Things went very, very badly for the Tacoma Defiance Tuesday night in Reno. They were taken apart by Reno 1868 and their striker Daniel Muvoski in the first half. The backline could not contain Muvoski, who had 4 goals, and right back Brent Richards, who had three assists. In total Reno hung 5 goals on the Defiance in the first half.
At half coach Chris Little brought in a third centerback and switched the team’s formation to a 3-6-1 (3-3-3-1). It allowed the Defiance to stop the bleeding with sustained possession. They did not threaten to score — aside from a drawn and missed penalty early — in the second half but they also didn’t let Reno score again to limit the embarrassment to a 5-0 loss.