaster, California where they look to get back to winning ways without Michael Rempel. The previous meeting was in Fort Wayne where the two sides drew 0-0, but Fort Wayne FC played virtually the whole second half up a man. That match will air at 11 pm EDT on ESPN+.