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.

Las Vegas vs Reno - Review and Highlights - A Decent Draw, I Guess

The first home game of the season. The first competitive home game ever. The first game of the newly inaugurated "Silver State Cup."

I was hoping for more than just a 1-1 draw, to be honest. But I suppose it's better than a loss, so we can't be too disappointed about it.

Both teams switched formation on us. Reno, instead of going with their 4-4-2, pulled a man back into midfield:

While the Lights, who normally do use a 4-3-3, added a man to the backline to go with a 3-4-3 formation, possibly to try to shore up the defense a little:

The Lights jumped out to a relatively early lead. We won a corner in front of the home fans, whipped a ball in, it was half-cleared by Reno and popped out to our midfielder Alex Mendoza, who lashed home a low drive into the bottom right.

via GIPHY

Unfortunately, Reno equalized a minute later, through the former UNLV player Musovski. It was a bit of a crap goal, to be honest. Some Reno bloke took a potshot from about 25 yards, and Ferrino parried it right into the path of Musovski who tucked it home. 

via GIPHY

The blame can't all lie on the goalkeeper there. For example, you want your defenders to follow the runners in, and it wasn't a super easy save to make in the first place. But at the same time, if I were a defender, I would want my keeper to parry that to the side, rather than back out in front of goal.

The first half ended at 1-1. The second half didn't see any goals, but there were a fair few chances for each team. The Lights probably had the better chances, and would have been a bit more disappointed that they didn't manage to score - especially after Musovski got sent off for a second yellow with about 20 minutes of play left.

As far as the fairness of the second yellow - let's just say that the Lights got a bit of home field advantage there. I didn't even see much of a foul, much less a yellow, much much less a second yellow.

via GIPHY

So a decent result, but one that does leave a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth. At home, against the rivals, getting the lead early, you want to hold onto it. And when they have a man sent off, you really have to punish them more than we did. After the red card, we really should have upped the tempo a bit, pass around them a bit more, and I just didn't see as much as I had hoped. 

But overall, we are still an expansion side, and we didn't lose, so I guess job done. If you would have offered me 4 points from the first two games I probably would have taken it no questions asked.

Oh, and the attendance for the night was just over 9,000. A good showing, if you ask me. That number will definitely go down over the course of the season, since not every game will be a rivalry, and this was the home opener. But if it stays in the ballpark, I think we will call it a success.

Las Vegas Lights FC vs Reno - Pre-match preview and Silver State Cup

First home game of the season (also the first competitive home game ever)!

And the USL schedulers have smiled on us and given us our very own in-state rivalry match to start off our lives right. The newly named "Silver State Cup" starts tomorrow here at Cashman Field.

Looks like it works more or less the same as the other rivalry-type cups you see in MLS (like the Rocky Mountain Cup between Salt Lake and Colorado, or the Cascadia Cup between Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver). Since it's two teams, it's simple, just have a better head to head record and you win the cup. Extended rules are below:

Series Rules

Point System:

• Win: 3 points
• Tie: 1 point
• Loss: 0 points
• Tie breakers
  • Goal Differential
  • Most Goals For
  • Fewest Goals Against
  • Fewest amount of disciplinary points across series*
  • Most shots on goal across series
  • Coin Toss

* Disciplinary Points are calculated as follows:

• Foul = 1 point
• Yellow Card = 3 Points
• 2nd Yellow Card = 3 Points
• Straight Red Card = 7 Points
• Coach Dismissal = 7 Points
• Any Supplemental Discipline = 8 points

2018 Silver State Cup Series

March 24 

Las Vegas Lights FC v Reno 1868 FC  (inaugural match)

8 p.m. | Cashman Field

Aug. 28

Reno 1868 FC v Las Vegas Lights FC 

7:15 p.m. | Greater Nevada Field 

Sept. 22

Reno 1868 FC v Las Vegas Lights FC 

6:45 p.m. | Greater Nevada Field 

At first I thought it was sort of weird that american soccer designates these as "Cups" and gets trophies for them and everything, instead of just letting it be a derby or rivalry match. 

But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Noone is mistaking these for real, meaningful trophies like the Open Cup. It's more like college or high school rivalry games, where the winner gets to take home the other school's bell or gong or whatever else. 

After all, there's only like two USL teams maximum that could win silverware each year, so these extra cups make life interesting and give teams some bragging rights along the way.

In any case, to the game.

Reno lost their first match of the season last weekend, but it was against the Swope Park Rangers, who made it to last year's championship match. So while it was a home loss, it wasn't necessarily evidence that this Reno squad are pushovers.

The positives going in is that Reno gave up 4 goals at home. That is a really leaky defence, and one that Las Vegas should really be looking to put some pressure on. 

