St. Louis FC 4 - Las Vegas Lights FC 1: Three Things (or Deja Vu All Over Again)

The Lights conceded an early goal on their way to a dismal defeat away from home, in which they also went down a man from a red card offense...

Wait what day is this? Is this the day after our April 28 game against San Antonio FC (3-1 defeat with one red card)? Or our July 26 game against Sounders 2 (3-0 defeat with two red cards)?

Oh, this is a new one. Ok then.

Here are three things from the game.

1. Playoff Door is Shut

If you've never heard of the website fivethirtyeight.com, you should check it out. It's a pretty cool site that uses a lot of statistics and analytics to make sports predictions for a variety of sports - soccer included. They recently added the data from USL, which means that they now have a page that kind of ranks the offensive and defensive output of each team in the league (based on a variety of factors like historical performance, market value, and underlying stats like xG). The predictions are never perfect, of course (nothing is), but they are pretty good in my opinion.

That's the good news.

The bad news is this:

That little "1%" there is the 538 model's prediction of Las Vegas's chances of making the playoffs after this defeat.

Intuitively, this also makes sense. There are about 12 games left to play, and we have 23 points from 22 games (about 1 point per game). Last season, the worst team to sneak into the playoffs got 44 points (and I'm pretty sure there are more games this season, so that number should go up). So in order to be in the hunt, we have to get about twice as many points per game from the next 12 games as we have for the initial 22.

What I'm saying is, keep your money in your pocket.

2. It Didn't Look Like What It Was

In short, this game against a fellow play-off contender was, at the very very very least, a must-not-lose game. So what do the Lights do?

Concede within 4 minutes.

The goal came off of a corner kick. Our defender stuck out a leg to keep the ball off of  a St. Louis head, the ball fell to another St. Louis player, whose shot was blocked, then it fell to another St. Louis player, whose shot crept in.

Look, it's a set piece goal, those will happen sometimes. But when the opposing team gets two shots inside the six yard box within five seconds, you can't really blame anyone but yourself when one goes in. The Lights really should have been more on top of things - the initial clearance was a desperate attempt to get anything on the ball because the Lights player had almost lost his man, and after that, someone has to be the first man to react and kick the ball anywhere.

The Lights conceded again within ten minutes, and although we got a bit fortunate with a penalty that looked a bit soft to me (the keeper did take out the man, but he got the ball and I don't think the Lights attacker ever looked like he was going to get to it), the Lights were never really in the game. Not only did St. Louis outscore us, they also hit the post, spurned an open goal, and generally outplayed the Lights.

3. Is It About Honor? Or Is It Really About Soccer?

After the match, technical director Chelis said "There is nothing in training or with our tactics to solve. It’s going to be about honor."

Is it about honor? Is this the same "honor" that saw Chelis challenge a fan to a fight in the parking lot, and has resulted in him getting both a four-game suspension in May and an eight-game suspension in June?

Or is it really about the fact that our squad has attempted 1,000 less passes than the next worst passing team in the league (and at the worst pass accuracy), or that our defensive strategy is apparently based exclusively on fouling (#1 in the league in fouls, yellow cards, and red cards baby!) and not on keeping the ball out of the net (2nd worse record in the league in goals conceded), or that the squad has been almost completely overhauled midseason, or that we haven't settled on an established line-up?

Because if I had two choices - to either improve the team's "honor"; or to improve the team's defensive shape, I know which one I would choose.

And that may be the most worrying part of the whole game. Not losing by three or more goals (again), but knowing that the defeat will not result in any training ground changes whatsoever.

Till next time.

-VSB

Las Vegas Lights 1 - Rio Grande Valley 0 - Three Things (With Some Thoughts on Results v. Process)

Las Vegas Lights FC beat Rio Grande Valley this weekend 1-0 with a late header from Joel Huiqui off of a corner providing the winning goal.

I haven't actually posted anything about the team in a few weeks now (my fandom gets sidetracked sometimes by little distractions like a job and a family), so I am also going to include some observations from the past few weeks in general, as I write about the most recent game specifically.

1. Won the Must-Win Game

This game, at home against a team that was three points behind us going into the match, was an absolutely "must-win" event if Las Vegas wants to hold out any hope of making a playoff push. So, fair play to the team, they had to win it, and they did.

Unfortunately, such has been the state of our season so far, that winning this "must-win" game doesn't grant us a lot of reprieve. We're still seven points back from the last playoff spot (with a far inferior goal difference), with only about 1/3 of the season to play. In other words, this is not going to be our last "must-win" game this season. Let's just hope that the team can find a way to win those games like they did for this one.

2. Squad Overhaul

By my count, the Lights have picked up ten new players since the end of May (Avila, Mendiola, Mathers, Perez, Inigo, Manley, Samayoa, Murphy, Salgado, and Guzman). Most of those new faces are loanees from MLS or other USL clubs. And I wouldn't be surprised if I have missed a couple players from that list.

That is a huge amount of turnover for one transfer window - it's enough to make an entirely new outfield.

While everybody loves a good transfer/new signing, this amount of dealing raises some serious questions for me about the club's recruitment. Surely it can't have always been the plan to put a squad together before the season started, and then sign ten entirely new players (and let a few leave after just a few months with the team) within a few months?

Most of these new faces have seen significant minutes for the first team in recent weeks, but as far as I can tell none are locked-in starters. But, to be honest with you, I couldn't tell you more than maybe three "locked-in" starters for this team for any given game, such is the level of chopping and changing by the manager. I mean, I write a blog exclusively about the club, and I couldn't tell you what the coach's preferred XI is, or even what his preferred formation would be. And I can't help but think that kind of uncertainty affects the team.

3. Results vs Process

On that note, let's talk a little bit more about the manner of the Lights' victory this weekend. Las Vegas won by one goal, from a header from a defender on a late corner kick.

However, soccer is a famously low-event sport. The stat-line that matters in this game is simple: 1-0. But there are other stat-lines from this game that reveal a little bit more detail - and that detail makes me a little bit concerned.

Rio Grande beat the Lights in possession 63% to 37% (and also in passing 435 to 238). They also beat us in passing accuracy 78% to 65%. And also in shots (barely, 14 to 13), but by a substantial margin in shots on target, 7 to 2. And also by a huge margin in touches inside the opposition box, 29 to 15 (mostly down the Lights' left hand side, which infers that Torres and Garduno had a bit of a rough night). We did manage to keep our traditional dominance in fouls though - 22 fouls to their 8.

And to be clear here - this is not a situation where the stats are skewed because the Lights went ahead early and Rio Grande had to press the game to get a result. No, this was a game that was 0-0 for the majority, where the Lights were at home, against a team that is below them in the standings, in a match that the Lights basically have to win in order to stay in the playoff hunt.

Look, I know this probably sounds a bit churlish, coming after a game in which the Lights scored a late winner and kept their playoff hopes alive. But at the end of the day, despite the good result, I still have some major concerns about the process, and whether repeating the process is going to produce similar winning results in the future.

Hopefully I am wrong (I have been wrong before) and the team has managed to come up with some secret formula that defies what I am seeing and the stats.

For the sake of the team's playoff future, let's hope so.

Till next time.

-VSB

Las Vegas Lights FC 1 - St. Louis FC 0: Three Things

Las Vegas continues to creep ever so slowly towards the playoff line with a 1-0 home win against St. Louis. A well-taken (if somewhat fortuitous in the build-up) goal from Raul Mendiola was enough to see off a St. Louis side that looked pretty toothless in attack.

Here are some of my thoughts from the game:

1. A Welcome Clean Sheet - At Long Last

This was the first time the Lights defense has been able to shut out the opponent in 13 games. The last time we were able to keep the opponent from scoring was way back on May 1st, when we went away to the Monarchs, went down to ten men early, and bunkered for the entire game.

That is not good, you guys, especially for a team whose purported M.O. is "defend and counter." It's a two-word strategy, and when you can't do the first word, it's a problem.

In this game, not only were the Lights able to keep a clean sheet, they were able to completely negate any threat from St. Louis. The opposition were only able to get three (3!!) shots off in the entire 90+ minutes of game time - and none of those were on target.

That is awful. I don't think I've ever seen a stats line like that before in any league. I feel sorry for any St. Louis fan who bothered to tune into that game. Granted, the Lights weren't exactly a relentless attacking force, with only 6 shots and 1 on target, but hey, they got the goal to get the job done.

Hopefully this defensive solidity can continue. I've kind of accepted the fact that this particular Lights team is not going to suddenly become a free-scoring, pretty-passing, purveyor of the beautiful game (*cough* 66% passing accuracy this season *cough*). So if we aren't going to try to be pretty, let's at least be effective.

2. Time to Stop Chopping and Changing

As stated above, the Lights have not been able to keep a clean sheet for a very long time. I was curious as to why that would be the case, so I went back through the games to see if I could pick up any details from our lineups.

What I found was that there has been a whole lot of rotation going on in the backline practically since the beginning of the season.

