After last week’s opening loss, North Texas SC turns it around against Vancouver Whitecaps 2 to pick up their first win of the season, after the thrilling 3-2 finish. Despite being down 3-0 at the half, for the second week in a row, Vancouver rallied but couldn’t recreate the magic they saw in their first game.
For their second game of the season, North Texas made a couple of adjustments with three new players getting the start. Jaidyn Contreras, Alvaro Augusto, and Malachi Molina would start in place of Tarik Scott, Caleb Swann, and Enzo Newman.
The addition of Molina in place of Newman allowed them to play a much more offense-oriented 4-3-3 formation, as he and Torquato were able to get much farther up the field and add some creativity to the final third for the offense.
At times, the formation resembled more of a 3-4-3 as Ian Charles would drop into the backline and presume somewhat of a CB/CDM flex role, which definitely worked for them when they built up the offense through his over-the-top passes from the backline.
Vancouver came out in a 4-4-2, which was a slight variation from what they ran in their previous game to LAFC 2, in which they ran a 4-3-3. This was probably in large part because in their last game, they were down 0-3, just 27 minutes into the game.
It’s worth noting that they did come back to tie that game, and eventually win it in penalty kicks. However, head coach Ricardo Clark may have been wanting to have a more solidified defensive front with the change in formation, in hopes that the offense would continue to find ways to score.
Not even one minute into the game, Mohamed Cisset gave the ball away with a weak pass to the goalie, which allowed a Whitecap player to pick it up near the edge of the box. Thankfully, the forward took a huge touch on the ball and it ended up going out for a corner kick.
In the 12th minute, Charles played a great ball over the top to Molina, who was making a run up the right sideline. He would cut in on his left, laid the ball off to his right, where Ramirez picked up the pass, set his body for a left footed shot, and bent it into the back of the net to claim North Texas’ first goal of the season and make it 1-0.
“It felt really nice and I’m happy for the team and myself and it helped us get the three points,” Ramirez said of his goal.
North Texas would follow up that goal with the first yellow card of the game when Vancouver’s forward was fouled by Cisset after he slid into the attacking player, but got more of the foot than the actual ball. This would set up a Vancouver set piece from about 17 yards out, where Michael Collodi came up big making a huge save on a ball headed into the bottom right corner.
“You know, we got the win. We scored some goals, and we didn’t let them (Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2) come back like they did last week. Collodi had some great saves throughout the match. We were up against the wall in the second half, but it’s good for our team to go through these kinds of moments and get the win. Our first half set us far apart from our opponent in the whole match.”
NTSC Coach John Gall
The second goal of the game came in the 31st minute when Molina dribbled past two defenders, took on a third, and was fouled just as he crossed into the box, earning his team a penalty kick. Sam Sarver, the captain, stepped up to take the kick and snuck it by the keeper to make it 2-0 for the home team.
“I think our whole mentality has changed. You’re going to lose football games and that happens. I think we had a few mistakes last week on our end and we took care of it this week. When you take care of those mistakes you can control good things that happen. I think it was a great response and a great team to put wins and losses behind. Now it’s time to focus on next week’s opponent.”
NTSC Captain Sam Sarver
Collodi would come up big once again in the 43rd minute. Vancouver built up a solid string of consecutive passes, which generated a great chance for the Whitecaps. As they crossed the ball into the box, Collodi ended up colliding (or should I say colloding?) with the Vancouver forward and still managed to come away with a great save as he intercepted the pass. Thankfully, both players would walk away relatively unscathed.
Just before the end of the half, Ramirez whipped a dangerous ball into the box. Newly acquired defender Álvaro Augusto headed the ball towards goal, which was saved, and batted out to Sarver who volleyed in the ball to the top left corner of the net to make it 3-0, North Texas.
To start the second half, North Texas SC made one substitution with Daniel Baran coming on for Gianluca Cangiano, who had a somewhat quiet night. With the substitution, Sarver moved up to the play the 9, Baran would play on the left wing and Contreras slid over to the right wing.
Vancouver would pull one back in the 51st minute when they built up their play around the back line, working the ball from left to right, eventually making its way up to the right side wing. From there, the Whitecaps crossed the ball into the box to find an unmarked Whitecap player who headed the ball past Collodi. Despite the great effort to get a hand on the ball, Vancouver was now only down 3-1.
In the 69th minute, Vancouver continued their comeback with a cross into the box from the left wing, which bounced over the head of a Whitecap forward and was volleyed into the back of the net to make it 3-2.
The game reached its peak in the 77th minute when Vancouver almost tied it up with a ball into the box, however, Collodi would make his biggest save of the night to keep the lead.
The last 10 minutes resulted in a number of chances for both teams. NTSC had two corners, and both teams had managed a couple of shots, but ultimately North Texas held on to win their first game of the season.
Overall, it was a great showing from a handful of players. Charles created a number of great opportunities with his long balls over the top. Sarver had a brace, which would ultimately be the difference on the score sheet.
However, the Man of the Match for me today was Malachi Molina. Offensively, Molina accounted for the first two goals of the game. The first of which came when he set up Ramirez for the shot on his goal and drew the penalty on the second one after a beautiful move to get past three defenders.
If there was to be an honorable mention, it would definitely have to be Augusto, who looked solid in his first game. Defensively, he never seemed to get beat too badly and if it weren’t for a lackluster 2nd half, he may have been higher on this list.
Up next, North Texas SC hits the road for the first time this season to take on the Houston Dynamo 2 on Sunday, March 23rd at 6:00 pm CT.