North Texas SC keeps unbeaten streak alive in draw with Red Wolves

North Texas Soccer Club, on a five-game unbeaten streak, faced tough opposition on the road in the form of the Chattanooga Red Wolves.

That unbeaten streak continues for North Texas SC in spite of giving up a last-minute goal that saw the game end with one goal apiece.


The Game

Eric Quill has started to find his go-to starters as the season has progressed and needed to rely on his core players to continue the unbeaten streak.

Eddie Munjoma got the scoring started with a header and was assisted by Blaine Ferri in the 31st minute.

Gabriel Morais replaced Bernard Kamungo as the first sub in the 57th minute.

Collin Smith and Mikey Maldonado replaced Kazu and Blain Ferri, respectively, in the 65th minute.

Imanol Almaguer and Nickey Hernandez made way for Rio Ramirez and Alex Bruce in the 78th minute.

Juan Galindrez stole the show with the last-minute goal in the 90+6′ minute to bring the game level.

North Texas tied with Chattanooga Red Wolves 1-1.

Nicky_Hernandez
Nicky Hernandez challenges Daniel Navarro for the ball (Courtesy USL League One).

Thoughts & Takeaways

Urgent Starts

For a young team, North Texas has faced difficulties when starting and imposing their style within games. Quill has worked with his team to emphasize the importance of starting strong from the first minute of the game.

In the previous five games for North Texas, the club has started games with an urgency. This was the case against the Red Wolves and enabled North Texas to score first putting pressure on Chattanooga to chase the game.

Similar to the 2019 North Texas SC team, the individual talent has meshed together and with each passing game, the players get better at imposing their game plan. Additionally, both teams started games with urgency to score first, putting the match in North Texas’ favor.

Combinations

One of the biggest areas of improvement that North Texas has made during 2021 is building cohesion in their team.

The passing between the units within on the field has aided the progress that the club has made in playing as a single unit.

Along with the urgency from North Texas starting at the beginning of the game, the passing frequency and speed have increased, which forced Chattanooga to constantly be shifting their shape across the whole field.

The midfield trio of Imanol Almaguer, Blaine Ferri, and Nicky Hernandez deserve credit for the chemistry they have built between each other and for being a stable core to the shape, speed, and direction that North Texas SC plays with

Turnovers

The Red Wolves, a team not to be taken lightly, were dangerous on the turnovers and quicker to transition their opponents. Chattanooga also knows how to come back from a deficit and earn points.

Given Chattanooga’s ability, North Texas didn’t always help their cause by turnover the ball within their own defensive third.

This put the Red Wolves in dangerous 1-v-1/2-v1/2-v-2 moments that relied on the defensive abilities of the North Texas backline.

The individual errors have waned from North Texas over the season but the location where these errors occur is too close to the goal they are trying to protect.


North Texas has 23 points through 16 games and sits in 6th place. North Texas SC is on the road on Saturday, August 21st, at 7 PM to face their El Plastico rival Forward Madison FC.

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