90% of defending is organization. In an ideal world, you would have the exact same starting back four (or three, depending on system) for every game. This gives the defense time to gel, so that instead of moving up, down, and across as four individual players, they can begin to move as one solitary unit. In the top leagues, almost all of the successful teams have at the very least a pair or a trio of centerbacks that, when fit, will play every important game.

Unfortunately, that has not been the case for Las Vegas, which may go some way towards explaining why the team has found clean sheets so hard to come by. Since the start of the season, the Lights backline has consisted of four (or three) of Huiqui, Alatorre, Jaime, Torres, Herrera-Perla, Mendoza, Garduno, Guillen-Torres, and now Samoya. That gang have been put into back fours, back threes, have been rotated, chopped up, mixed up, and tossed around. Rarely have there ever been two games back-to-back that have seen the same defensive lineup as the last game.

In a game where organization, familiarity, and muscle memory is the key to outmaneuvering the opposition, that is just asking for trouble. Hopefully, based on the success of this line-up, we may see some continuity next game. But since the captain was left out of the side, I think it is probably (and unfortunately) unlikely.

3. The Loanees Look Good

The Lights front office, maybe in recognition that the season hasn't really been panning out as we would want it to be, went out into the transfer market for some reinforcements.

At the start of the season, the team really didn't dip into the loan market at all. And hey, I get it, I've played FIFA too. If you develop your own players, you can then maybe transfer them out for a fee, and pick up a decent profit that you can reinvest.

But at some point, what the team needs is results right now. And the loan market is a good way to access a level of talent that the club, at the level that they currently are, can't really afford to purchase.

So, since we are where we are, the team brought in 22-year-old right back Nicolas Samayoa from the New England Revolution and 19-year-old central midfielder James Murphy from LAFC, both of whom started this game. Tellingly, both of these youngsters played alongside some more "established" players - Samayoa next to the 33-year-old Alatorre, and Murphy alongside the 35-year-old Kobayashi.

This set-up is probably good for both parties. The young loanees get an experienced head next to them that can help them through the game, tell them what to watch for, etc. And the older veterans get a partner with speed and endurance that help to cover for legs that may be slowing down just a bit. 

That's all I got from this game. I think we have a double-game week this week (both road games).

Let's hope for another clean sheet from at least one of those.

-VSB

What are they smoking down at Cashman?

Las Vegas Lights FC fell 3-2 away at Swope Park Rangers this weekend.

The result is not actually what I wanted to talk about. Swope Park are a good team (better than us, to be honest), so to lose by one goal away from home is nothing to get bent out of shape about.

What I want to discuss today is what we are all talking about after the game - the penalty.

Down 3-2, the Lights were awarded a penalty kick in the last minute of stoppage time. It was a gift-wrapped opportunity to steal a point, on the road, against one of the better teams in the division, with the very last kick of the game. But instead of taking the shot, the Lights did this:



What? Why?

A penalty kick is literally a free shot from more or less the perfect position on the field. As in - the team spends the entire game trying to get the ball as close as possible to the penalty spot before taking a shot. About 75%-80% of penalty kicks are scored. That number jumps up to about 85% if the taker manages to keep the ball on target.

So why in the world would you want to mess around and pass it to a teammate at that moment.

Now I know what you are saying: Messi and Suarez did it, and it turned out fine:

Yes, they did but (1) they were already two goals up with ten minutes to go, not a goal down with seconds remaining against a better team on the road, and (2) it's Messi and Suarez (we can all admit they are on a slightly different talent level than Alvarez and Ochoa).

It the end, Ochoa and Alvarez's attempt turned out to be less "Messi-Suarez" and more "Pires-Henry."



After the game, both Chelis and Isidro Sanchez defended the pass-penalty attempt, calling it "brave."

Fair enough, the coach is supposed to defend the players in public. What I worry about is what is happening in private.

In isolation, one ill-advised pass-penalty wouldn't be a big deal. But when you start to look at it in connection with this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

The goalkeeper catches the free kick and then just dribbles all the way out past midfield on his own personal counter attack! I'M DYINGGGGG pic.twitter.com/PPtg7Qe9Si

— Mike Manganello (@MikeManganello) June 3, 2018

And all of a sudden your club starts to look less like a professional soccer team and more like a 
circus.

So my main question in response to the pass-penalty is this line from the report for the Las Vegas Review-Journal: " a play they’ve practiced since their first week of training in January came up short."

In soccer, you only have so much time on the training ground before the players get tired. You don't want to run the team into the ground, as they have (at least) one game every single week, and they need to start fresh. So with your limited time, the coach has to make some tough decisions. What do we practice most? Because if you spend a session practicing, let's say, crossing, that leaves you with less time to practice corner routines, or organizing the defense, or shooting.

So the question is, what did the team give up in order to practice pass-penalties "since January"? Shouldn't we have just been practicing real penalties (you know, like every other professional team in existence)?

And what exactly environment is going on in the backroom? What is the training environment that leads to the goalkeeper thinking that it would be a great idea to try to dribble from his own six-yard-box past the entire opposing team in the middle of the game, like he is some sort of Neuer/Maradona hybrid? Is it even possible to instill discipline into a team when the technical director can't even go a month without getting banned from the touchline?

The coaches claim it is part of the "show" - but I don't know anyone that is going to renew their season ticket based on the number of weird plays that the team tries during the season. They are going to renew based on whether the team is successful, and whether they play good, quality soccer. That's why we go to games and tune in to watch, because we love the game, not the sideshows. The sooner the coaching staff learns that, the better.

-VSB

Las Vegas Lights FC: 4 - Seattle Sounders 2: 1 - It's All About the Mistakes

Man what a wild ride we've been on.

The last four games for this team have been a 7-2 loss, then a 4-1 win, then a 4-0 loss, and now another 4-1 win. Talk about inconsistency.

Here are three thoughts from the Lights' latest 4-1 win over Sounders 2.

1.  Focus on the Mistakes

Famously, Jose Mourinho's footballing philosophy is defined by a focus on mistakes. In his mind, for most matches, the team that makes the most mistakes loses, and the one that makes the least amount of mistakes wins. Therefore, not only does he drill his team within in inch of their lives to avoid costly mistakes, he also foregoes possession. The theory is that the less you have the ball, the less opportunities you have to mess up, and the more opportunities the opponent has.

That's kind of how this game went down.

The Lights' first goal came from putting pressure on the Sounders 2 backline. When their defender made a poor decision to head it back to his keeper, Ochoa was ready to pounce and make it 1-0. Same for the second goal, Ochoa put in some good work to pressure the keeper, who made a mistake, and it had a fortunate bounce to make it 2-0.

On the other hand, the Lights were diligent in keeping their own mistakes to a minimum, and keeping the Sounder 2 attack relatively quiet.

2.  Staying Alive

The coach and the team has come under a lot of pressure recently - both for the results on the field and the technical director's ludicrous antics off of it. It has gotten so bad that the owner has given the Chelis the ominous "100% vote of confidence." (For those who don't follow european soccer much, a "vote of confidence" from the owner/board of directors is more often than not following by the coach getting sacked within a month or so).

This win was exactly what the team needed to relieve a bit of that pressure.

Let's be clear - Sounder 2 are not a good team, and the Lights were at home. They should have won this game, and they did. This win keeps us within touching distance (4 points) of the final playoff berth, which is what the goal for this team should be in their inaugural season.

We need to, at a minimum, keep beating the teams that we are expected to win (such as Sounders 2). And if we are serious about challenging for that last spot, we need to start picking up a result or two when we aren't the favorites. Next weekend, on the road at Swope Park Rangers, would be a great place to start.

3.  Pick Something and Stick with It

In the last five games, the Lights have tried to play in a 4-2-3-1, a 4-1-4-1, a 4-4-2, and twice in a 3-4-2-1.

Let's just pick something and stick with it, shall we? That could go a long way to achieving the kind of consistency that the team has been lacking in recent weeks. It's hard for players, especially at this level, to get familiar with their roles and surroundings when the formation, spacing, and players around them are constantly changing. You need to build up unconscious patterns in the players' mind, and when things are always changing, that can't happen.

Out of the formations listed above, I think the 3-4-2-1 (or 3-4-3, or whatever you want to call it) is the best suited for our players. Our defense can be, to put it nicely, a bit creaky at times. While Huiqui seems to come up with goals as often as our strikers do, his backline can also look a bit slow and a bit disheveled.

With three at the back, that should give the center backs a bit more cover for when they do inevitably let someone run by or lose a runner. Think of it as a safety net.

One thing though - in the Phoenix game, we tried a 3-4-3 with Carlos Alvarez, out best #10, as one of the midfield two. And clearly, it wasn't very effective.

If we stick with the 3-4-3, we need to make sure to have two more solid midfielders in the middle, who are a bit more adept at playing defense. This will give the backline a bit more protection, and will also move Alvarez (who is probably our most effective attacker) closer to the opposition box, where he can do the most damage.

