Amidst a home-heavy start to the 2025 schedule, the Las Vegas Lights are headed to Kentucky this weekend for a matchup at USL Championship newcomer Lexington SC.
Read on for the keys to the match as we head deeper into the USL Championship season.
Match: Las Vegas Lights FC (2-1-0, 6th in Western Conference) at Lexington SC (1-2-2, 9th in Western Conference)
When: Saturday, April 12
Where: Lexington SC Stadium
Kickoff: 4:00 p.m. PT
The Season So Far
Thus far in this young season, the Lights have started with consistency. Two scrappy, late 1-0 home wins over Tampa Bay and Orange County have paired with a grinder of 0-0 draw on the road at Oakland and a heartbreaking 3-2 loss at home to New Mexico.
The main constant? Head Coach Antonio Nocerino has prioritized defensive solidity early in his tenure.
Las Vegas currently has the lowest Expected Goals Allowed (xGA) in the entire league by a good margin. This measures the quality of the chances the team is conceding, meaning the Lights are limiting both the quantity and quality of chances for their opponents.
However, there have been recent signs of Nocerino seeking to strike a balance between this defensive prowess and attacking fluidity. As is typical under a new coaching staff, the defensive side of the game was the first thing installed and focused on through preseason and the first few games.
Now, though, the team has shown the ability to play in a 4-defender system (as seen in the most recent match versus Orange County) as well as the 5-defender system that characterized the team’s approach through the first few matches.
The Orange County game was the first of the year in which the Lights’ had a larger share of possession. While possession is not really a reliable statistic for anything other than aesthetics, it does show that Nocerino’s team is playing more on the front foot and more offensively than they were at the beginning of the season.
As the year continues on, this tactical flexibility will serve the team well, and they’ll look to take another step forward in the attacking third this weekend at Lexington.
Keys to the Match
Here are the three keys to look out for on Saturday night for the team to walk away with three points:
Attacking Bravery
Following last Saturday’s win over Orange County SC (courtesy of a stoppage time Nighte Pickering goal), Head Coach Antonio Nocerino had this to say about his team’s performance:
“The performance for me is not excellent. I prefer, maybe, to play better with the ball, risk more when you arrive in the last 25 meters – maybe 1v1, shoot, combination.”
That word “risk” is the key for this team. Nocerino clearly wants his players taking a few more risks in the final third, where a mistake or turnover is ultimately not costly like it would be in midfield or in defense.
Should the players want to take all three points on Saturday in Lexington, they’ll need to play with bravery in and around the Lexington box.
There is plenty of creativity littered throughout this Lights roster that can unlock a defense in a moment. Just look at Joe Gyau’s incredible 90th-minute strike against New Mexico, or Valentin Noel’s 11 goals and seven assists in 2024, or Edison Azcona’s clever ability in tight spaces.
Players like these will need to come up with a moment or two against Lexington, and they’ll need to make brave, risky decisions to do so.
Non-Negotiable Intensity
In what is becoming a Keys to the Match trope here in Las Vegas for 2025, the team will need to match or exceed Lexington’s intensity at home in front of their own fans at Lexington SC Stadium.
Nocerino accepts nothing less than 100+% once the players cross those white lines. Anyone who has watched this team so far this year knows what the Italian demands.
However, it is not always so simple. The players will be dealing with a long travel day across multiple time zones before stepping onto the field on Saturday night in a hostile environment.
They’ll need to shake the travel fatigue out of their legs quickly in warmups, flip the switch in the pre-match locker room, and be ready to get stuck in from the opening whistle. Lights games have been exclusively tight affairs this season, and the players should expect nothing less than an extended 90-minute battle in Kentucky.
Arozarena Heroics
Last week, Johnny Rodriguez was the final Keys to the Match highlight. As his production goes up top, so does the entire offense. That prediction was slightly off, as Nighte Pickering reminded everyone of his talent through a well-taken stoppage time game-winner.
Similarly, Raiko Arozarena and Nicholas Ammeter represent a tandem in net that the entire defense anchors from. While Ammeter got the nod at the start of the season, Arozarena has come on strong to deliver on the incredible form he showed in 2024.
Since stepping back into the starting role, the Cuban has produced two consecutive shutouts to start his season.
More than likely, he’ll be called on against Lexington to make a few key stops. While the team has been excellent at chance suppression, a great team still needs their goalkeeper to deliver in clutch moments with some occasional heroics.
Arozarena proved he could deliver in those moments in 2024. He’s continued to do so through two matches in 2025. To get three points on Saturday, he’ll need to keep that trend rolling.