North Texas SC Collapse at Home against LAFC2
Mo Cisset earned a second yellow in the first half, and North Texas SC subsequently collapsed on route to a 4-0 loss to LAFC2. Not a good night.
I keep writing and talking about it on the pod, but North Texas SC is due for an upswing in form as the end of the season draws near.
And yet - weekend after weekend, this young team falls short.
On Sunday night, against a Los Angeles FC 2 team that hasn’t been great this season, North Texas did more than fall short - they collapsed in disarray.
The downswing began with Mo Cisset, the defender for North Texas, who has looked like a promising development pickup with a strong mentality and drive, committed an unnecessary foul in the box, leading to a PK and a first yellow card. Not long after, he would pick up his second yellow for dissent, whether brought on by his disagreement about the first call or ongoing chatter with LAFC2 defenders. The lack of composure by Cisset put his team in a tough hole.
Over the course of the rest of the match, LAFC2 exploited a North Texas team that looked uncomfortable together in an unfamiliar formation, with a few first-teamers getting starts. It was a strange set of circumstances. Cisset’s mistakes made that discomfort all the more apparent and ultimately neutralized having a guy like Sam Sarver on the pitch.
In the second half, North Texas made some adjustments and had a couple of opportunities. Probably the best was Caleb Swann trying to catch LAFC2’s keeper out of goal, but his shot from near midfield went harmlessly wide.
In the end, LAFC2 punished the home side with 4 goals.
“A difficult one tonight, especially after falling at home like that,” North Texas head coach John Gall told media after the game. “We didn’t start the game well, and we had to change our shape. Leading up to their (LAFC2) first goal I felt we were kind of settling into the game a little bit. But then, you know, you give a penalty kick away. Of course we've talked about this all season long that you know, goals change games. I thought that from that point on, it was an uphill battle. The red card completely changed the game for us. So certainly it's not the performance that we would have wanted.”
It’s hard to take many lessons from a match like this.
Obviously, North Texas has a young team with only a handful of holdovers from last year’s dominant championship side. Young players are going to make mistakes. I got the hint that Gall was aware that his formation tweaks probably didn’t help too, even when the team had 11 players in the first half.
But time is running short, and North Texas now sits just outside the playoff line.
Can they put together a run? Can they grind out a few key results? Is the heavy rotation hurting and not helping a team that needs some consistency, especially now that regular Tarik Scott has been loaned to USL Championship side Monterey Bay FC?
Gall acknowledged the challenge of losing both Tarik Scott and Sam Sarver’s offensive abilities.
“We're the type of group that is going to find solutions for the problem. So it's next man up, as they say,” Gall said. “At the end of the day, we're trying to coach young professionals to be the best that they can be. Sometimes you have to go through some difficult moments, and we are going through a difficult moment right now but believe me that we are not going to give up. We're not going to throw the towel in. We're going to keep pushing forward. We're going to keep being as positive as we possibly can.”
We’ll talk about this loss on the pod tonight at 7 PM CST.