Before the El Paso vs Monterey Bay game Wednesday night, I said that I wanted Loco to get a result, because I wouldn’t wish 0-0-2 on a team that has to play LouCity next. Now I don’t care much for the loco side and would have slept just fine had they lost in blowout fashion. Honestly I don’t care if El Paso goes winless all season. So why did I support them, you ask? Simple, because the hounds also started 0-0-1, and have a difficult match up with Orange County SC prior to playing LouCity in their own third match of the season. I couldn’t possibly welcome the bad karma of wishing ill will on Loco. And clearly my well wishes went a long way as Loco held a surging Monterey Bay side to a draw. Now 0-1-1 isn’t what an optimistic El Paso side had hoped for coming into this season, but from a morale standpoint it’s worlds better than 0-0-2. Do you see where I’m going with this… Let’s get these damn games over with.
Louisville City vs El Paso Locomotive
A fresh LouCity side with high hopes made their season debut against a tired Loco looking to get back on the right track. Little train joke for you there, try to keep up. From the opening whistle it was clear Louisville was going to lean on El Paso. What’s the soccer equivalent of a full court press? That’s what they did. LouCity forwards put constant pressure on the ball and tried to make the El Paso backline and midfield uncomfortable. They made the game chippy wherever they could but clearly wanted to keep the game at a high pace. Loco handled the early pressure well and, despite tired legs, they were clearly the more “in form” team. LouCity won a fair amount of challenges but weren’t always on the same page early. A lot of overshot passes and heavy first touches from Louisville gave El Paso the early possession lead. Through 25 minutes Loco owned 70% of the ball and did a good job of setting up on offense. Amando Moreno looked especially good again- lots of quick cuts and pretty finesse passes into open space. Unfortunately, the El Paso forwards just didn’t seem to be on the same page and couldn’t capitalize on the early possession. LouCity did what villains always do, they just kept coming.
By the 30 minute mark the El Paso advantage seemed to be gone. Maybe the pressure had finally gotten to the tired Loco team, or maybe LouCity just started clicking, but the rest of the half seemed to be a much more even spar. Louisville put a few shots just off target, and Jahmali Waite had to be sharp to prevent an own goal generated from the pressure. El Paso continued to get looks the other way with quick counterattacks, but they were consistently thwarted by 2023 defender of the year and infamous turncoat, Arturo Ordonez. I hate that guy. The pace slowed down a bit in the last 5 or so minutes of the half as the teams traded fouls.
The second half opened with LouCity in control, but struggling to break the El Paso defense. Then, in the 57th minute, right back Sean Totsch was just given the entire right side of the field. He carried the ball down into the corner, pretty much uncontested, and dropped a ball into the dead center of the box where Wilson Harris steered it into the bottom corner. Devastating, I know. It was the exact play Monterey Bay tried against Loco a million times on Wednesday. El Paso had numbers in the box and they had height, they just weren’t prepared for it this time. Now let’s give El Paso credit where it’s due. Conceding here after the week they had is deflating. I thought for sure it would be the end of them, but like the little engine that could, they just kept chugging. Stauffer gets a look at the net from outside the box in the 65th minute, easy save. I think I can. In the 69th minute, certified gunslinger, Armando Moreno fires a rocket toward the top left corner, forcing a finger tip save. I think I can.
On the resulting corner Justin Dhillon puts a cheeky back heel on net, scooped up by the keeper. I think I can. In the 77th minute Moreno gets the ball in the box and makes one of those pretty little flick passes I was talking about earlier. Eric Calvillo gets on the end of it, but again right at the keeper. I think I can. In the 84th minute Diego Abarca pulls up at the top of the box and fires a left footed shot that curls just wide. I think I can. Final whistle blows 1-0 LouCity. Shit, I guess they couldn’t. There’s probably a life lesson in there somewhere.
Takeaways
Playing three games in 8 days is hard
Tired legs get tired results, do people say that? They should.
Amando Moreno is good
Arturo Ordonez is frustratingly good
This was a better performance from El Paso against a better team than we saw on Wednesday
Louisville looks good but definitely some questionable transition play especially early
Questions
loco has some time to recover and a lot of tape to watch. How will they look next week?
When will Louisville’s reign of terror end?
Orange County SC at Pittsburgh Riverhounds
The hounds opened the season last week with a loss in New Mexico, and simply put, they looked bad. Strikers were nowhere to be found, the midfield looked lost, and apparently 5’9” Danny Griffin is now a center back. With the exception of Big Eric Dick in goal and high energy performances from EJ and Blackstock off the bench, there was very little to be excited about. Orange County, on the other hand, went into Sacramento, the consensus number 1 team coming in, and left with a draw. Which in itself might not be the most exciting result, but I should mention that they tied it at stoppage time on a goalkeeper goal. So yeah, fireworks. I didn’t watch much of that game. It was the third game of my triple header, and I fell asleep pretty early on. Admittedly I just wasn’t in in-season form yet. So I had no idea what to expect out of this Orange County side coming in.
