A crowd of 350 gathered to watch Texoma FC’s first official match in club history. Texoma lost to Dallas-based club Foro SC 2-1 in the first round of the US Open Cup in a match that had to be decided in extra time.
Formation
Texoma came out in a 3-4-1-2 formation, otherwise known as a 3-5-2. This is almost the same formation that we saw Texoma use in their closed-door scrimmage against Oral Roberts University (3-4-3) with a tweak.
The main tweak here is that Texoma is playing with two forwards with a single ten in behind them.
The Game
The game started heavily in Texoma FC’s favor, up until the 15th-minute mark when Foro SC was awarded a penalty for handball. FC Dallas Academy product Brayan Padilla stepped up and comfortably converted the penalty to put Foro SC up 1-0.
Texoma still seemed to be on the front foot. In the 19th minute, Texoma forward Bryan McManus put the ball into the back of the net but was ruled offside.
Shortly after, while Foro SC was on the counterattack, Texoma midfielder Ozzie Ramos was shown a red for a tackle from behind which was ruled a denial of a goal-scoring opportunity. Following the red card, Texoma made no immediate subs and did not tweak the formation. Ajmeer Spengler and JP Jordan were tasked with covering the midfield between the two of them.
While Foro was enjoying being a man up, they too saw red in the 43rd minute when Nate Kopetsky brought down Foro’s Lamin Jawneh from behind in front of the Texoma FC bench which led to an altercation between the teams.
For the remainder of the first half, neither team would make substitutions and neither coach would make changes to start the second.
After a rather uneventful 13 minutes to start the second half, McManus redeemed himself and put the ball into the back of the net to even things at 1-1. After dispossessing Foro, Jordan, who in my opinion had a great night, played a through ball to my Man of the Match Jawneh who then whipped in a cross which McManus put in the back of the net.
Texoma’s first change of the night came in the 64th minute when Ajmeer Spengler, who was on a yellow card was taken off for Angelo Calfo. Calfo, who is normally a CB, slotted into the 6 for the remainder of the night. Something to consider is if Texoma views Calfo as a 6 or if this was just a tweak by Coach Adrian Forbes due to both teams being down to 10 men.
Texoma’s next sub came in the 76th minute when two-time USL-C MVP Solomon Asante came on for McManus. Texoma’s final sub was Leland Grey on for William Perkins in the 88th minute.
Despite a plethora of yellow cards, the rest of the second half was uneventful. Foro hit the post on a free kick in the 89th minute and Asante put a header over the post that could have been the winner in the 92nd minute.
In the 100th minute of Extra Time, Padilla popped up again to put Foro SC up 2-1. The 2-1 scoreline would hold despite a big chance by Texoma in the 123rd minute.
“It’s vitally important, you can look at the result, lost the game yes,” Coach Forbes said when asked about the importance of a match before the club’s league opener on Saturday. “But, the most important thing is that that is our first official game with a team that was not here a year ago. Lots of disappointments to take away but some real positives to take away as well. What I get to see now as a head coach is the character of my players the character of how we bounce back going into the game Saturday.”