North Texas Win a Penalty Shootout After Late Shock Goal from Sporting Kansas City 2
Despite dictating most of the game, Sporting Kansas City 2 find a couple of huge goals to grab a point at Choctaw and deny North Texas SC the full three points.
On a warm evening in Arlington, North Texas settled for a draw and extra point against SKC 2 after a late equalizer from the visitors spoiled an otherwise dominant performance. NTSC confidently won the penalty shootout to secure the consolation point after the final whistle. However, the team will be disappointed to waste a brace from Natty James, his 4th goal in consecutive matches.
Yes, North Texas walked away disappointed from not getting the outright win in a match that they largely controlled for the full 90 minutes, out-possessing and out-attacking. In the second half, the home side dominated, creating more opportunities and a chance that led to a penalty kick, which was unfortunately blocked. You could see the frustration clearly in the team’s body language.
To SKC 2’s credit, the away team was content to play defensively, absorb pressure, and not make it easy for North Texas’ offense, especially after equalizing late in the first half. Their last gasp goal came at the cusp of stoppage time, and it gutted North Texas. You can argue they were lucky to get a point on the road, but the result just shows how nothing will be given in MLS Next Pro this year.
There are lessons to learn from this one.
“I think it was a similar story last week. It’s a good team. They've got some really good technical players; they do a good job with the football. We scored early in the game, then I felt we had a couple of chances that we should have scored. When you allow teams to stay close in this game of football, bad things usually happen. So that was the case,” North Texas head coach John Gall said after the match. “Obviously, they had two shots on goal and scored two goals tonight. And unfortunately, we didn't do the things we needed to do in the last third of the field to put the game away. We dominated the game, dominated possession, dominated percentage, number of passes and all that stuff. But at the end of the day, football is about putting the ball in the back of the net, and we didn't do that tonight. When you drop a point, it's disappointing. But we also gained two points, so we certainly want to take some positives out of that.”
The big loss was wasting two goals from Natty James, the Trinidad and Tobago international, who has taken time to adjust to North Texas. What is key is that North Texas is employing him higher up the patch to put him in more dangerous situations. It paid off for the second week in a row.
“Just before the international break, we had a chat with Natty just before he left with Trinidad and Tobago. He’s a full international with his country, which helps his confidence, his experience and all those things,” Gall said about the striker. “He was a little bit low going into the international break, just not being able to score or get assists because he's the type of kid that, like any forward, he wants to get those statistics, he wants to get on the score sheet because he wants to help his team. Last week was a real breakout week for him. It was great to see him with a lot of confidence. And today, he showed quality in the first goal and then the ingenuity with the second goal.”
While the result didn’t go where North Texas wanted, there remain a ton of positives with this team. And really, the season is early. For a young side like this, there is room to grow and improve. We’ll be watching to see how the squad responds in the coming weeks.