Highmark was electric at the opening whistle. Which was huge because the hounds couldn’t possibly afford another slow start like they had against New Me… GOAL Orange County. Three minutes in, left back Ryan Doghman picked the ball up at the half and just walked into the hounds’ box before sliding it across goal to Brian Iloski. It sucked. Highmark stayed loud, and the players fed off of it. Despite the 1-0 score, the game was all hounds early, and Orange County looked more than happy to shell up. If they watched tape on last week’s game they would certainly feel comfortable holding a lead for 90 minutes. But last night’s hounds didn’t have the same problem as last week’s hounds. They controlled the ball and moved it around the box pretty well. Both Robbie Mertz and King Kenny Forbes looked very good, which is normally a recipe for success for the hounds. They had trouble breaking into the box cleanly, but had some good crosses and earned a few corners. A beautiful cross in from Rovira was nearly headed home by Babacar Diene. Who jumped damn near 10 feet in the air to meet the ball and demand a save out of Shutler. I genuinely do not understand where Babacar has been. He is a big boy, and clearly he can get up there. This team is full of great quarterbacks capable of finding him. Why isn’t that connection happening more? The hounds’ best chance of the half came in stoppage time as Robbie Mertz hit a wicked volley from the top of the box straight into the crossbar. Devastating.
Ok, it’s becoming apparent that maybe they do have some of the same problems they had last week. Mertz and Forbes are running a good show from the top of the box, but they can’t break through the Orange County defense on their own, and nobody seems to be making runs. Dikwa didn’t score 20 goals last year because he made plays out of nothing, but because he could reliably finish and had a knack for finding empty space. Right now the entire offense comes down to “throw the ball into the center and try to capitalize on the chaos.” I’m not saying it’s a bad strategy, but it’s currently not working. The starting eleven seem too small to capitalize on such a cross heavy strategy. If Robbie Mertz was 3 inches taller he would have outscored Orange County on his own last night. But he also would have signed for Sacramento or Tampa Bay or any other club who is willing to actually pay for players… If Danny Griffin was 3 inches taller he would actually be a center back… Sorry Danny you didn’t deserve that, I’m just frustrated. Sorry about that.
Back to the game. The second half is just more of the first. The hounds absolutely dominate the possession game and are generating some chances, but nothing quite as threatening as we saw in the first half. The team needs a spark and that’s exactly what Bob Lilley does in the 69th minute when he subs in EJ and Blackstock, the Bash Brothers. Also Pat Hogan, I guess he would be Kenny Wu in this analogy, but that doesn’t work as well. EJ and Blackstock brought some life to a defeated looking team last week. This week they joined a squad already firing on all cylind.. GOAL Orange County. Yep, in the 76th minute Orange County SC gets their second shot of the game which also happens to be their second goal of the game. I want to be clear this wasn’t a counter attack. This was off of a goal kick. OC won the header in the midfield and then quickly launched the ball into the box to a wide open Cameron Dunbar. And when I say wide open, I mean this guy could have tied his shoes before taking the shot. That was it for Orange County’s offense for the night.
The last 20 minutes was more of the same. The hounds continued to threaten but couldn’t break through. In the 90th minute King Kenny found some space down the right side and found Langston Blackstock streaking towards the far post. Kenny delivered the ball masterfully and Blackstock connected well enough, but Shutler was there to rob him, and preserve his clean sheet. Blackstock found open space and had good looks on net a couple of times in his 25 minutes on the field. I’m not sure why he isn’t deserving of the starting 11, but I accept that I’m a bozo and Bob Lilley is a genius. That said, if Langston Blackstock scores against Louisville next week I will officially be starting the fan club.
This one stings, it stings bad. But there is a lot more to be optimistic about this week than there was last week. They’re moving the ball well and creating chances. They just gotta figure out the finishing part, and there will be no shortage of chances to analyze from this week’s game. The defense played … well they didn’t play much defense, because they didn’t have to. Except for those two times that they did have to play defense, and they didn’t… did that make sense?
Take Aways
Mertz is playing really good ball
Questions
Where are the forwards?
Does Danny Griffin have the stuff to be a center back?
Will Blackstock get a start?
0-0-2 headed into Louisville. Are all of my nightmares about to come true?