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(Image credit to the North Texas Soccer Club media crew.)

Ugh, North Texas Soccer Club will want that one back.

On a comfortable evening in Arlington, North Texas squandered a two-goal lead to settle for a point against lowly Sporting Kansas City II in an overall disappointing match.

They also lost the resulting PK shootout, despite a solid performance from JT Harms.

After going down a goal early on a scorcher from SKC captain Macielo Tschantret, North Texas rallied and took control. Tarik Scott scored a brilliant and cheeky goal on a breakaway and added a second by simply being in the right place at the right time. Malachi Molina added one from the penalty spot.

In this position and at home, you had every expectation that the squad would see out the result, but Sporting Kansas City II hung around, scrapping their way to a huge point for them.

The goals form a pattern for North Texas, coming down to a lack of concentration in key moments, something Gall has stressed.

“Goals change games,” Gall told media after the match. “At 3-1, you give a goal away from a set piece, it gives the opponent momentum. Even after that, we had a couple of chances that we didn’t take ourselves. If you don’t take those chances, you leave yourself open to those kinds of situations. Right now, we are being punished for our mistakes.”

The penalty kick shootout was just as back and forth, with missed and saved penalties, including a couple of key blocks from JT Harms, but ultimately, North Texas didn’t have enough luck to at least preserve the extra point.

Gall is about accountability in matches like this, noting that the defense in particular is lagging behind the offensive output.

“Some mistakes we are making individually that are costing us collectively,” Gall told Afterburn. “We are continuing to work on it. At some point, the players need to start to look at themselves and need to improve in these sorts of moments. Certainly, we have young players, but if you are a professional young player and you are good enough, you are old enough.”

Tarik Scott acknowledged that, despite a strong performance, the letdown in the second half in particular was a sign of how razor thin the margins are in this league, how fatigue and a moment’s lack of concentration can give the opponent the opening they need.

“Just moments when our legs were heavy, we were getting tired,” Scott said to media. “SKC capitalized on those moments when we turned off or shut off.”

North Texas Soccer Club are not where they want to be with 4 points from the first four games of the season, but with a completely overhauled squad plus a lot of very young players, it’s clear that chemistry is improving but still a work in progress. We’ll be keeping an eye on how the defense can improve in the coming weeks.

A few other highlights/takeaways:

• I do want to give love to Malachi Molina who is growing into his role as a leader on the team and stepped up for a brilliant PK.

• JT Harms, too, while still adapting to this level, has shown enough that he could be another sneaky good pickup for FC Dallas down the line.

• I also want to praise Sam Sarver who is taking this opportunity to kickstart his professional career by the horns. The winger is dangerous on the counter and in the final third. If he can get more consistent, watch out.

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