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.