North Texas SC took the field late Saturday night following FC Dallas' win. It was cold, rainy, and windy, the worst combination of weather events. Whether it was the weather, the wet pitch, or just tensions and frustrations on the field, this was a tense and hard-fought game. There are games which stay scoreless that seem like the world is moving slower, like we're aging faster, that feel like hours pass without anything exciting happening on the field. This was not one of those.

With a wet field that had already been tested for 90 minutes by the preceding MLS game, conditions were far from ideal, and it showed. The first half was sloppy, chippy, and with the exception of a few brief moments, not particularly pretty. Both teams found that the ball wasn't quite moving as expected, and it took a good fifteen minutes for the players to make the necessary adjustments. North Texas found itself in complete control of the ball and able to shoot at will, drowning Madison with shots from literally 90 seconds in.

We might have the makings of a real rivalry after all. Without further ado, let's dive in.

The Tactics

North Texas SC Starting Lineup (North Texas SC)

North Texas's week 3 lineup featured only three changes from week 1, with Carlos Avilez starting in goal, John Nelson at left back, and Ronaldo Damus at left wing. Brecc Evans and Callum Montgomery returned at center back, Bryan Reynolds once again played as a right back, the midfield trio of Brandon Servania, Alfusainey Jatta, and Arturo Rodriguez remained unchanged, Oscar Romero started on the right wing, and Ricardo Pepi, as expected, played the entire game up top.

This exact starting lineup was used several times in pre-season rather effectively and is likely the primary lineup for North Texas for the immediate future.

Interestingly, Servania was playing much more like a second 8 with Jatta behind Rodriguez as a 10. With Madison lying so deep and rarely launching attacks forward, there weren't many balls for Servania to intercept nor plays to disrupt, and Madison left him plenty of room all over the field. The combined heatmap for the midfield trio illustrates the extent of their dominance and control.

Once again, we saw both outside backs pushing forward, with Reynolds finding himself often ahead of both Servania and Jatta in midfield. Romero frequently cut back and inside to run plays, leaving Reynolds space to act as a right-winger. John Nelson made his USL-1 debut at left back and essentially controlled the left wing for the full 90 minutes. Madison only managed a handful of touches in Nelson's space, and only three in the final third.

Average Positions Map, NTSC in Blue (USL League One)

Oscar Romero subbed off at halftime for U19 forward/winger Gibran Rayo. Romero put in a solid first half, managing two shots on goal, and was easily the biggest threat in the first half hour of play. Rayo took his position a bit further up the field than Romero had occupied, playing level with Pepi throughout the second half.

Ronaldo Damus subbed off in the 66th minute for Dante Sealy, who managed to pull Madison defender Carl Schneider out of position, leaving a massive space for Connor Tobin to cover which was easily exploited.

The final substitution came in the 87th minute, as Bicou Bissainthe replaced Jatta for what proved to be a lengthy stoppage time. Bissainthe played a fairly typical 8 role, distributing and organizing alongside Rodriguez, and despite his limited playing minutes, looked more comfortable than a fortnight ago.

"I thought for the conditions being what they were, I thought we played pretty well. We had some technical errors that come with the territory. The field is slick, the wind is blowing and howling. Any time we played it over the top I felt it kind of ran off the end of the table. We didn't find our way through in combination, maybe there would have been better ideas to get us through. I thought the combinations in the last twenty minutes of the game I thought we found our way around the edges a lot better. A lot more efficient. All in all I was pleased." - Eric Quill

Madison used an interesting 4-1-4-1, which at times looked like a very compressed 4-3-3, and at others resembled a 4-4-2. J.C. Banks acted as a single pivot and linking midfielder, with Josiel Núñez looking a lot like an 8 and Jeff Michaud (who actually wears the 8) handling more of the playmaking responsibilities of a typical 10. One could even call it a skewed 4-2-3-1 and wouldn't be too far off.