Let's hope we stick with it and find some consistency in both performance and results, starting next weekend.

-VSB

Dear Chelis

Dear Chelis,

"...I want to apologize many times. But my action and my only intention was to point to him. Without intention, and with one finger, you can’t hurt anyone. I made a mistake... It will not happen again."

That was from last month. When you received a 7-game touchline ban because you confronted a referee and poked him in the chest with your finger. You apologized profusely, and said that it was a mistake, and claimed that things like this would not happen again.

Yet here we are.

This week you were given yet another touchline ban (this time 8 days) for confronting a fan in our midweek game against Phoenix. In a bizarre attempt to defend yourself, you said this on twitter:

No me dijo puto desde la tribuna 90’. Al final me lo encontré afuera y lo enfrenté. Lo tuvieron q haber sacado del estadio y nadie hizo nada.
El me tocó mi orgullo y yo te toqué su cabeza https://t.co/2qHaxQNiMu

— José Luis Sanchez (@Elchelis) June 16, 2018

My Spanish isn't great (ok it's bad), but if I'm understanding right, you are trying to defend yourself by saying that he called you a [bleep], and so you found him outside the stadium and confronted him. "He touched my pride, and I touched his head." (I'm pretty sure something has been lost in translation for that last line).

For starters - that's a horrible excuse. You are a 59-year-old grown man. That is supposed to be in charge of the Las Vegas Lights FC organization. I don't care what some drunken fan calls you at a game, the technical director of an entire football club should not be trying to meet him outside and fight it out. Get a hold of yourself.

This is the second touchline ban you have received within the space of two months. Let's try not to continue the streak, shall we?

Second, what exactly is the demarcation of duty at the club. My understanding is that you are the technical director, and your son, Isidro Sanchez, is the coach. So why are you even on the touchline in the first place? Isn't it his job to conduct the in-game management (pick the team and formation, make subs, yell at the players in general)? Isn't your job to oversee the direction of the club. As in work on transfers, manage the academy, oversee contracts, etc.?

Wouldn't it be better for all involved if you just kind of took this touchline ban as an opportunity to take a step back and work more within your role? that would give you more time to focus on your specific job, and would give your son more control to focus on his specific job. Plus, as an added bonus, no-one would yell names at you, and you wouldn't have to try to get into fights in the parking lot.

Sincerely,

A concerned fan.

-VSB

Las Vegas Lights FC Back on Track?

Las Vegas frankly surprised everyone with a convincing 4-1 victory over the visiting Colorado Switchbacks this weekend. The Lights came into this game on an absolutely terrible run of form, but they somehow managed to turn it around on a night that reminded us how fun it is to win a game now and again.

Two early goals (both from set pieces) certainly helped the Lights to get over the psychological pressure of the losing streak, and you could almost visibly see the pressure lift as the team started to play with more confidence and swagger.

So now is all well in Vegas? No, we're still earning just over one point per game, nowhere near the playoff picture. But having been pretty harsh on the team for the previous run, it's time to give credit where it's due and recognize the importance of the win. Here are my three thoughts from the game:

1. Timing is Everything

The Las Vegas goals in this game could not have come at more perfect times. When a team is on a bad run like the Lights were, goals are almost more important for their psychological effect than their effect on the scoreboard. If the Lights had conceded the first goal, it almost certainly would have made their heads drop, and they probably would have gone on to lose yet another game.

Instead, the Lights scored first. From a well-worked throw in by the corner flag, the Lights worked the ball to Christian Torres, who crossed it in for who else but Carlos Alvarez to head home.

Just as important in this game was the second goal. When a team is struggling like the Lights were, confidence can get shattered in a moment. Take for example the game against LA Galaxy II - we scored first, but they equalized shortly thereafter, and the game really went south fast after that.

That is almost certainly what the Colorado coach was telling his players at halftime. They would have come out int he second half really up for it and ready to make life difficult. So when Freddy Adu scored his birthday goal within two minutes of the restart, it redoubled the confidence of the Lights, while shattering the belief of the Switchbacks.

2. The Perfect Goalscorers

You could not have asked for better players to pick up the goals in this game.

First, Carlos Alvarez scored. If it wasn't clear before his goal, it should be clear now - Carlos is our best attacking player, and his form is vital to the smooth operation of our attack. When he's on, the Lights are on. When he's not, the Lights struggle.

Second, Freddy Adu scored. We all know Freddy's history. He's been a few places and seen a few things in his career. If he can gain some confidence here in Las Vegas, I think he has a lot to contribute to the other players who maybe haven't had the experiences he has had. This goal will hopefully help him to step out a little bit more and take a little bit more responsibility.

Third (and perhaps most importantly), Sammy Ochoa picked up his first goal of the season. I don't think I'm being too harsh here to say that so far, Ochoa's season has been disappointing (he'd probably agree). He does a lot of work for the team (knockdowns, running off the ball, etc.). But the fact of the matter is that a striker's first job is to score, and we were ten games into the season without Ochoa picking up a single goal. Some strikers are patchy scorers, meaning that they can go ten games without a goal and then rattle off ten goals in the next ten. Let's hope Ochoa follows that pattern over the next section of the season.

Fourth, Matt Thomas scored right at the end with his second of the season. With Ochoa struggling recently, it is important for the Lights to have alternate methods of scoring (you can't rely on Alvarez and set pieces from defenders all season).

3. Pretty Play

There was a definite re-think in the way the Lights approached this game compared to the last few seasons. I'n not sure how much of it came from the coach, who said "What we (did) today was the things we (did) the first four games... being brave, stepping out. It was difficult after six, eight weeks of not obtaining the results.” It may have been a more player-driven thing (either consciously or subconsciously).  But looking at the numbers, the Lights matched Colorado for possession and passing. 

Now that isn't some sort of crazy stat - most teams win the possession battle at home. But the Lights aren't most teams. Also, usually game states have a large effect on passing - when a team goes ahead early, they often try to sit back and counter-attack, ceding the possession battle to the team that now has pressure to score. 

Today, the Lights took better care of the ball, and seemed to make it a point to find players and play it on the ground to feet. Let's hope that it is something they continue to work on.

4. Bonus  - What was that?

I'm sorry, I couldn't write about this game without covering this:

The goalkeeper catches the free kick and then just dribbles all the way out past midfield on his own personal counter attack! I'M DYINGGGGG pic.twitter.com/PPtg7Qe9Si

— Mike Manganello (@MikeManganello) June 3, 2018

This is absolutely, positively crazy. This is not "oh he's just being an aggressive keeper." This is insane. The only time I have ever seen this happen is in indoor 5 on 5 pickup games when nobody really knows the score anyways - and even then players get annoyed because it leaves the goal open.

This was stupidity, and Ferrino was really lucky that Matt Thomas was on hand and willing to pick up a yellow card when Ferrino inevitably lost the ball at the halfway line.

If anyone reading this is, or knows someone, who is wanting to be a goalkeeper - this is page 1, line 1 in the book of "Things not to do."

Till next time

-VSB

LA Galaxy II - 7 (yes, that's Seven), Las Vegas Lights FC - 2

I know this is a few days later than usual. But in my defense, when the choice is between (a) swim and barbecue over a memorial day weekend, or (b) re-live a 7-2 shellacking by writing about it, you can kind of understand the delay.

But, as much as I think we should all just pretend it didn't happen, it did, so here are my three takeaways.

1. Free Reign in the Penalty Box

In this game, the Lights actually took almost the same number of shots that the Galaxy did (14 to 16). But, there are shots, and then there are shots, if you take my meaning. The problem this weekend was not the amount of shots that the Lights allowed, it was the quality of shots they allowed.

The worst shots to give up (and the best shots to take), are shots off the foot in the area in immediately in front of the goal - in about a semi-circle area encompassing the six yard box out to the penalty spot. These are "high-percentage" shots, meaning if you're getting a shot off from there, there's a good chance it'll hit the back of the net (at least relative to shots from other area of the field.

If you want to sum up the problem this match, look no further than this map:

The black dots are LA Galaxy II touches, while the blue dots are Lights touches. As you can see, the Lights let the Galaxy get on the ball five times in this prime area. Four of those touches were goals. (The Lights only got two touches in that area on the other side, one of which was Diego's first goal).

If you want to keep the opposition out, you can't let them pick up the ball in that zone. But that's what they did.

2. Center Back Problem?

Neither of the two Lights center backs covered themselves in any glory this match.

Usually when a goal is conceded, there are mistakes made on multiple levels (someone misplays a ball here, someone gets a bad read there). But in this game, the straight truth is that on alot of the plays, there was one glaring error that made up 90% of the mistake.

For the first goal, the LA forward (Zubak, he'll come up again), cleverly peels off of the back of our center back Jaime, who completely loses him. There are no other players close to Jaime - his one job is to keep track of Zubak, and he doesn't, and that's the first goal.

