Given the opportunity to make a statement against one of the league’s best teams, North Texas SC failed to rise to the occasion as they lost 2-0 to Houston Dynamo 2 at SaberCats Stadium. Saturday’s loss made it two-straight losses as they slid to 1-1-2 on the season.
Lineups and Tactics
After last week’s dreadful performance against the wind Austin FC II, Los Toritos decided to shake things up a bit. Going with the 3-4-3, with Edouard Nys as the team’s striker. Alongside him, Ricky Louis and Sam Sedeh both earned their first MLS Next Pro start.
Also making their first appearance for NTSC this season was Álvaro Augusto, who has spent the majority of his 2026 campaign thus far with FC Dallas. Enzo Newman also picked up his first start at RWB. Most notably absent from tonight’s starting XI was Nick Simmonds, who did not travel with the team.
The cross-state rival Dynamo Dos held a 4-2-3-1 formation with Pedro Cruz getting his third start in goal. In front of him, Noah Betancourt earned his first start at RB, opposite Isaac Mwakutuya, who started at LB.
In the midfield, both JJ Bell and Diego Gonzalez got their first starts, with Bell at CAM and Gonzalez sitting on the right side of the defensive midfield. Most notably absent from tonight’s lineup was 15-year old phenom Matthew Arana, who traveled with Houston’s first team to Frisco.
The Game
Despite the beautiful weather conditions, both teams failed to find the back of the net through the first 45 minutes. However, the Dynamo Dos would break through early in the second half.
“In the first half, I thought we managed the game well, created some chances and put ourselves in a good position,” Head Coach John Gall said. “I thought we started the second half well, but then the game turned. There was a throw-in that I felt should have been called, but play continued, and we made a mistake that changed the game.”
In the 48th minute, Gonzalez played a low shot to Eryk Dymora that somehow slipped through the keeper’s hands and rolled into the back of the net. The Dynamo Dos took an early 1-0 lead off the costly error.
A few minutes later, the Dynamo Dos doubled their lead. In the 53rd minute, Gilberto Rivera dribbled around a couple of defenders in the box, got the ball on his left foot, and buried another low placed shot in the bottom left corner. 2-0, Dynamo Dos.
The one bright spot in tonight’s game started off a little shaky. In the 81st minute, Rivera picked up a PK after Dymora collided with him on a breakaway in the box. However, Dymora would get a momentary high as he saved the PK attempt to keep it at 2-0.
Unfortunately, that save wouldn’t be enough to keep North Texas in the game, and Dynamo Dos would walk away with all three points. A bummer way to kick off the Double Derby between both Dallas and Houston teams.
“Of course I’m disappointed with the result,” Coach Gall said. “We went 2-0 down and kept pushing, spent a lot of energy, and tried to get back into the game against a strong opponent. There are positives to take. We’re disappointed, but when this team starts to click, we’ll be in a good place.”
In all actuality, nobody looked all that impressive tonight for North Texas, with most of the second-team players finishing the game without any major contributions. However, the one person who stood out more than anyone was – once again – the Captain, Slade Starnes.
Our Man of the Match finished the game with four tackles, two clearances, three interceptions, and won 75% of his ground duels. The anchor of this North Texas SC backline continues to be a bright spot on this team.
Up next, North Texas SC travels to Victory Field to take on Sporting KC II on Saturday, April 4th at 7:00 pm CT. SKCII are currently 0-2-1 on the season, with 1 shoot-out win.