North Texas' No. 1 Enemy? Inconsistency
Colorado Rapids 2 rolled into town and dominated North Texas, pouncing on every mistake. Hear NTSC head coach John Gall talk about the problem with inconsistency for the team.
The repeated theme of this season for North Texas Soccer Club, despite being the reigning champions, has been inconsistency.
We’ve talked about it on the pod. We’ve heard head coach John Gall demand more from his young players after each tough loss. We’ve also witnessed the team improve and bounce back to have that glimmer of being a championship-caliber side.
On Saturday night, with the senior team off and several first-teamers getting some minutes to stay sharp, against a Rapids 2 side that looked a level above, North Texas SC looked the part. Raw. Inexperienced. Inconsistent.
At the final whistle, the Rapids 2 had a big 4-1 win over North Texas to take home.
Head coach John Gall acknowledged that the biggest problem facing this young group of players is the lack of consistency.
“Last weekend we won the MLS NEXT Pro invitational, and then today, conceding four meant last week’s win felt meaningless,” Gall told our friend and reporter, Chris Wintas, after the match. “We have just had a lot of inconsistencies in performances this year. We are working on the inconsistency, fixing up during training so we don’t have these lows during the week. This team has either had very high or very low moments this season.”
Especially disappointing, the effort was sort of wasted with Nolan Norris, Sam Sarver (although he did score his league-leading 15th goal), Josh Torquato (at left wing), and Alvaro Augusto all getting starts.
The mental mistakes doomed them, though, and the Rapids 2 were all too eager and willing to take advantage of the breakdowns and lapses, including a poor foul leading to an early penalty and the opening goal for the Rapids.
For a young side, you expect some tough results as they learn, but it’s well into the second half of the season. The inconsistency itself is becoming… consistent. North Texas now sits at 29 points with about 9 games left to go. For a moment, they dabbled among the top three in the West, but that poor run of form in June saw them slide as other teams gained ground and overtook them.
Of course, there is no reason for this team to panic. Put together a strong run of games, and they will solidify a postseason appearance. Once in the postseason, and if in good form, they can go toe to toe with any team in MLS Next Pro. But it’s all about turning that corner.
As we mentioned last week, if there is one reason for concern, it’s the expectation that Sam Sarver will be less available in the coming weeks as he is given opportunities with the first team. Sarver has covered a lot of the warts and growing pains with his exhilarating play. Without him, who will step up? Is North Texas shopping for some offensive reinforcements to push the squad forward?
North Texas SC travels down to play Austin II this Friday and will hope to rebound with a big effort on the road.