For the second, there's a breakaway - but it's being managed alright. The man with the ball is being closed down, and the runner down the middle is being tracked by Huiqui. The ball is crossed on the ground, and Huiqui is in the right spot at the right time - and makes a complete mare of the clearance. Instead of putting his foot through it, he seems to misjudge it's path, it bounces around through his legs, and get put in.

I'm really not going to go through all of the goals, but I will point to the one in the 87th minute where, again, the LA forward finds himself completely alone in the six yard box. (I mean completely, there is no Lights defender within 5 yards.

Long story short, the center backs need to be aware of the opposing forwards, and in this game, for whatever reason, our defense repeatedly lost focus.

3. Under Pressure

Before I write this section, I want to be clear - I am not calling for the coach or technical director to be fired because of this result.

But even with the benefit of a few days removal from the disappointment of the game, it does not look good.

The team just lost 7-2.

The game before that, the team lost to an amateur club that is two divisions below our own.

The results for the last nine games in all competitions reads DLDDLWLLL. The solitary win came against an amateur club.

That is all very bad. In fact, in other leagues in other countries, any one of those things standing alone could cause the coach to lost their job.

Here, of course, the Las Vegas Lights aren't Real Madrid - so nobody expects them to win every game. In that way, the management can probably consider themselves fortunate that at the end of the day, we are talking about a lower division club in the fifth most popular sport in the country (with no relegation, I might add).

So, while I don't expect the owner to start chopping heads any time soon, I do expect there to be some major changes in the roster, tactics, and lineup. Even if it's unlikely that the coach will get sacked mid-season, he needs to start turning things around if he wants to be considered as the long-term man for the job.

The Lights Remind Las Vegas How Expansion Teams Usually Work

This season, Las Vegas picked up three new professional sports teams. One of them has completely broken the curve for how an expansion team should be judged, playing way above the expectations, and overall been an enthralling team to watch.

That team is not Las Vegas Lights FC.

If any of us soccer fans were holding out hope that the Lights could replicate the Golden Knights, this week (really these last two months) have been like a cold bucket of reality being dumped over our heads.

Last night the Lights went to Golden State Force FC - an amateur team playing in effectively the fourth division of U.S. Soccer - and lost 2-1. That is bad.

To emphasize how bad - only three amateur teams have made it through this round of the Open Cup, Golden State and two others. The other two only made it because they were drawn against other amateur teams. In every other USL-amateur match-up this week, the USL team managed to get the job done. The Lights were the sole exception.

Now look, upsets happen in cup competitions. Every once in a while even a Manchester United loses to a championship team. However, it's hard to look at the Lights' recent form and think that last night's poor performance was just a blip in an otherwise upward trend. Let's look at some concerning numbers:

- Over the past five league games, the Lights are rock bottom of the Western Conference with only 2 points.
- Over the past six league games, the Lights have the same amount of red cards as they have goals (3).
- Over the past past eight games in all competitions, we have only won once, against a lower division side.
- We are dead last in the league in terms of attempted passes (2,482). And not by a small margin, the next lowest has almost 500 more attempted passes than we do.
- We are dead last in the league in terms of passing accuracy (63%). And again, not by a small margin, the next lowest is at 70%.
- This almost means we are dead last in the league in terms of completed passes (1,559).
- We are first in the league for yellow cards (33). The next closest team has 26. (We're also third in terms of total fouls and tied for second for red cards).

Now that all of that is out of the way, let me point out some green shoots that may give us some hope for the rest of the season.

First, the team probably isn't as bad as this most recent run makes them look. There are some green shoots to be seen - for example, we are above-average in terms of how many shots we've gotten off (12th, with 129) and about average in terms of goals conceded (tied for 19th with 12).

Second, our weekend league game is against LA Galaxy II. And while Los Dos has some exciting prospects (Efrain Alvarez clips have been making the rounds on twitter over the past few weeks), they are actually below us in the table having played more games. So we have a real chance to stop the rot and get some points on the board.

Third, the club seem to realize that the team needs work, as they just brought in a new defender, midfielder, and forward. You don't bring in players for all three of those positions if you are just tweaking a few things here and there. That kind of action means that the hierarchy knows that the Lights need work in multiple areas.

And finally, let's all just take a moment for a bit of perspective.

Sometimes expansion teams just click, and manage to put together a really special season. The Golden Knights of course are the example that spring to mind, but there's also the Chicago Fire, who won the MLS Cup and Open Cup double in their first season. Or even Atlanta United, who made the playoffs in their first season and really captivated the city of Atlanta (and many neutrals) by playing a really exciting brand of soccer.

But the reason those stories are so memorable is because in most cases, expansion teams struggle. For every Golden Knights, you have expansion teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who went 0-14 for the season), Minnesota United (who conceded 18 goals in their first four games) and Orlando City (who despite spending all of the money on Kaka, still haven't made the playoffs).

You don't even have to go that far afield - the other new Vegas professional team, the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces, have began their life by losing their first three games (one of the them by almost a 40-point margin).

The point is, to be honest, the Lights have been outright bad over the past two months. But that is how soccer works, you go through bad runs and good runs, and most of the time expansion teams get handed more bad than good. But they don't last forever. And hopefully these transfer moves are a sign that the team is seeing the same stats we are, and have an idea of how to turn the ship around.

Here's to three points this weekend.

-VSB

USMNT Roster for May/June Friendlies - Too Much Youth? Nope.

I know this isn't about the Las Vegas Lights FC, but I heard about the U.S. roster that was announced as the USMNT prepares for the World Cup plays three friendlies, and wanted to write down a few thoughts about the team.

The full list is at the bottom, but suffice it to say that the U.S. interim coach Dave Sarachan has gone really young for these games. Like, average age of 22 years young. I'm not sure that in my recollection there has ever been a roster announced that is this young and inexperienced at the international level. In fact, the players with the most caps (20 each) are Pulisic and Joe Corona.

Here are a couple of thoughts from the announcement:

1. This Announcement isn't Completely Meaningless

Just mostly meaningless. I mean, the next "competitive" game that the U.S. will play is the opening game of the 2019 Gold Cup, which is over 12 months away. So we don't exactly have a ton of reason to play these matches other than unearthing some talent and discovering exactly what a few of our new players are capable of. On that note...

2. Coach Sarachan has 100% Made the Right Call

The only way this roster will be meaningful is to identify new talent. The roster includes a lot of players that are just breaking into the professional game - players like Tim Weah from PSG's academy, Cameron Carter-Vickers from Tottenham's, Matthew Olosunde from Manchester United's, and Josh Sargent from Werder Bremen's.

These are not players that have seen substantial professional minutes for their clubs. A few have made the odd appearance off the bench, or from the start in rotated squads. But for the most part they are what they are - academy players. And while we are all going to get excited about them after these games, and a few will probably have hype trains a month from now with people declaring them the new American Messi, the odds are pretty good that a few of these players will just not work out, fall down the divisions, and not go on to have a long and meaningful US career.

And that's alright. These friendlies are one of the steps on the way to determining which players are going to work out, and which aren't.

3. The Lack of Experience is Not Just Ok, It's a Good Move

One of the reasons this roster is so exciting is because there were almost no "experienced heads" called in. Usually, even when experimenting with new players, the coach will call in a few regulars with the idea that they will show them the ropes, and pass on their experience to the next generation of youngsters.

Here, there are none. And here is why that is good:

First, it's questionable what kind of "experience" will get passed down. While there are probably things that the older players could teach the youngsters (like how to deal with bags of pee being thrown at them in certain central american stadiums), there are a lot of things that I would honestly be concerned about what the young players could pick up. For example, the older "experienced heads" effectively downed tools this world cup cycle away in Costa Rica. And they showed a complete lack of preparation and effort in the last game in Trinidad & Tobago. This new group of players does not need to pick up any bad habits from those particular experiences.

Second, those "experienced heads" have needed a wake up call for a long time. For a long time, certain names have been written in stone in the roster and the team sheet. It didn't matter how certain players were performing, where they were playing, or how they were played in their last match. They were not left off the roster for any reason, and some were not even benched.

Hopefully this new roster is another indicator to those players that going forward, if players are not challenging themselves and trying to improve their game, they won't be picked. Hopefully those players get the message that the failure to qualify will have real consequences to their own personal careers - and if they want to get more caps for their country, they are going to have to show why they deserve it.

Las Vegas 0 - Real Monarchs 2: Humbling Defeat Shows that Las Vegas has Work to Do

Las Vegas falls 0-2 at home to Real Monarchs in a game that reveals that Las Vegas has some lessons to learn if they want to follow the example of the town's other new sports franchise and make a splash in their opening season.

Here are three thing we learned from this one:

1.  A Word for Experience

This was the Las Vegas Lights' ninth regular season game (and only their tenth professional match in all competitions). By contrast, this was the Monarchs' 100th regular season match. The team has been around for a while, and it showed in the game - they were able to jump out to an early lead, and then were confident in knowing how to manage the rest of the game to ensure the three points.

