MATCH NOTES
- Diego García scored his second-career goal and Pablo Torre scored his fifth-career goal
- Hope Avayevu recorded his 10th-career MLS NEXT Pro assist
- MLS NEXT Pro Box Score
ARLINGTON, Texas (July 2, 2023) – North Texas SC (5-6-5, 20 points) shared points with LAFC2 (2-7-4, 10 points) after a 2-2 draw in regulation Sunday night at Choctaw Stadium. Tyshawn Rose scored the winning penalty kick to hand NTSC the extra point.
SHUTOUT CURSE SNAPPED
North Texas SC took the extra point shootout after finishing 2-2 in regulation play. The club snapped a five-shootout losing streak. The last time NTSC won an extra point shootout was against Colorado Rapids 2 on August 21, 2022.
TORRE GOAL
Forward Pablo Torre scored his first goal of the 2023 MLS NEXT Pro season in his first start at home. The native of McAllen, Texas scored four goals during the inaugural MLS NEXT Pro campaign.
DEBUTS
Defender Mason Grimm made his professional and North Texas SC debut as a substitute in the 66th minute of the match. Grimm is the 17th FC Dallas Academy player to make his debut for North Texas since starting MLS NEXT Pro play in 2022.
UP NEXT
North Texas SC visits Tacoma Defiance on Sunday, July 9. The match will kick off at 10:00PM CT and will be streamed on MLSNEXTPro.com.
Lineups
North Texas SC — Antonio Carrera; Tyshawn Rose, Manuel Caicedo, Henri Santos, Alejandro Araneda (Mason Grimm – 66’); Alejandro Urzua (Tomas Pondeca – 85’), Theo Ferreira (André Costa – 72’), Diego García (Diego Hernandez – 66’); Anthony Ramirez, Pablo Torre, Yeicar Perlaza (Hope Avayevu – 46’).
Substitutes not used — Julian Eyestone, Malachi Molina, Jared Salazar, Nayrobi Vargas.
LAFC2 — Abraham Romero; Luca Bombino, Christian Diaz, Diego Rosales (Javen Romero – 63’), Joshua Santiago (Matheus Maia – 72’); Matthew Evans (Adrian Wibowo – 72’), Tamir Ratoviz, Christopher Jaime; Christian Torres, Dustin Aguirre, Yekeson Subah (Favian Vazquez – 46’).
Substitutes not used — Jassem Koleilat, Jeremi Rodríguez, Shakir Nixon.
Scoring Summary:
NTX: Diego García (Hope Avayevu) – 57’
LAFC: Dustin Aguirre (Matheus Maia) – 82’
NTX: Pablo Torre (Anthony Ramirez) – 85’
LAFC: Christopher Jaime – 90’
Misconduct Summary:
NTX: Alejandro Araneda (caution) — 45’
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 92°F
Attendance: 1,251
Post Game Quotes
Head Coach Javier Cano
Thoughts on the match…
“We know that LAFC2 is a team that loves to have the ball. We let the center backs have possession and try to transition up the field. We started with pressing, then we modified it and saw later on that they got into the final third but weren’t dangerous besides one or two deflected shots. The idea is to not get exposed, because we knew they wanted to play in the pockets with their midfielders. They wanted to play their wingers very wide to create intervals with centerbacks, so we tried to avoid it.”
On Hope Avayevu’s return…
“Hope has trained really hard the past couple of weeks. We were controlling the number of minutes he would play because he just came back from a long-term injury. We had a decision to make about whether we started him or had let him finish the game off the bench. In the end, we decided to finish the game with Hope because of his energy in duels, closing down opponents, and his fearlessness taking people on 1v1. This game we needed someone like Hope, we had Yeicar (Perlaza) in the first half making good progress, but we needed a different player like Hope. You could see in the goal; he came inside then chipped the ball to Diego who finished it. We have been working on that in training the past couple of weeks, so I’m glad it finally worked out.”
Forward Pablo Torre
On scoring his first goal of the season and the penalty kick…
“I felt confident today and this goal helps solidify that. I woke up today in the right mind, I wanted to score today. I am thankful for Javi (Cano) and my teammates for giving me extra confidence. Scoring the penalty kick was good too because it added more confidence heading into the upcoming games.”
On Javi’s coaching style…
“He is just like every coach who has emotions for the game. It’s normal for him to show his feelings and express himself. We are a family, and whether you start or are on the bench, he helps give you that confidence you need to get the job done.”
