Sounders 2 fail to spoil Las Vegas Lights’ party

Seattle Sounders FC 2 looked to have a good shot at getting their first back to back wins of the season against lowly party-first side Las Vegas Lights FC. But a solid performance from debutante goalkeeper Angel Alvarez and a disjointed S2 defense were too much to overcome as they fell 1-4 to Vegas. To salt the wounds a bit 3 of Vegas’s 4 goals from former Sounders First Teamers.

Things started off slow with both sides unable to breech the 18-yard-box in the first 15 minutes, but a defensive mistake opened things up for Vegas in the 17’ and let them on the board. Rodrigue Ele misplayed an attempted header that ended up going towards his own goal instead of away from it. The ball essentially slipped Sammy Ochoa in behind the S2 defense where he was able to dribble through Calle Brown and put the ball into an open net.

Just 5 minutes later S2 almost evened it up when a Ibrahim Usman cross found its way through the box to Denso Ulysse. Unfortunately, his attempt to settle the ball with his chest was just a little too strong and Alvarez came off his line quickly to smother Ulysse’s volley. Not discouraged, S2 remained on the front foot for the next 10 minutes and again almost equalled it in the 32’. Alvarez slightly mishandled a Henry Wingo cross which fell to David Estrada just a yard out from the goal. Vegas’s ‘keeper recovered well and made himself big but Estrada still had 6.5 of the goals 8 yards open to put in a point blank shot. He instead hit is right into Alvarez and the score remained 1-0 Vegas.

From there things fell apart for S2. In the 35’ Francisco Narbon put Brown in a bit of a tight spot against his goal line with an ill-advised back pass. In what is becoming a bit of a pattern, Brown spent way too long on the ball which allowed Ochoa to get right on top of the S2 ‘keeper. With his space closing Brown panicked and hit his clearance right off of Ochoa’s midsection into his own goal. After Ochoa completed his brace the S2 defense became severely disorganized.

Vegas soon made it 3-0 in the 43’ when an Alvarez long ball found the whole of the S2 backline seemingly rooted in the ground. Joel Huiqui jogged past the arborescent S2 players and excellently brought the ball down with an outstretched foot. He then brushed the ball past a slow to react Brown.

Ray Saari gave S2 a bit of hope in the first minute of stoppage time when he skipped smoothly past a couple Vegas defenders in the box and calmly struck the ball past Alvarez to make the score 3-1.

S2 came out of the half looking hopeful, being down only 2 to a notoriously bad Vegas defense. Those hopes were quickly dashed by former Sounder and S2 player Zach Mathers. The natural withdrawn forward got the ball near the top of the box and Narbon was too slow to close him down. Mathers took a simple touch to his left and struck the ball through Narbon’s legs and easily past Brown to return the Vegas lead too 3.

The goal deflated S2 and they were not able to mount a dangerous attack for the remainder of the match against a Vegas team that was comfortably coasting on their lead. The match slowly fizzled to a close for the final 40 minutes with neither side doing much of anything, but Vegas happy to take their 3 points out for a night on the Strip.