TACOMA, Wash. — The Tacoma Defiance’s opening match was fun and exciting; their second match was not. The infinitely beatable LA Galaxy II came into Cheney Stadium and beat the Defiance 3-0 on Saturday. That scoreline is a bit kind to the Defiance though; LAGII could have easily won by 6 or 7 with a little bit better finishing. That said, LAGII didn’t play Tacoma off the pitch, they didn’t even look more talented than they Defiance, they simply took advantage of a night where the Defiance were out of sorts as a team and largely out of sorts as individuals. There isn’t really anything to take away from this match. A bunch of players just had bad games while trying to implement a game plan that doesn’t work well if you're not all on the same page. That’s basically it, I am sure the coaches will have little things for players to work on, but it would not be particularly useful to overanalyze what happened here; it was just a bad night.

There is one thing to take away from this match though. That is how impressive the attitude of this young team was. Despite things going so badly their energy never dropped and they fought to turn things around until the full-time whistle blew. They showed the fortitude and maturity of a much older team, it was unbelievably impressive. They stuck to the tactics and were still trying to properly implement them into the 4th minute of extratime. There will be struggles this year, and results will be hard to come by, but if the team can keep the attitude they did in this match they will learn and grow through the struggles instead of stagnating in frustration. The primary goal of this team is for the players to learn and grow and on early returns it looks like the Defiance are set to accomplish that goal.

If you want to see LA’s goals for some reason you can see them here:

Match Stats

Tacoma Defiance I 0-3 I LA Galaxy II

Saturday, March 16, 2019

Venue: Cheney Stadium I Tacoma, Washington

Referee: Victor Rivas

Assistants: Joshua Haimes, Ryan Jung

Fourth Official: Chad Stewart

Weather: 52 degrees and partly cloudy

Attendance: 2,911

SCORING SUMMARY

LA - Augustine Williams (Ernesto Walker) 24’

LA - Ernesto Walker 41’

LA - Augustine Williams (Diedie Traore) 60’

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

LA - Carlos Harvey (caution) 29’

LA - Geoffrey Acheampong (caution) 68’

TAC - Joel Rydstrand (caution) 79’

LINEUPS & STATS

TAC - Trey Muse; Henry Wingo (Modou Ndow HT), Jonathan Campbell, Saad Abdul-Salaam, Matt Nance; Danny Leyva, Josh Atencio (Joel Rydstrand 68’); Shandon Hopeau, Justin Dhillon (Azriel Gonzalez 62’), Marlon Vargas; Alec Diaz

Substitutes not used: Jacob Castro, Antonee Burke-Gilroy, Jesse Daley, Nick Hinds

Total shots: 9

Shots on goal: 2

Fouls: 12

Offside: 4

Corner-kicks: 2

Saves: 3

LA - Justin vom Steeg; Nate Shultz, Tomas Hilliard-Arce, Nicholas DePuy, Diedie Traore (Justin Fiddes 86’); Carlos Harvey; Kai Koreniuk (Don Tchilao 60’), Geoffrey Acheampong (Adrian Vera 76’), Ernesto Walker, Jose Hernandez; Augustine Williams

Substitutes not used: Eric Lopez, Michael Gallagher, Omar Ontiveros

Total shots: 17

Shots on goal: 6

Fouls: 18

Offside: 0

Corner-kicks: 2

Saves: 2

Post-Game Quotes

DEFIANCE HEAD COACH CHRIS LITTLE

On the result:

“It’s difficult. I thought that LA had a big, physical, experienced team. It was one of those games where I thought the first goal was going to be important. There were two disappointing views from our point of view to concede. When we did that, we gave them an opportunity to manage the game. They made it very difficult to play. Credit to them, but I’m very disappointed.”

On the mentality of the group this week:

“I thought our preparations were good. The players were prepared. What was disappointing was that the goals we conceded, we expected them and saw them in the first game. It’s just about better execution. When you have a young team, sometimes this is going to happen. It’s a good learning lesson. But with the standards we have, it has to be better. We conceded three goals at home. That’s not good enough.”

On what lessons the team can learn:

“We’ve got to deal with the physicality. I thought in the first half, LA got pretty physical and tried to stop us from playing. You have to deal with that. If the referee isn’t dealing with it, you have to be clever and keep the ball. These are young guys, so we need to be aware of the right areas to keep it in and secure possession.”

DEFIANCE MIDFIELDER JOEL RYDSTRAND

On his instructions entering the match:

“Throughout the whole game, we struggled a little bit playing forward, breaking the lines, which was one of our objectives and the main focus of the game. Coming in, the instructions were to play positive and break the lines, try to get the ball forward. Towards the end we got closer to their 18-yard-box, but at the same time we didn’t really create anything dangerous.”

On what he brings to the team defensively:

“I like when it gets dirty out there, it’s definitely something that I enjoy and can take up.”

On trying to inject energy into the game:

“You need to do something for us to get some energy and momentum. Sometimes that’s what it takes. It’s unlucky we didn’t get the corner. But if you’re lucky, you win the ball and you score the goal. But, not tonight.”