Though Las Vegas does have experienced individuals (like Huiqui), they are not yet an experienced team. Take the first goal, for example. The ball was played out to the right back Jaime when there really wasn't any options available to him. He was put under a little bit of pressure, and correctly opted to go back to the goalie, but was just a little bit to slow to get the pass off and the forward just got a toe in. At the same time, the center back assumed that Jaime was just going to take care of it, so he was a second too slow in covering for him, and allowed Velasquez to get goal side.

It's a game of fine margins - just few seconds off, and all of a sudden you're a goal down. Hopefully as the Lights get more familiar with their teammates, they will cut out those mistakes.

2. Open Cup Goals Don't Translate to USL Goals

In midweek, the Lights managed to put 4 goals past FC Tucson to win their U.S. Open Cup match. The positive attacking play brought some of us some hope that the team could bring that same firepower to bear in the league, where to be honest, we have been struggling to put the ball in the net.

Unfortunately, it looks like there is a reason that FC Tucson plays in a division below ours. When the opposing defense stepped up a level in quality yesterday evening, it completely shut down our attack.

3. Goals Change Games

Now I know what you are thinking after that last sentence - but wait, we weren't completely shut down. And of course, as an intelligent observer of soccer, you are to an extent correct - statistically, the Lights had 60% of the possession, and outshot the Monarchs 26 to 8.

But this is one of those times were the stats don't tell the whole story.

Do you remember the USA vs Ghana game in the 2014 World Cup? Clint Dempsey scored within the first minute or so to give the US an early lead, Ghana equalized late, and Brooks turned in a header at the end to win the game. Anyways, the stats from that game look incredibly similar to the Lights-Monarchs game: Ghana had 61% possession and outshot the Lights 21 to 8. Were they better than us? Almost certianly not - they flamed out of the world cup that year with a single point.

The reason they statistically dominated that game was because the U.S. scored early, and had something to defend. We didn't have to attack anymore - so we didn't. Ghana really needed to attack, so they did.

We saw the same thing play out in the Lights-Monarchs game. The Monarchs jumped out to an early lead, and then doubled their advantage only 20 minutes into the game. After that, they didn't really need to attack anymore, so they let the Lights try to break them down.

And to be brutally honest, though we had a lot more shots, none of them (aside from the Ochoa lob that came off the crossbar late on) were really good chances; they kind of just kept us at arm's length for the remainder of the match. I'm not sure any Monarchs fans ever really had their hearts in their mouths.

The good news is that once again, we have a chance to forget our league form as we hit the road to face another lower division side, the Golden State Force, on Wednesday.

Here's to another 4-2 victory then.

-VSB

U.S. Open Cup - Lights vs Tucson - Things to Know

The Lights prepare to play FC Tucson in the U.S. Open Cup this Wednesday night. It is (sort of) a home game, in that it is taking place at UNLV's field instead of the usual venue at Cashman (I'm guessing because the 51s play the day before and it's too quick of a turnaround to get the grass laid, but I'm not really sure).

I'm not going to sit here and pretend I knew the first thing about FC Tucson before I just spent a few minutes googling them. But I will share my now-vast knowledge with you:

They play in the PDL (Premier Development League), which is essentially the U.S.'s version of division three soccer, which means they are one division below us. They are a semi-pro team that was recently purchased and is now a farm team for Phoenix's USL team. They seem to be quite good in their division - but keep in mind that the teams in their division include other semi-pro teams, including U-23 academy teams from MLS clubs, and even amateur teams. For example, one of the teams in FC Tucson's division is the BYU Cougars - which most of you will probably recognize is a college club team.

My point is, Las Vegas should be winning this game. True, we will probably see a rotated side, as the Lights have a league game this weekend to worry about. But regardless of rotation, the Lights should have the talent to win this game.

In a way, this is the perfect opportunity for the Lights to break their 5-game winless run, and build some momentum for the league.

While a win Wednesday wouldn't improve out league position, in a weird way, U.S. Open Cup games are almost more (ok maybe equally) important. For most teams, both in Europe and here in the U.S., the clubs in the top division frequently turn up their nose at cup competitions. Teams rotate heavily, sometimes to the point where they are accused of throwing the game, because the fact is that at the top level, there re bigger fish to fry.

We, however, are not at the top level. And the fact is that for USL clubs like ourselves, if we make a deep run in the U.S. Open Cup, it could work wonders for the club's prestige (though not necessarily the finances - the winners get $250,000, which would be a decent chunk for a club our size, but certainly wouldn't launch us into a new stratosphere). The point is that if you asked your standard American MLS fan, they would probably not be able to tell you who won the USL trophy last year. But I bet a fair few of them would be able to tell you that FC Cincinnati knocked out an MLS team in the Open Cup.

Now, we are a long way from any rounds that would give us an opportunity to do that, but you have to take your first step, and for the Lights, that comes on Wednesday against FC Tucson.

So here's to a win, some momentum for the weekend, and who knows, maybe even a chance to pull off an upset somewhere down the line.

-VSB

Colorado Springs Switchbacks 1 - Las Vegas Lights FC 0 - Three Things from a Disappointment at Altitude

The Lights fell to a one-nil defeat away from home in Colorado Springs this evening. It was a disappointing defeat, and not just because that makes it only 3 points from their last 5 games.

Here are three takeaways from the match:

1. You Miss 100% of the Shots You Don't Take (and 90% of the Shots You Do)

The real disappointment from this evening doesn't just come from the run of bad results - those happen - but from the lack of threat from the attack. At no point this evening did the Lights really trouble the Colorado Springs keeper.

In fact, if Colorado Springs had chosen to play an inanimate carbon rod in goal this evening, they still would have gotten a draw.

That's because despite taking an acceptable (but not great) 9 shots tonight, the Lights could only get 1 of those on target. So in spite of the fact that the Lights more or less matched Colorado Springs for possession, it really never felt like a goal was coming.

2.  Forwards with a Night to Forget

As mentioned above, the Lights attack really didn't have their shooting boots on this evening. One player that will want to forget this evening as soon as possible is Sammy Ochoa, who led the line.

He cut a particularly frustrated figure up front, always trying to get involved, but with nothing ever really coming off for him. He had one or two looks at goal, and wasn't quite able to make them count. Otherwise, his touch let him down a bit, and he was unable to really influence the game (though to be fair to him, he was not given great service by his midfield, and had to more or less feed on scraps).

The moment that will haunt him, however, was late in the second half. The Lights swung in a dangerous corner kick, and Garduno did a beautiful job of getting free and getting a header. It looked like it was going into the far corner, with the keeper beaten.

Unfortunately, that's where Ochoa had gambled and made his run. He was unable to adjust to the ball, and ended up doing Colorado Springs a favor by clearing it off of their line.

Again, to be fair, the ball came in pretty hot, and there wasn't a whole lot of time to react and adjust his body out of the way. But that's not going to stop him from thinking about it for a few days.

3.  Ferriño and the Defense Could Only do So Much

In the end, the winning goal for Colorado Springs came off of a bit of a fortunate bounce inside our box. Their forward tried to dribble our defender (Garduno I think) in the middle of our penalty box, and Garduno was able to get a touch to the ball. Unfortunately, it deflected right back off of the Colorado Springs striker and popped out into the forward's path almost perfectly for him to poke home.

It was unfortunate, but to be honest, the goal had been in the post for a long time. It came not too long after Colorado Springs had a string of about 5 corner kicks in a row. And throughout the night, the defense (and Ferriño in particular) were kept really busy putting out fires. The keeper earned his salary with a few important saves and clearances (and we kind of avoided a goal earlier when Ferriño really sold a "foul" and the referee bought it).

So, despite the unlucky bounce, the fact remains that if you let the opposition spend enough time in your attacking third, and let them get the ball in your box too often, eventually something is going to go against you.

The Lights now get to come home, sort of, as they will be facing Tucson in the Open Cup at UNLV's soccer field on Saturday.

Let's hope we can get back to winning ways.

Las Vegas Lights FC 1 - Tulsa 1: Three Things from Cinco de Mayo

Las Vegas picked up another draw this week, this time at home to Tulsa.

Alvarez picked up an early headed goal, and we almost made it to halftime in the lead - but a well taken goal from UNLV alum Joaquin Rivas hurt his former hometown with a goal right before halftime. Here are three things from the game:

1. Not a Good Draw

Context is everything. Monday, the Lights picked up a point on the road against a great team, while playing the majority of the game down to 10 men. That was a good point. We have to be happy with that.

Saturday, the Lights picked up a point at home, in a crowded stadium, against a team below us in the table, while playing even-handed for most of the match. That is a bad point. We really should have done better and picked up all three.

2. Goals from Open Play

That isn't to say that there weren't positives to be taken - it's just that we have to look a little deeper than the points on the board.

