MATCH NOTES
- Antonio Carrera registered his fifth career shutout
- Theo Ferreira and Yeicar Perlaza made their North Texas SC debuts
- MLS NEXT Pro Box Score
LOS ANGELES, CA (April 2, 2023) – North Texas SC (2-0-0, 6 points) downs LA Galaxy II (0-2-0, 0 points) 1-0 on Sunday night at Dignity Health Sports Park Track & Field Stadium.
BACK-TO-BACK WINS
North Texas SC earns back-to-back wins to start the season for the first time since 2019. The club defeated LAFC2 and LA Galaxy 1-0 to start the season at 2-0-0.
SHUTOUT HISTORY
The club registered back-to-back shutouts to begin the new season for the first time in club history with two 1-0 wins over LAFC2 and LA Galaxy II.
NORTH TEXAS SC DEBUTS
Theo Ferreira and Yeicar Perlaza made their North Texas SC debuts by coming on in the 73rd minute of the match.
UP NEXT
North Texas SC will play its home opener as the club hosts Whitecaps FC 2 at Choctaw Stadium on Sunday, April 9. The match will kick off at 7:30PM CT and will be available on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
Lineups
North Texas SC — Antonio Carrera, Tyshawn Rose, Henri Santos, Amet Korça, Herbert Endeley, Carl Sainté, Alejandro Urzua (Alex Areneda – 90’), André Costa (Theo Ferreira – 73’), Hope Avayevu, José Mulato (Yeicar Perlaza – 73’), Pablo Torre (Tomas Pondeca – 46’)
Substitutes not used — Justin Stewart, Manuel Caicedo
LA Galaxy II — Simon Jillson; Carson Klein, Marcus Ferkranus, Ascel Essengue, Elijah Amadin (Brendan Bell – 87’); Adam Saldaña, Adrian González (Juan Calderón – 70'); Jonathan Perez, Diego Lopez (Brandon Téllez - 63’), Alex Alcalá (Axel Picazo – 70'); Aaron Bibout
Substitutes not used — Nicholas Dunbar, Luis Medina, Javier Zapien, Nolan Anderson, Owen Bizzaro
Scoring Summary:
NTX: Ascel Essengue (own goal) — 44’
Misconduct Summary:
NTX: Pablo Torre (caution) — 3’
NTX: Amet Korça (caution) — 24’
LA: Adam Saldaña (caution) — 33’
LA: Ascel Essengue (caution) — 45’+1’
NTX: Alejandro Urzua (caution) — 83’
Weather: Clear, 65°F
Post Game Quotes
Head Coach Javier Cano
On his assessment of the match…
“I’m so happy with the performance because we improved defensively from last game. We created the traps where we wanted to press, we had a very clear idea of what we wanted to do this week. Of course, we missed a lot of opportunities, especially in the first half. In the second half, Hope (Avayevu) and Yeicar (Perlaza) had chances and hit the post. We had lots of opportunities to score again. This is soccer, you know? Sometimes you score and sometimes you miss. But we were more in control than we were last week. And this helped us to be more confident in our style of play.”
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On Herbert Endeley’s performance…
_“Herbert is growing. He’s a very introverted kid. He came from college and played in the national final. With the first team, he had a good preseason and he adds to our roster. We want to make the best of him. He was playing as a winger and now we are playing him as a fullback because we think he can give us a lot of chances. Today, he was very good in attack and overloading the right side. He was much better on the defensive side than last week. We showed him videos and he’s improving day-by-day.”
Defender Herbert Endeley
On his time with North Texas SC so far…
“It has been great so far, every single member of the coaching staff and players have been great to work with. They have helped me transition into this new position easily. I have learned a lot and getting that playing time is great for young players and players who get drafted like in my case. Playing with them, getting the wins and shutouts have been a great start. We want to win every single game we play, and we have a style that we want to execute our game plan in every game.”
On the transition from collegiate to the professional level…
“The transition has been a jump. There are many great players out there. Some of the teams we will play have either first team professional players, MLS NEXT Pro signed players or even Academy players. It’s a good league and it is very helpful that it has been added. It helps players develop and it will be great in getting players first team opportunities. I enjoy every minute I get to play and practice with these guys.”