Reno played their last game in a standard 4-4-2, while Las Vegas played in a 4-3-3 last game. In theory, that should give us an extra man in the middle to control the play. Add to that the fact that we will be at home, and we should see Las Vegas looking to ping the ball around a bit and have the lion's share of the possession. 

The thing to watch for will be Reno's counter attacks. Our defence has not exactly been airtight, and with two men up front it will give both of our center backs a job to do. Look for our central defensive midfielder (last week it was Kobayashi sitting deep) to help out the center backs and sweep up any loose balls that either Reno forward tries to latch on to.

Let's hope we can get Cashman Field and the Silver State Cup off to a great start, and pick up all three points on Saturday.

Viva Las Lights!

Fresno 2 - Las Vegas 3 - Three Points to Start Off Life in the USL

Well we couldn't have really asked for more than that. The Lights ran out as 3-2 winners away from home for their very first meaningful game ever.

Before the game I had called out a few players to look out for - including Calderon and Diaz, neither of whom actually started. Great prediction me.

Chelis sent his side out in a 4-3-3, with some interesting choices, such as leaving his leading goalscorer Calderon out of the starting XI.

But the team got off to a dream start, with winger Matthew Thomas picking up the ball in the second minute, making his way on a solo run to about the edge of the box, and then lashing the ball into the right-hand corner.

It was a beautiful start, and exactly what the team needed to calm those "first game of the season" nerves.

After that, Fresno started to come into its own, which you'd expect as the home team, and as the team that needed to push forward to even the score. The rest of the half faded with Fresno on the front foot, forcing a great save from Ferrino at one point.

In the second half, the Lights took advantage of some clack defending off a long throw in. The ball bounced around in the box, it was laid off to Alex Mendoza, and he rocketed a shot past the Fresno keeper to double the Lights' advantage.




Shortly after the Lights made it three, with captain Huiqui heading come off of a corner kick.

After that, the game was effectively over, though Fresno managed to pull one goal back, then another right at the end of normal time. I suppose if we were being sticklers we could get aggrieved at the Lights almost letting them back into it. Fresno also had a lot of possession and attempts on the night - but mostly I think that was because of the game state. Fresno poured forward because they had to, and the Lights didn't.

Overall, it was a perfect start to life for the Las Vegas Lights.

Fresno vs Las Vegas Lights FC Preview

Well here we are. Preseason is finally over. It didn't exactly fill us with confidence, but there were some green shoots that sprang up despite losing 3 and drawing one of our preseason matches.

Here are the positives:

- We didn't get blown out in any of our three games against MLS opposition.
- We picked up a road draw in our one game against a team in the same league.
- We had great attendance at all three home matches.
- There was definitely no shortage of excitement (though we could do without the excitement stemming from all the red cards).

Tomorrow we will finally get the regular season rolling with an away game against Fresno.

This should be pretty fun - Fresno, like the Lights, were just formed last year and have never played a professional match. So, to be quite honest, I don't know a thing about the team. Apparently they call themselves the Zorros, for whatever reason. Which is nice.

As far as the Lights are concerned, we will probably line up in a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 (there isn't a lot of difference). Our main danger man will be our highest goalscorer in preseason, Juan Jose Calderon. Let's hope he gets a shot at replicating that beauty of a free kick from preseason:

However, also look out for Isaac Diaz, the winger who's looked quite dynamic this preseason. And of course, the one and only, the great Freddy Adu, who can hopefully kickstart his career here in Las Vegas.

Big goal late in the game off the pass from @lvlightsfc @FreddyAdu to Miguel Angel Garduño (6) pic.twitter.com/hp5s5nlGJt

— LV Sports Network (@LVSportsNetwork) February 25, 2018

Also be on the lookout for our former-Mexican-national-team defender Joel Huiqui, who will have to do a bit better at marshaling a backline that has made their share of stupid mistakes in preseason.

And, as always, keep an eye out for our a-bit-off-his-rocker goalkeeper Ricardo Ferrino, who needs to be attempt a few less Cruyff turns, and shoot for a few less red cards. He's been really really quick to leave the box this preseason, and kind of needs to be a bit more conservative. Less Manuel Neuer, more Brad Friedel, if you catch my meaning.

In any case, let's hope the Lights can start off their competitive life with all three points tomorrow.

Viva Las Lights!

Las Vegas Lights Away Jersey Reveal

Last night the team held a season kick-off event, where they revealed the team's away kit for the season. Here's what it looks like:

Your 2018 inaugural season away kit!

Bringing the 🔥🔥 on the road, all season long. #VivaLights pic.twitter.com/exfbYYgUfW

— Las Vegas Lights FC (@lvlightsfc) March 15, 2018

Well, to start off on a positive, I do like it better than the home kit. It's am improvement in that (a) it's not black, and (b) its piping doesn't remind me of suspenders.

