Big crowd watches a frustrating loss for Lights FC

Las Vegas Lights FC dropped a 1-0 result vs. OKC Energy FC last night in downtown Las Vegas.

In their 9th home match of the season, Las Vegas Lights FC were finally defeated at Cashman Field, losing 1-0 to OKC Energy FC. Deshorn Brown provided the lone goal in the 89th minute last night.

Key Stats

🔑 9,418 announced attendance. Partway through the match, I realized how truly packed Cashman Field was last night. That was a really solid crowd and it definitely got loud when it needed to. If there was a Lights goal scored, things would have ERUPTED.

🔑 19:3 shots to shots on target ratio. Cody Laurendi is one of the best goalkeepers in the league. To beat him, you will typically need to put more efforts on frame than three. The 19 total shots highlighted the edge Las Vegas had on the ball, especially in the attacking half, but they needed to be more clinical.

🔑 27 OKC clearances. This showcases how defensive-minded Energy FC were set up on Saturday night. They sat back, knocked the ball away, and kept Lights FC off the scoreboard.

Three Brightest Lights

💡💡💡 Mobi Fehr: The Lights midfielder hit on 92.5% of his 53 passes, created a chance, and had one of the best efforts of the night when he forced Cody Laurendi to knock away his curling effort from distance.

💡💡 Irvin Parra: Back from a two-match ban, Parra created five chances for his teammates, hit the crossbar, and won three fouls.

💡 Jesus Gonzalez: This spot would have gone to Javan Torre if he didn’t get beat by Deshorn Brown for the deciding goal. But, I think in his first league start, Gonzalez was a solid player on the backline, outside of the time he ended up on the ground after a slick move from Brown. He finished with three tackles, two clearances, two interceptions, and one chance created.

Quick Kicks

âš½ I’ll be honest, I did not think the match was poorly officiated. Eric Wynalda was clearly frustrated at the break when he said OKC was playing rugby and more so even in the second half to get thrown out of the match. But, personally, I thought Energy FC played a physical style on the road that never felt excessive.

âš½ There were multiple moments when a Lights player either fired a shot wide of tried to play a low ball across and there was nobody in the area. Irvin Parra needed to spend more time as a target man last night, which lent to my thought that Sammy Ochoa would have been a wise substitute off the bench to provide that poaching ability in the box.

âš½ I thought the Lights typical press at home seemed a little toned down last night. There were moments where I thought they could have forced a bad pass or stolen the ball like Tabort Etaka did to set up Parra’s shot off the woodwork.

âš½ Junior Sandoval’s ban hurt because with his skill and passing ability, he would’ve occupied that area from mid-pitch to just outside the area and played the forwards in or had a go himself from distance.

âš½ Man, that pitch is looking rough at Cashman Field. I’m not sure if they cut it too low or if it’s simply the Las Vegas summer heat, but when a majority of the grass is not fully green anymore, things aren’t great. With another match in less than a week, I’d imagine it will look much worse.

⚽ I would highly recommend the elote dog that is available at Cashman Field.

Okay, What’s Next?

🗓 Lights FC will return to action on Thursday when they host LA Galaxy II on July 4th. The clubs played to a scoreless draw in SoCal earlier this season with Los Dos registering zero shots on goal at home. They defeated Orange County SC last night to end an eight-match winless run.

Carson A Merk

Reporting live from Sin City, I have covered both RGVFC and Las Vegas Lights FC since their inceptions. I also write profiles to highlight players from the NCAA to USL to NWSL and everywhere in between.