North Texas SC Falls Apart on the Road

Despite going up via 2 goals, a red card sees North Texas SC collapse under the Colorado Rapids 2 offensive onslaught.

For the first 50 minutes or so, North Texas SC was flying.

Hope Aveyavu was back in form, scoring a penalty kick and a golazo from distance into the top corner to get his squad up two goals to nil against the number one team in the MLS Next Pro Western Conference.

That’s despite fending off a series of dangerous attacks from the Rapids 2 high altitude offense.

Tyshawn Rose, however, earned two yellows in quick succession after half time, and Colorado didn’t hesitate, laying on the pressure to drop in 4 goals, two from league leading scorer Yosuke Hanya.

North Texas SC simply couldn’t adjust after going a man down. The presence of Nolan Norris and Amet Korca was sorely missed. Were defensive subs brought on quick enough? Is this another sign that North Texas’ defensive issues are a bigger problem than a few bad games? What is lacking to help this squad figure out the right balance?

After the game, Javier Cano, head coach for North Texas SC, admitted the wastefulness of the performance after seeing Hope get the team in prime position for points.

“Very disappointed,” Cano spoke to reporters. “We are not so far from Colorado. We were 2-0 up. After this red card, it changed the game. After that, we were not mature enough. We need to learn from that situation. We need to fight for ourselves. In the end, we conceded.”

There wasn’t one thing to lay this collapse on for the coach.

“After the red card, Malachi moved to left back. He’s only 16 years old, and they took advantage of that with 2 on 1 overloads. We tried to adjust. Modify a few points. Hope had a very strong form in the first half. After the second goal, he was cramping. Altitude played a role. It is a mix of everything.”

Antonio Carrera was another bright spot, registering a career high eight saves and kept North Texas working on a clean sheet in the first half. That didn’t last, as in his own words, the team “lost our heads” for a bit.

“After the red card, the other team gained the momentum. We didn’t manage it in the right way. We have a lot of young players,” Carrera said. “We are gaining experience. This is a great one to learn from. All of us are going to take it to heart and then come back stronger. We win as brothers and lose as brothers.”

Cano acknowledged that while this team may not be where they want to be, these results won’t end the story of this season.

“We need to learn from this. This is a young team. They need to enjoy themselves. This is a game. There is no pressure here. We are not in a bad position, but we can get better results. If we don’t learn this lesson, we will lose a lot of games.”