One thing that I found really positive is that Alvarez's goal was created from open play. The Lights have picked up a lot of their goals this season (and preseason) from set pieces - whether that be corner kicks (like Huiqui's recent early goal), long throws, penalties or free kicks (like Alvarez's beauty in pre-season). And while all goals are great, and set pieces are frequently under-utilized in soccer, I'm not going to pretend I wasn't a little concerned that none of our goals seemed to come from moves in the open field.

Not so Saturday. Alvarez's opener came from a great combination of quick passes in the middle of the field - Ochoa then sprayed it wide to Diaz, who played a great one-time cross that was finished off by Alvarez, who had ghosted in front of his marker to head home.

It wasn't our only open play move of the night either - a few minutes before a great counter resulted in  point-blank shot that was saved by the Tulsa GK, and late on Alvarez almost restored the lead after a great pass and dribble.

That is the kind of soccer that people will pay to watch, and I hope we get to see more of it as our attackers become more familiar with each other.

3. The Refs... Kind of Balanced Out

Looking at just the box score, you'd be forgiven for thinking "Oh great, another red card, the Lights really need to reign themselves in." And yes, that is probably true overall - we are one of the fouliest teams in the league (2nd most fouls with 129, most yellow cards with 27), our captain will miss next game because he has already accumulated 5 yellow cards in just seven games, and our manager is currently serving a seven-game ban for "brief contact" with an official.

But that really wasn't the story tonight. Matt Thomas did get a red card in the 72nd minute, but it was one of the harshest reds you'll ever see. He came in to challenge the ball, and yes, he was late and shouldn't have lunged in, but it probably wasn't even a yellow card offense, much less a straight red.

But, on the other hand, the referee also bailed us out late on. Tulsa had the ball in the back of the net, but after a long deliberation with the linesman, the center ref ruled it out for offside. The replay is a bit inconclusive, but in real time the Tulsa player looked on to me.

So on the night, we got a harsh red card, but on the other hand, we got a bit fortunate with what could have been a late winner for Tulsa. So on balance, I'm not going to waste any time complaining (unlike Monday's offside against us, which I feel perfectly entitled to complain about).

So overall, a bit of a disappointing cinco de mayo, luchador masks aside, but at least it wasn't a loss.

Let's hope for a better result against Colorado Springs on Friday.

-VSB

10 Man Las Vegas Snatches Road Point Against Real Monarchs

The Lights, playing with 10 men for over 70 minutes, somehow managed to pull off a 0-0 draw and grab a valuable road point in Utah last night.

Here's three things from the game:

1.  The Monarchs Set Out A Really Strong Side

Let's say it outright - the Monarchs are a really good team. They finished with the highest points total in the league last season. They were at home. And not only that, but as an MLS affiliate side, they have the ability to drop in MLS players from their Real Salt Lake team whenever they need to build up some match sharpness. Last night, the Monarchs fielded MLS regular Luke Mulholland in midfield, which made a challenging evening for Las Vegas just that little bit tougher.

And yet despite the strength of the opposition, and the early red card, the Lights still managed to get a point on the road. It was a really good result, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

2.  The Red Card May Have Helped, In A Weird Way

As I talked about last post, in the Friday night game against San Antonio, the visitors got their win by taking the Lights out of their comfort zone, giving up the ball and forcing the Lights to try to break them down. The Lights are much more comfortable as a defend-and-counter team, and struggled to cope with the responsibility of playing a possession game.

Last night, on the road against a good side, the Lights were always going to play a counter attacking game. But with the early red card, the game plan became even more clear.

Of course, a red card, especially within the first 20 minutes of a game, is never a good thing. But in this case, I don't think it hurt as much as we might have assumed. Once the Lights went a man down, everyone on the field knew that they had one job - keep the Monarchs from scoring. If the team found themselves in a decent counter-attacking position, they could see what happens. But there was no question of committing numbers forward or attempting to outplay the Monarchs. It clearly focused the minds of the players, who put in a defensive masterclass to keep the clean sheet and eventually win the point.

3.  Could We Have Gotten More?

As the second half died down, the Lights found themselves in one of those rare moments of attack. A ball was played out to Drake on the right hand side, who tried to cross it in. The cross was deflected, but it fell to Kobayashi about 25 yards out, who curled a beautiful strike that cannoned off the right hand post and across the goal. On hand was another Lights player (I think Ochoa, I couldn't really see), who stooped and put the ball into the net - only for the referee to flag for offside.

Now, we don't get the greatest angles on streams of USL matches. But take a look at this screenshot and tell me that there isn't at least one Monarchs guy playing our striker onside. 

That said, while we can definitely have some gripes about that particular offside call and wish we could have completed the perfect snatch-and-grab - at the end of the day, in a game where the Monarchs completely dominated with 70% possession, over twice as many passes and over twice as many shots, you can't be too disappointed to come away with a point.

Our next match is is back at home this Saturday in a cinco de mayo clash against Tulsa. Let's hope we can pick up all three points then.

- VSB

Three Things: Las Vegas Lights 1 - 3 San Antonio + Real Monarchs Preview

Well that wasn't exactly what we were looking for.

In USL's featured "game of the week" on Friday, the Lights fell on their face to concede three goals at home in a 1-3 loss to San Antonio. Here are the three things I took from it:

1. The counter-attackers got counter-attacked.

The Lights are, in essence, a defend-and-counter team. We don't like to possess the ball and stroke it around - instead we look to move it forward quickly and with purpose.

So with that in mind, you'd think the team would be aware of the danger of counter attacks - but on Friday they just weren't. The first San Antonio goal, in the 17th minute, was a classic example of a poorly managed counter attack. The Lights had committed players forward, and had only left two defenders back to deal with any possible counter-attack.

That's fine, sometimes you have to commit numbers forward - but when you do that, you have to (a) make sure that the play ends either in a goal, goal kick, corner, or something, or (b) have players switched on enough to sprint back on defense in case you lose the ball. The Lights did neither - they lost possession, and noone got back quick enough. San Antonio moved the ball upfield into a 3 on 2, and it was a fairly simple tap-in in the end.

After that, the Lights had to press high in search of an equalizer, and that played right into San Antonio's hands. While the Lights managed to out-possess and out-shoot San Antonio, it just wasn't effective, because that just is not who the Lights are. While we managed to eventually get a goal back (through Carlos Alvarez, one of our stand-out players, and a former San Antonio man himself) San Antonio was able to just ride out the limited pressure and continue to play on the break, which eventually killed us.

2. Couldn't find our shooting boots

That isn't to say that the Lights didn't have chances. After the first goal and early in the second, Lights forward Ochoa had some decent looks that could have, on a better night, brought the Lights back into the game.

Overall, they had 23 shots, 15 of which were inside the box. Inside the box shots are usually much higher percentage shots that outside of the box, but out of all of those attempts, the Lights only managed to keep a paltry six on target (compare that to San Antonio, who only managed 13 shots all game, but 10 of those were inside the box, and 5 were on target).

As I've mentioned in some of my past posts, the Lights have been converting their shots at a probably-unsustainably-high rate. This game just might have been the first sign of a reversion to the mean, where the Lights' finishing just wasn't as clinical as it has been in the past.

3. Look ahead at Real Monarchs

So far the Lights have had a really friendly opening schedule, with a lot of breaks and a lot of home games. In the next few weeks, however, the Lights are going to be on the road a lot more often, and are going to have a much more packed schedule - so don't be too surprised if they struggle in a few matches as fatigue (both in terms of minutes and travel) start to take their toll.

It all starts for the Lights tonight as they play the Real Monarchs up in Salt Lake City. Actually, the Lights get the dubious honor of opening the Monarchs' brand new USL-specific stadium.

Let's not beat around the bush here, this is going to be a tough game. The Monarchs were the regular season champions last season, they have a lot of talent, and they are gong to be motivated to get their new stadium off to a winning start.

BUT, I still hold out a tiny bit of hope that the Lights can get a result up in Utah, and here's why. The Monarchs are not going to do what San Antonio did - give up possession to play on the break, and force the Lights to try to possess the ball. No, the Monarchs are going to try to monopolize the ball and take the game to the Lights. Which means that Lights get to do what they like to do - defend, then counter.

Here's to a quick bounce back against the Monarchs this evening.

-VSB

Las Vegas Lights FC vs San Antonio - Friday Game Preview

After (yet another) week off, the Lights have (yet another) home game this weekend. But this time, instead of the traditional Saturday night game, we get a game on a Friday night.

That's significant not only because it disrupts those of us who are locked into our routines, but also because it was moved to Friday for a reason - it's the Lights' first regular season game that will be on *national TV.

*Disclaimer - Because it's USL, "national TV" doesn't actually mean TV, it just means that it's going to stream on ESPN3 this week.

Either way, because it's going to be "broadcast" on ESPN, hopefully the team will make its way in front a few more eyes this weekend then it normally does. It's a good chance to inspire a bit more buzz and interest around the club, and hopefully grab a few more fans from places that otherwise might not get exposed to the team.

