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USL1 Lexington Sporting Club

Lexington SC Weekend Wrap-Up: Men's Team Falls at Home against 2022 League Champions

July 15, 2024 - United Soccer League One (USL1)
Lexington Sporting Club News Release


Lexington SC forward Issac Cano
Lexington SC forward Issac Cano
(Lexington Sporting Club, Credit: Jacob Bramley)

Quick Kicks From the Match

-Lexington Sporting Club suffered a 2-1 defeat against Tormenta FC inside Toyota Stadium. This was the second meeting of the pair this season and the fifth all time.

-Ates Diouf scored his first goal of the season in USL League One play this season. Interestingly, Diouf has scored four times this season but his first three all came in USL Jagermeister Cup action. He has also logged three assists, meaning he has contributed to a team-leading seven goals.

-Lexington SC controlled the possession in the match, holding onto the ball 59.6% of the time while also winning in expected goals with a 1.39-1.22 advantage.

-Lexington SC outshot Tormenta FC 17-13 overall and 6-4 on target, contributing to the high expected goal total. Perhaps none symbolized this fact better than Nico Brown, who had two breathtaking near goals in the first half, both of which were saved by Tormenta FC goalkeeper Drew Romig.

-Maltese national Yannick Yankam made his first start for Lexington SC since April 28 against Forward Madison. Yankam missed time due to injury and national team duties before returning to play one week ago against Union Omaha. Yankam made history earlier this season, being the first active UEFA senior national team member to play in USL League One.

Lexington SC vs. South Georgia Tormenta FC // July 13, 2024 // Toyota Stadium

USL League One matchday 10

Head coach Darren Powell

"Once we settled I thought we played really well tonight. We didn't extend our lead, we missed chances inside the box, and (didn't) always (have) great connection. Just very disappointing the result of that game but the response from the back three, they continued working hard and that's all we can do. You saw everybody laying on the ground at the end, we're devastated by the score. But I can't fault the effort and some of the play."

On his message at halftime: "(I told them) to keep doing what we were doing. There were some moments where we should have capitalized more often, basically. I think that's the tale of the game, when you look at it, when you keep a team hanging around they get too many chances. They certainly capitalized."

On the misfortune of the game: "I don't know how their keeper kept that one out from Nico Brown. But when you're in these streaks and slumps, the expectation is really high and every game we've got to produce. We've got to live with that expectation. We'll continue to keep improving and hopefully we can transfer that into a good run of form because otherwise it's going to get away from us at this stage."

On where the team goes from here: "We've got a good team and we've got good players, we're just unfortunate. We haven't seemed to get a break in the game, but we'll do that. Performance in the cup has been good, we've had some really challenging games there, too, so we've just got to keep fighting for this season.

Once this team gets going I feel like we can go on a really good run but we just keep waiting for it, we just don't want time to pass us by. We've got a lot of faith in the players."

On the positives of the game: "I think we were quite entertaining tonight, I think we played the ball and created a lot of opportunities. On a given day, they took theirs and we didn't take ours. The bottom line is, it's something to build upon and we'll continue to get better. The result and the outcome of the game wasn't positive or what we wanted, but moving forward we can take a lot from that. We just need to capitalize on our chances."

Ates Diouf On his goal: "It was good to get the first goal.I think in the first half the pressing was good and we kept the ball well. I get the ball from pressing high and then just go to the goal, it's just about getting in front of the goal and shooting."

On the tough loss: "It's tough. Especially in the first half I think we had so many chances we could have put the game to bed. I think we had like three more that the goalie made good saves (on). We feel like if we could have scored those two or three chances we could have (won) and we did good in the first half, but that's football. Sometimes the goals just don't come, we've just got to (stick with it)."

On his message to the team as a returnee: "I just tell them to keep going. It's tough, it's tough for all of us, we have a good team. It's tough for the coaching staff, the owners, the players, the fans. The fans, they do the best they can and support us and we just say don't give up. We know it's tough but we have a good team to turn around. It's a long season, I think we're going to turn it around for sure."

Nico Brown On both of his scoring chances: "Sometimes in the office there's just some unfortunate days. We work all week on finishing our chances and trying to be proficient in front of goal. I tried my best, but unfortunately the goalie was able to make some remarkable saves tonight. But, I can promise you guys I'm going to be back on the training pitch putting in the work this week and trying to improve. I know what I can do in front of goal, so just gotta get it next time."

On the tough loss: "My job as a winger is to produce goals and help my team out that way as well as my defensive abilities, but especially being dangerous in front of goal, so I take a lot of responsibility. I know we all thought we could have scored more goals tonight but we're a team and we could probably do better as a collective. Those are hard pills to swallow in general."

On his message to the team as a returnee: "I think this game we actually performed well but football is a hard and unfair sport. I think we had long stretches of this game where we were on the gas pedal and front foot, we just gotta put away our chances and defend better as a collective. My message to the team is just continue to keep our heads up, I think we have good performances sometimes but we're not putting together a good 90 (minutes) of hard work and collective efforts. The sky is the limit for this team but the clock is ticking, we know. We're sorry to the fans that came out tonight because we know we should have gotten more than zero points out of this match."

Check out the Lexington Sporting Club Statistics




Images from this story

Lexington SC forward Issac Cano
Lexington SC forward Issac Cano
(Jacob Bramley)		   

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United Soccer League One Stories from July 15, 2024


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