Las Vegas Lights FC took home a point from a cross-country road trip to USL Championship-newcomer Lexington SC.
Raiko Arozarena kept his third straight clean sheet, and Daouda Peeters made his Lights debut in the second half.
Las Vegas Lights FC kept their undefeated streak on the road alive on Saturday night in Lexington, Kentucky with a scoreless draw.
While the Lights have yet to score away from home this season, they’ve continued to demonstrate their prowess as the best defensive team in the league. Raiko Arozarena kept his third consecutive shutout after a tough performance that saw him bravely charging off his line to claim multiple crosses and high balls.
However, Arozarena was not called upon to make any notable saves as his defense suffocated the Lexington attack.
The Lights captured more offensive momentum in the second half, but they were unable to convert any chances and had to settle for a hard-fought point.
The Turning Point
In a match with few chances for either side and a scoreless result, a specific turning point is hard to pick out.
However, midfielder Daouda Peeters was introduced to the match with a quarter hour to go, marking his official (and long-awaited) debut for the Lights. The former Juventus man quickly showed his quality in midfield and helped shut down the final moments of the match to preserve the point.
Incredibly, Peeters was not even in the country at the beginning of this week. He connected on four total flights over the previous three days to make it onto the matchday 18 for Las Vegas with only one training session under his belt.
As he rounds into fitness and form with Head Coach Antonio Nocerino’s squad, he could mark a turning point in the season should he inject further quality and class in a crucial midfield role.
Lo que dicen
HEAD COACH ANTONIO NOCERINO
On his overall thoughts on the point on the road…
It’s a good point against a very good team. The team played normal. Of course, there were a lot of technical mistakes: the control, the passes. This is the only bad situation from the game.
They competed, didn’t risk anything, and worked together. After the long travel with that fatigue, it’s a good point.
On Daouda Peeters’ debut for the Lights…
He is important for us. Now, it’s important that he has more conditioning, because he’s a good player with great experience. He has personality and loves to play with the ball.
For us, it’s important to have a player like this. Now, we have three games in one week, so he doesn’t have a lot of time to train, but I hope he can get more conditioning in [over the next week].
On the upcoming two games against Chattanooga on Wednesday in the U.S. Open Cup and against FC Tulsa on Saturday in the league…
The priority is step-by-step. I look at each game [individually]. Tonight, I [will] look at the game for Wednesday in the U.S. Open Cup to prepare.
But, right now, it’s important that the players have good recovery. Of course, it’s a long trip, but it’s important to be well recovered for the Wednesday game [against Chattanooga].
The priority now is the Open Cup. My idea is to keep things step-by-step and not to look too far ahead to the Championship game against Tulsa on Saturday.
Resumen
Luces XI inicial:
Arozarena (GK), Nigro, Howell, Gartig, Singer, Smart, O’Driscoll, Noel (c), Azcona, Pinzon, Rodriguez
Lexington SC Starting XI:
Ketterer (GK), Gibert, Burks, Hafferty, Sargeant, Djeffal, Williams, Epps, Firmino, Rodrigues, Burke
Objetivos:
N/A
Siguiente
The Lights’ have two matches this week at home at Cashman Field. First up is the U.S Open Cup against Chattanooga Red Wolves SC on Wednesday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. followed by FC Tulsa in the league on Saturday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.