But in order to do that, the Lights need to make sure they put in an inspirational performance tomorrow.

They are up against San Antonio tomorrow. San Antonio were a really good team last season, finishing on 62 points and in second place in the western conference. This year... not so much. They swept up in pre-season, but as we've certainly learned from the Lights this year, pre-season form does not necessarily correlate with regular season performance. San Antonio have started off this year with an uninspiring 6 points from 7 games, with their only win coming in the second game of the season. And so far they've only managed to score 4 goals, while conceding 7.

However, there's a decent chance that their start to the season isn't really reflective of who they are. As I said earlier, they were 2nd in the conference last season. And while they've struggled to score this season, it hasn't been for lack of opportunities. They've managed to take 58 shots, and put 29 of those on target. It's just that they are almost last in the league in converting their chances, sitting at 8%. They are decent passers of the ball too - in about the top third of the league.

So, the Lights should feel confident going into this one. We're at home, we've had a two-week break, and we have gotten to a great start. But we can't feel too confident and underestimate a team that just a few short months ago was challenging for first place in the conference.

Finally, on Friday, keep an eye on our man Carlos Alvarez. I pointed him out in my last post as one of the stand-out players of the season. He's the man our attack really runs through, and he's going to have some extra incentive this time around. In 2016, in San Antonio's inaugural USL season, Carlos was San Antonio's first ever signing, and picked up five goals in thirty appearances for the team. He left the very next season, but now he gets to see some old faces (and hopefully put in a performance that makes them regret letting him go).

Here's to three points on Friday.

-VSB

Which Players Are the Stand-Outs on Las Vegas Lights FC?

Big news this week. Arsene Wenger announced he would step down as manager of Arsenal over in England. The reason I bring this up here, of course, clearly not because it's a bye week and therefore I am struggling a bit for a topic and intro for this post. No no, it's really because this means we'll never get to see anyone ironically bring a "Wenger Out" banner to a Las Vegas game, which I think is a bit of a shame. Oh well. On to the bye week.

Since we have a two-week break, I thought it might be a good idea to sort of pause and take stock of how the season is going. I kind of talked about the team as a whole as part of the lead-up and review of last week's game. So this time around, rather than the team as a whole, I wanted to talk about some of the individual players who have really stood out so far this season.

Joel Huiqui - Oh captain my captain

Huiqui was clearly one of our "star signings" of the preseason. He has had a great career in the game, spending about a decade with Mexican giants Cruz Azul. He also has 14 caps for Mexico - no small feat when you think about how much talent Mexico has had down the years.

If there was one thing that was a question mark around him coming to the Lights (and was probably the reason we signed him), it was probably his age. At 35 years old, he's not exactly in the prime of his career.

But so far this season, he has been a great reminder that for defenders can still be very effective even in their mid thirties.

He was always going to bring a wealth of experience and organization to the team (qualities that are invaluable in an expansion defence). But he has also kept up physically. So far he has made tackles with a 78% success rate (one of the highest on the team) and made a solid 11 interceptions. He has also shown that his technical skills and decision making has stayed sharp, as he has made 90 successful passes at a 70% success rate, which looks merely solid until you remember that the team as a whole averages closer to 50%.

And finally, he has already scored 2 goals in just 4 games. A goal every other game is the kind of rate you want out of your starting striker. While Huiqui is clearly not going to keep this up all season, any goals from defence that he can contribute are going to be a big bonus.

Carlos Alvarez - The Playmaker

Carlos didn't exactly come with the same kind of pedigree as Huiqui - but he is still a solid professional with USL and even a year of MLS experience. And, at 27, he is smack in the prime of his physical powers. And his quality has really shown this year with the Lights as he has shined in a creative midfield role.

He only has the one goal to his name so far (but 1 in 4 is still decent for a midfielder). But his real contribution has been in setting them up. He has 2 assists already in 4 games (only three players in the entire league have more) and has created 12 chances (only seven in the league with more). Also, he completes his passes at a 74% rate, which is pretty decent for any creative midfielder, and especially for one in a team like ours.

If the Lights are going to ride their attack to any sort of success this season, you can bet that Alvarez is going to be a big part of it.

Ricardo Ferrino - Shot-Stopper

Now I am on record as saying that our goalkeeper makes decisions that are occasionally - shall we say "eyebrow-raising." And I know that I'm not the only one who would be a little more comfortable if he were slightly more conservative in his decision making and his distribution out of the back.

But you have to admit, the man has performed for the team so far this season. In a team that doesn't really top the leaderboards in any one area, he is tied for second in the league with 16 saves in his first four games (you can come to your own conclusions about what that says about how the defence looks at times). And those saves haven't all been routine or meaningless - just last game you can think of a few shots that Ferrino managed to keep out that meant we kept on equal terms with Sacramento.

And, since the Lights are definitely shaping up to be a defend-and-counter team, Ferrino is going to be asked to keep up his good shot-stopping record.

There have been more players who have caught the eye, of course, but I'm not looking to write a novel here, so I think I'll just leave it at those three for now.

The Lights don't play again until next week. Until then, I guess we'll all just have to find some non-Las-Vegas soccer to tide us over.

Viva Lights

P.S. - You'll notice that I got a pretty sweet new logo for the blog. All credit for that goes to the excellent Jack Whitefoot, who has my sincere thanks. Give him a follow, if you aren't already, @Whitefoot44 on Twitter.

Three Things: Las Vegas 1 - Sacramento Republic 1

A 1-1 draw last night as Las Vegas continued their undefeated start to the season. On the one hand, you always want to pick up wins at home. On the other, you can't be too disappointed when your expansion team holds a good team to a draw, and starts the season undefeated in four.

Here are my thoughts about the match:

1. Set Pieces, Set Pieces, Set Pieces

The Lights got off to a hot start, with a defender-to-defender goal. The Lights picked up a corner kick, and in what was clearly a planned routine, whipped the ball near post and low. Garduno stooped to flick it to the back post, where our captain Huiqui squeezed it in at the far post.

It was clearly an intentional routine. And I loved to see it. It shows that the team puts some real thought and effort into planning their set pieces, as opposed to just crossing it into an area and hoping something works.

I often wonder why so many teams clearly do just that (the hit-and-hope strategy). I mean, crossing is a low percentage game, but that's because normally in a normal crossing situation, the crosser is being closed down, maybe he's on the run, there's at most three players to aim at, and everyone is just kind of guessing as to where the ball will be.

On a set piece, there's a chance to plan everything out beforehand - where players will run, where the ball will go. And in a low-event game like soccer, even if you can dig up 5-6 extra goals per season from planned set-pieces, it can really make the difference in the league table.

2. What Happened to the Counters?

So let's all be clear here - Las Vegas is not a possession-based team. If you want to put it charitably, they are a "vertical" or a "transition" team, a team that likes to get the ball forward fast. If you want to be less charitable, they are a team that plays long-ball.

My point here though, is not that long-ball is bad or anything. I just think that if you're a counterattacking team, and you get an early goal, that should set you up really well for the rest of the game. Once the opponent goes behind, they usually try to push up and attack to get level. That should. theoretically, leave space in behind to run into and punish them when they push too far.

In this game, it was set up perfectly, but the Lights didn't quite execute, and actually made some attempt to keep the ball better than they have in past games.

3. Overall, We Played Well

Look, it's always a little bit disappointing when you don't get all three points in a home game. But, when you look at the big picture, this was not really a disappointing result.

First and foremost, it keeps us above that playoff line. We're still on 2 points per game, which is a great clip, if we can keep it up.

Second, we're still undefeated. Now, with the way soccer works, you can be "undefeated" with a ton of draws, and actually come out worse than a team that loses a lot of games, but wins a lot too. But still, half the sport is psychological, and being able to say "we haven't been beaten yet" is something that gives players a lot of confidence.

Third, the Lights actually played pretty well this game. The team had 15 shots to Sacramento's 19, (nine of those 15 were in the box, compared to 7 for Sacramento). And the Lights made 251 passes at a 61% accuracy to Sacramento's 343 passes at a 69% accuracy. Now, I know that the Lights were the home team, and usually you'd expect the home team to take the game to the opponent.

However, remember that Sacramento are a good team (also undefeated so far this season). And, at risk of stating the obvious, "goals change games." When Las Vegas went up so early in the game, the onus shifted to Sacramento to take the game to the Lights - so it was only natural that they would push forward, get more passes, and take more shots, with the Lights looking to protect what they had and pick them off on the counter.

But even though the game state, to an extent, dictated this game, I think the Lights did a much better job (especially in the first half) of realizing when they needed to just put a foot on the ball, stroke it around, and take some pressure off.

That's it for this week. Here's to another undefeated week next Saturday next next Friday (thanks to @FirstJasonMS for catching my mistake).

Las Vegas vs Sacramento Republic - Pre-Match Preview

After a week off, the Lights are once again preparing to take the field at Cashman, this time to face the perennial-MLS-applicants Sacramento Republic.

