In a season of firsts, Spokane Velocity have one final first in mind – a USL championship

It has been a season of firsts for Spokane Velocity FC as the first-year team finds itself as one of two teams remaining in the USL League One playoffs.

From the first goal in franchise history – a Josh Dolling penalty kick in the 13th minute on March 9 – to the first assist on March 16 – Jack Denton setting up Roman Métanire – the 2024 inaugural season has been one that newly formed expansion teams will try ro replicate.

On Sunday, seventh-seeded Spokane will travel to Omaha, Nebraska, to face top-seeded Union Omaha in its first USL League One championship game.

The match kicks off at noon at Werner Park and can be viewed on KSKN 22 in the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene region or on Paramount+ if outside of that market.

Sirius XM channel will have the broadcast and Flatstick Pub in downtown will be hosting a local watch party with the doors opening at 10 a.m.

The first win in club history happened on March 16. Just more than eight months later, the Velocity will be searching for their first title.

“Let me start off by saying, that’s not normal,” Velocity head coach Leigh Veidman said. “The candid answer is nobody expected this in Year 1, but when you’ve got a group of hard-working people behind the scenes trying to build something like this, when you have got a great locker room of amazing people, excellent football players who work hard, apply themselves every day, deal with the highs, deal with the lows that a season brings. And then you’ve got the city of Spokane who showed up for us all year.

“If there is a magic recipe, that is it.”

Veidman said the lack of distractions from ownership downward has allowed his players to focus on their play. Also, the players who were brought in meshed well and there’s been no commotion in the locker room to upset the good vibes.

In the first matchup between the two, Spokane beat Omaha 3-2 at home.

The next two games were split, a 4-1 Omaha win and a 2-1 Spokane victory.

The final matchup was Oct. 2 at Omaha, and the Owls won 4-0.

That trend was obvious throughout the season as Omaha was the best team at home in 2024, winning a league-high seven home matches and another two in the playoffs.

But Spokane is looking to continue its firsts. The Velocity are the first expansion team to make the championship and the first to beat multiple higher seeds in one playoff run.

They matched a League One playoff record with two clean sheets in a single postseason.

Veidman praised his players for staying compact in the first two playoff matches. He said there’s no reason why his team can’t keep that streak alive Sunday.

Spokane has one more first to check off, but it will need to go through the 2021 title winner, Omaha.

“The team is flying high in confidence right now and there is no reason why we can’t go out there and get the job done on Sunday,” Veidman said.

But Veidman stressed, as he did a week ago before the semifinal, that the game stands alone. Previous results don’t play on the field.

With a win, the Velocity will earn the star above the team crest on their jerseys, something that Omaha has featured since the 2022 season kicked off.

A player who wore the Omaha jersey with that star is current Spokane captain Luis Gil.

He won the Players Shield with Omaha in 2023 – its second in as many years – and he scored three goals with nine assists in 53 appearances.

Gil hasn’t thought too much about that, knowing that previous results and experiences won’t impact what Sunday has in store.

“I feel confident with my team, I’m not looking too much toward them,” Gil said. “I feel like we’ve been putting in a certain amount of work that has led us to get to the final, and we just have to keep bringing that momentum.

“Enjoy it at the end of the day, that is the big thing, enjoy it when we get results.”

Gil also said there will be peaks and valleys over the 90 minutes and players who don’t start are going to make a difference. Everyone has to be ready to contribute, even if their name isn’t among the starting 11.

“Those are going to be the game changers. They can be the ones who win the game,” Gil said. “We have to leave it all out on the field.”

Gil leads the series this season with three goals in the four competitions.

Omaha is the league standard, a consistent and dangerous power that has been here before.

Gil sees some similarities in the teams, but he didn’t want to put pressure on his teammates with an expectation to match Omaha.

The Owls finished the regular season with the second-most points per game in league history (2.18) and set single-season league records for goals per game (2.14) and goal differential (+23).

They led the league in points, securing the Players Shield.

A lot of their damage happened at home. Veidman said that while the Owls are a dominant home team, Spokane has shown it can play in unfriendly confines this postseason.

“Specifically Madison, that is a hostile environment, and we got the business done,” he said. “So, we’re not worried about it. We know what we need to go and do.”

Omaha is led by 2023 coach of the year Dominic Casciato, who calls England home (London), as does Veidman (Liverpool).

“We’ve got one more to get it done, and we can 1,000% get it done and lift this trophy on Sunday,” Veidman said.