FSM Essential Recap: Lights FC vs Sacramento Republic FC- Game 10

FSM Essential Recap: Lights FC vs Sacramento Republic FC – Game 10

Franchise Sports Media

The Las Vegas Lights FC share points for the second game in a row in a 1-1 draw against Sacramento Republic FC.

 

The Lights were on the road this past Saturday for the first time since the beginning of the month to face off against Sacramento Republic FC. The game resulted in a 1-1 draw, as the Lights dodged a defeat. 

Last week, the Lights stuck to the same 4-5-1 lineup as their most recent game against LA Galaxy II. Tomas Romero kept his spot as starting goalkeeper, while defenders Dekel Keinan, Antonio Leone, and Morten Bjorshol remained in the starting lineup. Left-back Mohamed Traore was replaced by Alvaro Quezada, who started as a midfielder in the last game. Captain Daniel Cristosomo, Alejandro Lara, Roberto Molina, and Frank Daroma all kept their place in the midfield, as Jorge Almaguer joined them as the fifth midfielder. Daniel Trejo kept his spot in the lineup as the only forward for the Lights. 

The first half of play in this game was pretty even in terms of opportunities and control of the game. Sacramento had a slight advantage in shots on target and possession in the half, while both teams got their only goals of the game in the half as well. The Lights opened the scoring from a brilliant run from Trejo, where his shot on goal was scattered away by the goalkeeper and cleaned up by Molina, giving him his first goal of this USL Championship season in the 17th minute.  

Twenty minutes later, Sacramento answered back with a goal from a corner kick, where T.Romero punched the ball away, and it landed at Dan Casey’s feet, where he made no mistakes and buried the ball into the top of the net. 

 

The second half of the game entirely belonged to Sacramento. Republic FC was as locked in as it gets, as they allowed the Lights only one shot on goal in the entire half and were knocking on the Vegas goal for the entirety of the half.

 

They racked up 12 shots, four of which were on target and, quite frankly, should have been goals if it weren’t for super keeper T.Romero. The Lights’ defense answered by remaining rock solid and were lucky enough to walk out of the game with one point. 

T.Romero was undoubtedly the man of the match for the Lights this evening. 

The Lights came into the second half in a very defensive manner, as if they were trying to defend the draw instead of scoring another and taking the lead. Luckily enough, T.Romero was able to come to the rescue, racking up nine saves throughout the match, five of which being close-ranged efforts, as he showed a great exhibition of leading from the back. 

The main takeaway from this game is that this new formation doesn’t seem to show the true colors of the dangerous Lights attack that we’ve seen this season. Although Trejo has been brilliant this season, there is only so much he can do as a lone forward against four defenders. There is still plenty of attacking support from the team, and we saw that today as midfielder Molina got on the scoresheet, but the formation seems to be turning down the heat on a Lights’ attacking game that has been on fire this season. 

On the other hand, the Lights were the first team to force Sacramento to drop points at home this season, as they were on a five-game winning streak at home in all leagues this season. That is an achievement to be proud of tonight, although the result wasn’t the best scenario. 

This situation is highly uncomfortable for coach Enrique Duran, as forwards Cal Jennings and Daniel Musovski have been on duty for club affiliates LAFC in the MLS. Still, we have seen peak brilliance from Duran this season, and there is no doubt that he has a master plan to get us back to our winning ways. 

The Lights have officially closed out the month of April as evenly as possible, with two wins, two draws, and two losses in six games. The Lights remain in a playoff spot at fifth place in the Western Conference going into May and hope to get back to their winning ways.

 

The month of May will kick off for the Lights in an away game against Monterey Bay FC on May 7th at 1 PM PT. Make sure to catch this game on ESPN+.

Lights FC vs Sacramento Republic FC       Lights FC vs Sacramento Republic FC       Lights FC vs Sacramento Republic FC       Lights FC vs Sacramento Republic FC       Lights FC vs Sacramento Republic FC       Lights FC vs Sacramento Republic FC       Lights FC vs Sacramento Republic FC       Lights FC vs Sacramento Republic FC

– Murad Omaish – Franchise Sports Media

Follow The Franchise on social media

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube