North Texas earned a hard-fought clean sheet amidst a three-goal performance, with an assist from Logan Farrington. Pedrinho, Abdoul Zanne, and Enes Sali all got on the scoresheet.
“It was a difficult match” Head Coach John Gall said after the game “We knew we were gonna have to buckle down to find a way to win” and buckle down they did, as they frustrated the Minnesota attack all night to earn all three points.
The Game
FC Dallas Open Cup hero, Logan Farrington, started up top for North Texas, with Pedrinho and Tarik Scott on either side as Coach Gall returned to the 3-4-3. Victor Darub started in net after a red card in the previous week’s matchup to Michael Collodi.
Farrington gets things started for North Texas, as he blasts a volley off the outside of the post following a ball over the top.
North Texas threatened again after a short corner routine was floated into the box for Turner Humphrey, who nodded it on target but saved by the Minnesota goalkeeper.
North Texas scored the breakthrough just past the twenty-minute mark, after a beautiful give-and-go between Pedrinho and Diego Garcia saw the former through on goal with a beautiful chipped pass and a calm chip over the goalie to put North Texas ahead!
Just before the halftime break, Darub dives to deny the home side an equalizer following a counterattack.
North Texas took another 1-0 lead into the halftime break, which has been a positive theme on the season.
Just past the other hour mark, a long ball found Farrington yet again, and his strong volley forced another save from Minnesota.
Minutes later, Darub came up big with another crucial save to keep the clean sheet intact, diving low to his right for the stop.
North Texas would go up a man after a second yellow card is issued to a Minnesota player for this shove on Tomas Pondeca.
Abdoul Zanne was subbed on following the red card, and minutes later found the back of the net to double the lead! A beautiful layoff from Farrington left Zanne in an acre of space staring down the goalie, and the young man slotted it home for his first of the season.
Just as stoppage time started, Enes Sali burst into the box and fired one home, perhaps a deflection by the defender or the goalie aided in redirecting the ball into the net.
North Texas took home another win, boosting the team to the top of the league on 28 points. The broadcast gave the Man of the Match honors to Pedrinho, but the theatrics by Tomas Pondeca truly turned the match around.
Quotes and Takeaways
North Texas earned their 4th clean sheet on the season and 2nd in consecutive matches. Additionally, North Texas has only conceded 8 goals across 12 matches a truly mind-numbing stat to show how strong the defense is.
“Our defending starts from the front, from Tarik to Pondeca and to Parker and Endeley on the wings. You have to get by them before you can attack. It is a team effort” Coach Gall said on his team’s defense.
“We are the type of team that is gonna make it difficult regardless of who we have on the pitch, our mentality is a strong one” Gall continued.
Farrington’s start was rather surprising, given he has been a full FC Dallas player since the start of the MLS season, “Logan is a fantastic kid, him coming into our group is seamless” Gall said of the striker, “He came in today and showed his quality.”
Zanne, humbly, attributed much of his goal to the wise words of his coach and the pristine layoff by Farrington. “Finish your action” seemed to be a Gall quote that stuck in his mind “you have to run to finish your action. I was running to support him.” Zanne also said that he thanked Logan for the assist as well as the team for their performance.
First-place North Texas SC have the week off before returning home to face Austin FC II on Saturday, June 22nd.
With fcd’s coaching change, will we see farrington get less minutes with dallas and play more with ntsc?
That’s impossible to say until we see who Luccin values.