Toros Drop 3 Points at Reno

RGVFC fall 3-2 at Reno 1868. Earned only one point in this 2 game road trip.

By Edson J. Ochoa | @EOchoa_8 & @CargaNaranjaRGV

It was a thrilling game tonight in Reno, but the score went in favor of Reno 1868 at Greater Nevada Field. The Toros came to this game having only conceded 5 goals and had never been scored on more than once in a single game, but in an uncharacteristic display of soccer, RGVFC conceded 3 goals to the USL’s newest hybrid franchise.

RGVFC broke the score early in the game thanks to a counterattack that led to a Memo Rodriguez goal at the 19th minute. However, the euphoria was short-lived for the Toros thanks to a horrible backwards pass by Memo Rodriguez that Antoine Hoppenot was able to intercept and assist Dane Kelly for the goal at the 22nd minute.

Then in the second half, Reno was able to take the lead at the 65th minute. Chris Wehan dribbled the ball from the left flank to the middle and passed the ball to Luis Felipe Fernandes who juked Ivan Magalhaes and sent a powerful shot that beat Marco Carducci. RGVFC were close at the 67th minute when a lobbed through ball from Memo Rodriguez found Todd Wharton in a 1v1 situation with the keeper. Wharton tries to pass the ball but bounced off Jimmy Ockford towards the goal but was able to clear the ball off the line to avoid the equalizer. Then in the 73rd minute, Eric Bird gets pushed inside the box and the referee awarded a penalty kick for RGVFC which Eric Bird converts for the equalizer. Just like in the first half, the equalizer was short lived as Reno once again scored in the 76th minute when Luis Felipe assisted Brent Richards who shot a first touch, low, driven shot towards the far post that was impossible for Carducci to save and gave Reno the final 3-2 lead.

Positives: 

Well, Memo scored and Kevin Garcia returned to the Toros lineup.

Camilo Monroy looked good the minutes he was given tonight taking on defenders and using his speed to get past them.

Negatives:

Why did Charlie Ward not start?

Marco Carducci. Besides the late 1v1 save in the 90th minute, he did not look confident under the 3 posts tonight and that lack of confidence trasferred to the defenders.

Ivan Magalhaes. All 3 goals happened in his zone. In the first goal, he was caught out of position after the bad pass by Memo and the second and third goals were from a very timid pressure inside of the box that gave the Reno players space to take the shot at goal.

Defense to attack transition. RGVFC lost the ball many times in their own third of the field which gave Reno many attacking chances.

Defending free kicks. Many times the RGVFC defense left more than one Reno attacker open during free kicks but were lucky that the attackers could not capitalize the opportunities.

RGVFC return to H-E-B Park this Saturday at 7:30pm to host Seattle Sounders 2 in USL action.

Rewatch the full game here:

Photo credit: Christian Inoferio