Madison looked perfectly content letting North Texas control possession (66.7% to 33.3%), preferring to work more on the counter. That might not have been the best choice, as North Texas buried them in shots and basically set up shop in the final third. North Texas managed 23 shots to Madison's 9, with 17 from inside the box and 6 on target. Lying deep and defending while waiting to strike on the counter is a perfectly valid strategy, assuming you can actually defend against a more aggressive team, and Madison visibly struggled there.

The Goal

We only have the one to discuss, as despite choking Madison with shots and crosses, finishing was a pretty big issue. The lone goal came on a penalty kick, and there's a long clip here because there's a lot to unpack.

1-0 North Texas goal, 90+5th minute. Servania gets grabbed and tangled up by Zaire Bartley on the right wing, just inside the final third. Bartley gets a yellow card and North Texas gets a free kick taken by John Nelson. Annoyingly, the broadcast cuts to replay for the free kick, but the important part is shown just as the replay ends. John Nelson sends the ball into the box towards the far post for Servania, who gets brought down by Connor Tobin. It's a penalty, clear as day. The tackle is late, he misses the ball entirely and snags Servania's leg. There's a squabble between Pepi, Arturo Rodriguez, and Madison keeper Ryan Coulter behind the goal. As Pepi lines up for the penalty kick, Coulter stays off his line to stare down Pepi, earning him a yellow for not retreating. Pepi aims keeper's left, and while he chooses correctly and dives in time, he just can't stop it.

3 Stars

Brandon Servania gets my pick for Man of the Match this week. He was all over the field pushing forward and causing problems for Madison, and even in the lengthy stoppage time, showed no signs of slowing down. Even without the two fouls that eventually culminated in the goal, Servania was creating chances and slicing through defenders. This was easily the best game I've seen him play in ages.

"It took us all the way to the 90th minute, but that just shows our resilience and our fight. We did what we had to do to get the win. In the first half our movement wasn't as good as it should have been. Our play wasn't what it should have been, but in the second half I think we made some adjustments, found a little bit more rhythm and created more chances that we just didn't finish. Overall, just a pretty good result." - Brandon Servania

Oscar Romero gets the second star this week, as despite only playing the first half, he had two solid chances just in the first five minutes, and was a big threat. Here's a clip of his near-miss in the early moments illustrating what he's bringing to the team.

John Nelson gets the third star with a stellar first start. He had a fantastic came on both sides of the ball, shutting down Madison's attacks and building from the back in perfect Luchi fashion. The left touch line was his territory, enter at your own risk. We also saw him taking set piece responsibility for any plays on the right side of the field. It was his free kick that led to the penalty kick. He's one of the best players we've pulled from the draft in recent years, and he's not far from fighting for minutes in MLS.

Highlights

Brecc Evans has found his footing, and now that Montgomery is comfortable, we're seeing the same sort of play from him that dominated the USSDA. He's able to cover a lot more ground, knowing that the defenders around him know when and where to fill in. Just comparing heat maps and distribution charts from this game to two weeks ago, he's completing more passes, moving around more comfortably, and successfully disrupting more attacks.

Callum Montgomery had his best game to date, by far. He's firmly settled in with this system, and his familiarity working with Evans and Reynolds meant that we're finally starting to see what he's capable of. He was consistently linking up with Reynolds and Servania to start pushing forward, and on defense, he looked much more confident.

Arturo Rodriguez was a lot more active this week, finding and covering substantially more space, and was much more accurate and successful with his passes. Compared to his younger brother, Arturo is always at his best with the ball versus without, and it's no surprise that he's looking better with more possession. He had a few moments, particularly in the first half, where his choices were a bit questionable, but all-in-all, he's doing pretty well.

Bryan Reynolds might be a bit overlooked in the aftermath from a great performance from Nelson, but he played another great game in his own right. He's showing excellent passing accuracy and puts most of the team to shame with his accuracy in the opponent's half. I still have questions on his defending, and he does tend to get pulled out of position when he's pressing forward, but he's improving.

