The Breakdown: North Texas SC vs Forward Madison FC

North Texas SC took the field late Saturday night following FC Dallas' win. It was cold, rainy, and windy, the worst combination of weather events. Whether it was the weather, the wet pitch, or just tensions and frustrations on the field, this was a tense and hard-fought game. There are games which stay scoreless that seem like the world is moving slower, like we're aging faster, that feel like hours pass without anything exciting happening on the field. This was not one of those.

With a wet field that had already been tested for 90 minutes by the preceding MLS game, conditions were far from ideal, and it showed. The first half was sloppy, chippy, and with the exception of a few brief…