In the lone all-amateur battle of the Second Round of the 2024 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, the Lubbock Matadors defeated FORO SC, 2-0 at home.
An announced crowd of more than 2,000 fans showed up on a Tuesday night to cheer on the Matadors, at Lubbock Christian University.
The match appeared to be headed to the halftime break scoreless, but the home team was awarded a penalty kick after Luke Jones was taken down in the box. Jones stepped up to take the PK, but he missed it high over the bar and the half did, in fact, end up tied after 45 minutes.
The Matadors struck first with a right-footed tap-in goal from midfielder Salvador Martinez in the 71st minute. A free kick from the left wing was driven low into the box and it took a deflection and found its way to Martinez at the back post who put it in from close range. It was his second goal of the competition after scoring the 83rd minute equalizer in the Matadors’ upset win over the Arizona Monsoon (NISA).
Five minutes after the opening goal, Nigel Katawa of FORO SC was shown a second yellow card to put the Dallas-area club down to 10 men. It was the second game in a row that FORO had a player get sent off late in the second half. In Round 1, FORO saw a red card in the 81st minute, but managed to force extra time and upset Austin FC II in penalty kicks.
Moments after Tristan Singh of the Matadors was shown a yellow card, Lubbock put the game away in second half stoppage time. Douglas Appiah-Kubi made a physical run down the left wing into the edge of the box, created space and found Shuma Sasaki toward in the top of the box. Sasaki cut to his left to allow him to get off a shot to beat the onrushing goalkeeper. Sasaki assisted on Martinez’s game-tying goal in Round 1, and now had a goal of his own.
Despite only possessing the ball 42% of the time, the Matadors became more aggressive, taking 12 total shots to FORO’s nine.
Matador head coach Paul Gilbert said he was very proud of his guys.
“They sacrificed and made history,” Gilbert said. “Now we get to go to round 3.”
With the win, the Matadors advance to the Third Round of the US Open Cup. They will find out their next opponent when the US Soccer Federation conducts the live draw on Thursday, April 4 at 1 p.m. ET. The draw will be streamed online.
