LEXINGTON, Ky. – Lexington Sporting Club suffered a shock late defeat against Dallas Trinity FC inside Lexington SC Stadium on Saturday night.
“Obviously the end result is not what we wanted, but I think we stuck to a lot of the objectives that we came out to do for the majority of the game,” team captain Shea Moyer said. “I think there’s obviously a lot of positives to take from this match and then we just have to clean up the little details and make it better. The fans deserve better, the club deserves better, and luckily we have a chance to hopefully make things right on Wednesday.”
The match kicked off what will be a four-match home stretch for the Greens to close out the Fall season before the Winter break.
“This is the best stadium in the league, so to be able to play in front of our own fans, play at home, have players sleeping in their own beds, that’s a big deal,” Head Coach Michael Dickey said. “It’s exciting to be back here playing and you can see that we had a lot of good energy tonight. Things that we’re doing, they were playing off the fans and the attention they were giving.”
Looking for revenge against a tough Dallas squad that got the better of it in the Lone Star State, Sarah Cox returned to goal and made countless daring saves all throughout the contest, challenging to regain her title after earning the USL Super League Save of the Month for October.
Playing a strong brand of soccer, the Greens saw the first fruits of their labor early in the 14th minute as USL Super League October Player of the Month Madi Parsons slipped a ball into the net for her ninth goal contribution of the season and team-leading fifth goal. She was assisted by Autumn Weeks on the play.
“It’s surreal to me,” Parsons said. “A year ago, playing professional soccer was not even a thought in my mind, so it’s a very surreal moment. But I do have to give credit to my teammates because if I didn’t get the ball… it started with them and the assists that I’ve had, they put it in the back of the net. Definitely a team effort. I appreciate all the recognition, but it’s a team effort.”
From there, the first half became much more of a battle, with Dallas applying the pressure and the LSC backline of Courtney Jones, Weeks, Sydney Shepherd, and Julie Mackin staying strong with the occasional brilliant save by Cox.
The Greens went into the halftime up 1-0, looking to continue their momentum in half two.
Back out for the second half of play, the Greens were successful in continuing that momentum as they drew a penalty in the 49th minute that Moyer promptly buried in the 51st minute to make it a two goal lead.
Unfortunately for the home fans, the two goal lead would only last until the 81st minute when Dallas was able to get one back courtesy of Cyera Hintzen, who easily sent a ball into the net after a save by Cox deflected to her foot.
Motivated by the goal, Dallas leveled the match in the 89th minute when Jenny-Julia Danielsson was found by Sealey Strawn.
Much to the disappointment of the home fans in attendance, the two quick goals gave the Trinity all the momentum they needed to find a game winner, which it did one minute later when Gracie Brian was found by Hintzen.
Try as they might to find an equalizer, the Greens had nothing left in the tank and the full-time whistle brought about the final score.
Dallas controlled the possession in the match, holding onto the ball 55.5% of the time while also winning in expected goals with a 2.53-1.19 advantage.
The Greens will return to action on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at home against Spokane Zephyr FC. Kickoff inside Lexington SC Stadium is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will air live on Peacock.
“We have an opportunity to get points. We failed to do that tonight, we were so close, but we have a game Wednesday,” Dickey said. “The focus now is let’s look at what we did well today and continue to do that and then the things we didn’t excel in, let’s fix that so we can beat Spokane when we play them this week.”
About Lexington Sporting Club
Lexington Sporting Club is a U.S. Soccer professional soccer club competing in USL League One (U.S. Soccer third division men’s professional soccer), and in USL Super League (women’s professional soccer launching in 2024). The two professional teams are the pinnacle of the soccer ecosystem in Lexington that features more than 1,000 players within its youth and academy systems. Lexington SC in the process of building the club’s formal stadium, performance center and training fields.