Major League Soccer – FC Dallas 3-1 Seattle Sounders
Scoring Summary:
DAL – David Texeira (Andres Escobar) 8
SEA – Lamar Neagle (Clint Dempsey) 58
DAL – David Texeira (Andres Escobar) 78
DAL – Blas Perez (Michel) 88
Coaches react:
Seattle Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid
On tonight’s game…
We went down 1-0 on an early goal. We’ve been down in our last three, four games, I think. We’ve taken the first goal so it’s not a good habit to be into. Came back and equalized in the second half. I thought we had some good looks. We had some good possession. We had more possession than they did overall in the game. Again, some individual mistakes. They had some good pace, ran past some people, and scored three goals. We’ve got to stay on our feet when we defend, and we have to defend better than that.
On his the performance of his team’s defense…
I think losing Zach Scott hurt us. Zach’s been a very solid part of our defense. He got bumped in the air. I’m not happy with that play. That was something that was going on all night where we were taking shots off the ball a little bit, but that’s the way it’s going to be in the playoffs so we have to be a little bit tougher, meaner, maybe a little dirtier at times. I don’t think we were tough enough at times so that’s something we’ve got to address with ourselves. We’re expecting the calls and the referees are just really letting the game go now, but we’ve got to stay on our feet defensively. The third goal is a savable one for Stefan Frei. They’ve only got three people in the box for the header and we lose the guy. You can’t lose the guy when there’s only three of theirs in the box and we have five back there.
Early prognosis on Zach Scott’s injury…
Don’t know yet. We don’t know if there’s something broken or if it’s just something that’s jammed up. When he went up in the air, he got knocked up in the air and came off balance and jammed his ankle on his way down.
On his team’s fitness after playing five games in 16 days…
It’s tough to do a 12-day road trip in the middle of the season. It’s long and it’s hard. Not just physically, but it’s hard mentally. Take nothing away from Dallas, they came out and played with a lot of energy. We felt that they would fatigue a little bit in the second half, which they did, and we had some opportunities but we didn’t take advantage of it and we let them into the game. Certainly, they (FC Dallas) were there, they were focused. You could tell it was a big, important game for them, and I think their intensity was probably a little greater than ours. Take nothing away from what they did and kudos to Oscar (Pareja) for having his team prepared to play this way. I wish they would have played that way in LA.
FC Dallas head coach Oscar Pareja
General thoughts on the game…
It was a very intense game. For the 90+ minutes tonight, it was just the players giving us a great show. Seattle showed why they are at the top of the conference and our boys were showing why they want to fight for a higher spot. Today was a good demonstration of the culture and the philosophy that we have here, but it was all players.
The first half was very competitive for both, and I think we controlled them. We had a plan today where it was decided to not compete much in the middle. We put the targets up front with [David Texeira] and Blas Perez. We wanted to get those second goals with Andres and Jair. I wanted to get those rebounds there and get some services in the back. I thought it worked pretty well.
In the second half, the boys executed excellently. It was a great MLS game. You can see that intensity, that commitment to the tactical part, the integrity of the game, the willingness to work for both teams – it was excellent.
On David Texeira…
David has had three great weeks and has been participating for the way we want him to do things much more, he has been growing with the group, his intensity and the rhythm that we wanted from him was there and tonight we decided to bring him in and join that spot with Blas Perez. The way he executed was all him. He gave us a lesson today in persistence, he gave us a lesson in patience and today he was a big part of the points.
Resting Matt Hedges (against L.A.) and Fabian Castillo (against L.A. and Seattle)…
Matt came out with a bit of tightness in his hamstring after the game against Vancouver and Fabian [did] also, so we wanted to take care of them. We really wanted to feel the energy of all those players against Seattle at home. I’m glad to see Matt back the lineup today and that he had an opportunity to rest.
On beating the number one team…
It’s always a challenge. The key for the light to develop is to go one game at a time and one rival at a time. I don’t see any rival better than any other, really. I just want them to go in with respect, but knowing that they can beat anyone.
