Lights FC lose the match and their composure vs. Tacoma
The return of Las Vegas Lights FC soccer turned into a nightmare as the club dropped a 4-1 result on the road last night. Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez scored a brace, and Shandon Hopeau and Justin Dhillon added one apiece. Javan Torre scored the only goal for the visitors in a match where he, Sammy Ochoa, and Jesus Gonzalez received red cards.
Key Stats
🔑 Three red cards. With the club already trailing in the second half, three LV players were sent off with straight red cards. That made a comeback impossible.
🔑 Four goals. Tacoma entered the match as the worst goalscoring side in the entire USL Championship and they put four past Thomas Olsen last night.
Three Brightest Lights
💡💡💡 Preston Tabort Etaka: He provided the assist on LV’s lone goal and served as the primary action man, especially after the sending offs in the second half.
💡💡 Junior Sandoval: The midfielder tallied four shots, 84% passing accuracy, and a chance created.
💡 Pablo Cruz: With limited attacking opportunities, the second-half sub managed to create a chance and complete 13/16 passes.
Quick Kicks
⚽ For just the fourth time this season, Tacoma scored multiple goals in a match and set a season-high with four. This was the first win for Defiance since April 1st.
⚽ The absence of Mobi Fehr was noticeable with the Lights unable to control the pace of the match in the midfield.
⚽ Things were extremely chippy in the second half on both sides. Thomas Olsen and Javan Torre got into separate skirmishes and Jesus Gonzalez received a straight red card for what appeared to be a hand towards the face/throat of a Defiance player in the 70th minute. Javan Torre secured a straight red of his own five minutes later. Shortly after subbing on, Sammy Ochoa was shown red. The first two incidents were entirely off-camera, for the record.
⚽ The suspensions will make lineup selection a difficult task for Eric Wynalda this weekend.
⚽ In the past, I wrote that I would like to see Santiago Echavarria paired with either Irvin Parra or Preston Tabort Etaka up top. Well, the first experiment with that last night did not yield positive results. Echavarria finished with zero shots and only 11 passes attempted in his stint before subbing off. I still think his natural ability up top could be useful moving forward next to any of the other Lights’ attackers.
Okay, What’s Next?
🗓 Las Vegas Lights FC will play at home this Saturday against RGVFC Toros, the hybrid affiliate of Houston Dynamo. The Toros are coming off a 2-1 win over Sacramento Republic FC last weekend.