Can Do Better

Ricardo Pepi gets in here not because he had a bad game by any stretch, but because he simply had a much quieter game against Madison than Chattanooga. Madison's back line made it harder for him to work, and even when he was able to break through, he had trouble converting his chances. There's almost certainly nothing to worry about and few long-term takeaways from this other than to say that sometimes, forwards will find particular defenses more difficult than others.

"It was a very tough game. We should've been able to play through it, but it was very tough. Our opponents had very good composure in the back. It was pretty complicated." - Ricardo Pepi

Alfusainey Jatta also ends up in here simply because he too (comparatively) struggled against Madison. With Servania moving forward more, Jatta had to do more work dropping back, and it kept him a bit out of his most comfortable position. He also had some issues with his longer passes forward, something I saw him working on in training last week. Nothing major, just a few things that gave me pause.

Ronaldo Damus was almost invisible during his 66 minutes on the field, managing just 13 touches and completing just five passes, none of them forward. He seemed to want to park himself in Madison's box and poach, and that's fine, but it tied up Pepi and choked the team offensively along the left wing. Damus playing so far forward cut off the links from Reynolds and Servania, and it directly impacted Pepi's performance. He's the only player I found meaningful issues with on Saturday.

Professional Debuts

Carlos Avilez finally made his first professional appearance, as despite technically being signed through OKC Energy FC, he never actually played for them. Avilez didn't have much to do between the posts, but we did get to see him using his feet, and he's looking sharp. Within Luchi's system, goalkeepers are relied upon to work as a quasi-sweeper and occasionally as a third center back, not just making saves but occasionally leaving the box to play forward to the wing backs, and Avilez looks really good in this role. He's an accurate passer, even over long distances, and only missed two out of more than 30 attempted. I'd go so far as to say he looks far more comfortable with the ball at his feet than Jesse Gonzalez does. Should Jesse end up leaving, Avilez might just have what it takes to make it in MLS after all.

Gibran Rayo received his first "professional" minutes off the bench, on an academy contract from the U19s. He subbed in for Oscar Romero at the half, and generally did about as well as one can expect for a player not deemed ready enough to make the professional plunge just yet. He had a few passes that didn't really work out, and looked much more comfortable with shorter passes than longer ones. He managed two shots, one on goal that forced Coulter to make a quick save. He's spent years playing with Ricardo Pepi, and their chemistry on the field is obvious. These two make for quite the strike partnership, and I expect to see Rayo getting his first start for North Texas in the near future.

Small Sample Size

Dante Sealy subbed on for Damus, and despite essentially vanishing during stoppage time, looked alright given the limited minutes. His long corner kick in the 71st minute was a head-scratcher that didn't go anywhere near where he wanted it, and he had two short passes that led to immediate turnovers.

Bicou Bissainthe only played ten minutes, subbing on for Jatta in the 87th, but looked solid, connecting between Servania and Rodriguez, and completed 6 of his 7 attempted passes. Not too shabby.

Around the League

Elsewhere in League One, Greenville Triumph beat the Red Wolves at home 1-0 on Saturday, followed by a 3-1 win for Lansing against a Richmond team that played down a man for 55 minutes. Saturday ended with a goalkeeper's duel between Tucson and Toronto II that ended 1-1. Sunday's lone game saw Tormenta secure a draw on the road against Orlando City B in a wild stoppage time period that went to 14 minutes.

Next Game

North Texas SC has the next weekend off before hosting Orlando City B on Saturday, April 27. It's another doubleheader day with FC Dallas hosting the San Jose Earthquakes at 2:30 p.m. followed by North Texas afterward.

Academy Games

Ricardo Pepi and David Rodriguez have already joined the U17 Academy team for the remainder of the Generation Adidas Cup, and Pepi, along with Bryan Reynolds, Gibran Rayo, and Dante Sealy are all expected to join the U19 Academy team for the remainder of the Dallas Cup Gordon Jago SuperGroup.