However, I still think that overall, this kit designer just has a bit too much going on. In my opinion, the best soccer kits have a simple pattern: step 1 - choose a base color for the jersey; step 2 - choose one (and only one) other color for the pattern (i.e. a sash, different colored sleeves, whatever). Then the rest of the design should come in the details - the color, the trim, the texture, etc. etc.

If you try to do too much it ends up looking like the 90s MLS kits, or like the fresh prince of bel-air. It just ends up looking indecisive ("oh man that's cool, let's add that, and that too, and wouldn't that be awesome, let's throw that in as well").

I think that is kind of where we have ended up with the Lights jerseys this year.

All that said, I do like this jersey better than the home kit. It does only have three colors, rather than the 70 or whatever that the home kit has going on.

To be honest though, this is one of the few times when the goalkeeper kit is probably the best of the bunch.

Give me one of those over the outfielder jerseys any day.

In fact, I'd kind of prefer to forego all of them and just get myself a training kit:

Anyways, that's enough about the jerseys for now. We have our first real, official, non-friendly game of the season coming up this weekend. Look our for a preview post about that tomorrow.

Las Vegas Lights FC - Four Things We've Learned From Preseason

No game this weekend.

The next game actually isn't until next Friday. It will be away from home against another USL team, so that will be interesting. But I'll have time to talk about that next post.

For now, let's sit down and take stock of where we are at, now that we've had a chance to see the team play a couple of times in their pre-season warm-ups.

1. We've Lost Every Game, But That's Ok

So far the Lights have lost every single game they've played. But there are some extenuating circumstances. First, they are a completely new team. Expansion teams almost always take some time to gel together. Second, let's remember that they've only played against MLS opposition so far. USL teams are always going to be heavy underdogs against any MLS team, every time, in every game. The soccer landscape in America just hasn't really developed to the point where lower division teams have the talent to routinely challenge the big boys. It does happen occasionally (see Open Cup last year), but those upsets are definitely the exception, rather than the rule.

2. Let's Sort Out the Defensive Mistakes

While the losses themselves are nothing to be worried about, there are definitely aspects of the manner  the losses that have me concerned. First and foremost are the lapses in defensive focus that happened each and every game. Most of the games were not lost because the opposition was so much better than us (though they did dominate the ball). Most of the games were lost because of a bone-headed defensive mistake.

Some of the goals the Lights conceded were quality (think of the Davies goal), and you have to just put your hands up and say "yeah, they were more talented, so fair play to them." But alot of the goals were just falling asleep on dead balls (like the goals against Montreal). The team just has to cut out those defensive errors if they want to go far this season.

Also, can we cut out the red cards? I mean, two (three including the manager) red cards in three games? That's clown car level defending, and it needs to stop.

3. We Need Some Attacking Variety

The Lights scored four goals in its three preseason games against MLS caliber opposition. A couple of them even came when down to ten men. That isn't bad, taken at face value.

However, two of the goals were penalties. One was a free kick (a great free kick, to be fair). And of the four, three were scored by the same player.

What's clear here is that we need to add some variety to the attack. First off, we need to start scoring some more goals from open play. We can't rely on penalties and free kicks for all of our attacking. And second, let's get Calderon some help going forward. Maybe that means the great Freddy Adu gets some more playing time to kick start his career. Or maybe it just means that we were facing some MLS-level defenses, and maybe Friday against Orange County SC our attack will find some more space to work with. But we have to figure that out.

4.  The Support Has Been Solid So Far

The first game was a standing-room-only sellout game. I think the club stated that 10,000 people showed up. The next was a few less, and the third was about the same. I think all together, the club stated that 25,000 people showed up to the first three games. IF (and I capitalized that on purpose) that continues, that would be absolutely fantastic for the team. That averages out at about 8,000 people per game - which would probably put us at around the 4th or 5th best-supported USL team in the league. (Look here for league averages for last season).

Now, do I expect those numbers to continue? Probably not. There will be some people who are more likely to go during the regular season (like myself - I've always liked regular season games more than preseason friendlies, the players care more and put more energy out there). But the reality is that most likely, the "new team" shine will wear off a little bit throughout the season, some people will have come to these first games to see the MLS team/players we were facing, etc. It's just natural.

But even if there is a bit of a drop off - heck, even if there is a 25% drop off - that would still put us around 6th or 7th in the league by attendance. If we take out the MLS II teams (which are obviously supported financially from other sources beyond just ticket sales), that would put us about in the middle of the pack. Which, for a market like Las Vegas, which isn't as big as other markets, and which is competing with three other new/upcoming professional teams, is a pretty good result.

Till next time.