Currently, the Lights are sitting pretty in 7th place in the West, above the playoff line, with 7 points from 3 games. That's a great spot to be in for an expansion side after 3 games. To put it in perspective, last season's final play-off team (Sacramento Republic, if you were wondering) made it into the post-season with only 46 points from 32 games. So we should be pretty excited to have already collected so many points so early on.

But I want to take a second to pump the brakes just a little bit.

First, let's all just take a breath and realize that this clip is probably unsustainable. The Lights currently have over 2 points per game. Only one team was able to finish last season in the USL with over 2 points per game - and they topped the Western Conference.

Second, Las Vegas has really had a fortunate run of matches to start off this season. This will be our fourth match of the season, and all but one of them have seen the Lights with home field advantage. And our only away game was against a fellow expansion side in Fresno. Now to their credit, the Lights have done their job by taking advantage of this start, and getting early points on the board is a very important thing. But believe it or not, we are going to have to play some away games this season, which will be a bit tougher.

Third (it's about to get mildly stats-y here), the Lights have probably been finishing their chances at an unsustainable rate. Let me explain: so far the Lights have taken 34 shots, put 11 of those on target, and scored 6 of them, which means they have a conversion rate of 25% (i.e. they have converted 25% of their shots into goals). That is really really high. Last season, the average conversion rate in the USL was around 14%, and the highest was only 19%. Or, to look at individuals, even the most efficient strikers in the world (such as Griezmann, Messi, Aubameyang, Costa, etc.) usually sit at most in the high teens and low twenties. Now there's a lot more to shot efficiency than just conversion rate, of course, but it would be very very surprising if the Lights managed to keep scoring 1 out of every 4 shots they take.

Anyways, on to the match preview.

As I mentioned above, Sacramento had a thoroughly ok season last year, barely scraping into the play-offs. The year before that, they topped the western conference. They've started off this year in 2016 form, with 10 points from just 4 games, putting them a few places above Las Vegas.

This is another good team that likes to pass the ball and does it well (though not as well as Swope Park from a few weeks back). They also look like they are quite solid defensively, having only conceded 3 goals in their 4 games.

All that being said, however, they haven't exactly blown the doors off in their previous matches. All four of their games have all been pretty tight affairs (2-1, 0-1, 2-2, 1-0). Also, it should be pointed out that Sacramento has been fairly fortunate - they have already played against two teams that picked up red cards, which obviously made life a bit easier. Sacramento won both of those games, but didn't exactly turn the screw on the short-handed opponent, as each game ended in a 1-0 victory.

So I guess the moral of the story this week is, for us Lights fans, let's not get too overconfident even though we've had a good start, as there's a chance we've been finishing at an unsustainable rate.

BUT, for this weekend, keep in mind that the same story applies to Sacramento's hot start, as they too have been pretty fortunate to face two 10-man teams.

So let's hope the Lights can keep those shooting boots on and make Sacramento experience their first defeat of the season.

In tribute to Roma's victory over Barca this week:

Forza Lights!

Las Vegas 2 - Swope Park Rangers 1: Three Things

Las Vegas picked up their first home win of the season in a come-from-behind victory against in-form Swope Park Rangers yesterday.

So for the last few weeks I've been doing a kind of "match recap" of each game, with highlights of the goals, etc. But I think I am going to start doing something different after each game. First, there's already a highlights video that the league puts out here. Second, I assume that the people reading this have probably already watched the match. And three, making gifs of the goals and action takes more work than I think it is worth.

So instead, I'm going to start a short recap, then writing a few takeaways from each game.

1.  Las Vegas Answers Some Resilience Questions

It is one thing to pick up a win when you score first and have the advantage of sitting on a lead. It completely changes the nature of the game - the opponent is forced to come out a bit more, and you can sit back, defend, and counter into the spaces that they leave open.

It's another thing entirely when you go behind and have to make up a deficit.

This was the first time that Las Vegas had to come from behind. And to be honest, based on the first half, I didn't have a lot of faith that the team had it in them. Swope Park completely dominated the opening forty-five, both in terms of possession and passing, and in terms of shots. I think the only shot Las Vegas had in the first half was a very speculative 35-yard shot from a defender that flew well off target.

But in the second half, Las Vegas came out like a team re-energized. Not only did their passing look more crisp and sharper, but their pressing was more intelligent and caused Swope Park more problems.

They really turned it on, and it the end a comeback victory will give this team a lot of confidence.

2.  Passing Accuracy Improves

In the lead up to this game, I pointed out in a post that Las Vegas really needed to improve their passing accuracy, which sat at a dismal 50-something percent. In this game, the team was much improved.

Swope Park still outpassed Las Vegas in terms of numbers (448 to 270). But the accuracy numbers were much closer (80% for Swope Park and 70% for Las Vegas).

Las Vegas came out with their standard counter-attacking strategy, but this time they were able to connect with a lot more of their passes (especially in the second half), and most importantly, that meant that they weren't giving the ball to Swope Park in key areas.

3.  Long Throws for the Win

In the end, Las Vegas prevailed not from swash-buckling attacking soccer, but with some gritty defending, some decisive goalkeeping, from a long throw, and a fortunate own goal.

The own goal was one of those "dumb luck" kind of things - the Swope Park defender and keeper got their communication all wrong, and from a relatively safe situation, the ball ended up in the back of the net. It was a lucky break, but I'll take it, and to be fair to the Lights, they defended well and made sure it made a difference.

The first goal, however, was just as important. Las Vegas has developed a pattern of taking long-throw ins whenever they win a throw in the final third. Lots of people in soccer frown on such "industrial" tactics. But, in my opinion, it is kind of a smart move.

For throw ins, unless it is taken quickly, the opponent usually has a great chance to organize the defence. The ball is completely stationary, so the defence can mark up, defend the space, and basically just make life difficult.

So, if you're in a situation where you have a decent chance of turning it over anyways, why not throw it into the box and see what happens? If you have a guy with a good arm, it is only marginally worse than a corner kick, and almost every team takes those long instead of short. And since so few teams do it, it can often create the kind of confusion that results in a goal, as we saw today.

So long live the long throw, I say.

Bonus Point:

What was with the Swope Park players' names? I'm pretty sure I saw "Colton Storm" get subbed off for "Brian Rebellion" in the second half. I'm pretty sure those are fake names - they sound like the "unlicensed" video game names (anyone remember the crazy names from the old Ken Griffey Jr. game for the super nintendo?).

Anyways, that's it for today. Look for a more "big picture" post sometime in the week.

Lights vs Swope Park Rangers - Match Preview - Goals Galore?

The Lights are coming off of a relatively disappointing home draw against Reno last Saturday night, but they get a chance at immediate redemption in front of the home fans with another home game tomorrow - this time against the in-form Swope Park Rangers.

Swope Park has won their first two games, and has scored eight goals in the process. If the Lights want to come out of this one with all three points, they are going to have to keep Swope Park quiet. Specifically, they are going to have to come up with a game plan for Swope Park's center forward Kharlton Belmar, who has scored four goals in his first two games this season (and average a goal every other game last season). They'll also have to watch out for Hadji Berry, a new signing for Swope Park who also managed about a goal every other game for his former team last year.

But there is hope for the Lights, because so far this season Swope Park's effectiveness in attack has almost been matched by their incompetence in defense. Though they have scored eight in two games, they've also conceded five - which means that they are going to give the Lights some chances.

And the Lights have shown, over their first two games, that the attack is starting to really click.

Our first game, of course, they scored three goals away from home. And while last week they only managed to put one in the net, they had 20 shots compared to Reno's 11. And it's not like those were all just potshots either, 15 of them were from inside Reno's eighteen yard box.

The problem was that they only managed to put 5 on target, which is a really really really low accuracy rate. That is really going to need to improve if they want to pick up all three points against Swope Park.

But what this game is really going to be about is a test of two very very different styles of play.

Let's look at some stats:

In the Lights' last game, at home, against Reno, they attempted 313 passes (75 of them long passes), and only completed 65% of them. Against Fresno, away from home, they made 255 passes (105 of them long), and only completed 46% of them.

So over the course of two games, the Lights have completed only 321 (or 56.5%) of their passes.

Swope Park Rangers have completed almost three times that many. In their first two games, they have completed 946 passes, and have a pass accuracy of 84%.

Swope Park are almost top of the league in pass accuracy and volume. The Lights are rooted to the bottom.

Now to be clear, pass accuracy isn't everything. The Lights are clearly going for a counter attacking style, with lots of focus on long balls to move the ball vertically very quickly. But at the same time, football is essentially a passing game, and more passing generally correlates pretty highly with higher league position.

Long story short, we can't keep giving the ball away every other pass and expect to do well this season.

So for this game, even though the Lights are at home, expect Swope Park to have the lion's share of the ball, and expect the Lights to try to hit them on the break.

And expect goals - at both ends.