Reactions for the actors of the game:
FC Dallas Head coach Oscar Pareja
Overall thoughts on the game…
It was a different night obviously with that result but the effort was great for the players and we’re very proud of them. We enjoyed a fantastic game full of talent and full of great players. There was a lot of energy. In the first half, for us and in the second half for Seattle.
During the second half Seattle did a good job. They put us on our heels, and they had some options. They were very effective with those options. But overall, our players did a very good job and I couldn’t be more proud of them.
What was the difference in the second half?
There were a couple of factors. First, we dropped our line too much. It may have been instinct because they saw Seattle coming up fast. We started dropping the lines. We could do better on resolving that problem, by playing with different personalities. Those type of things make it difficult.
On Clint Dempsey…
We all know that he is a good player who has a lot of talent. Sometimes when he gets in between the lines and finds those pockets, he’s very effective. We have players who were outstanding. I could mention Mauro Diaz and the way that he controlled the game, especially in the first half or David Texeira with his effort and attitude, too.
On David Texeira…
It was great for David to score. Great for us to have him involved in the goals and have him contribute with his effort, his tactical discipline, the way he fights for the concepts and his teammates. He had a great game.
Could this loss affect your team?
No, no, no. No, of course not. This team is very strong. We’re building. We won against Portland and Houston, Montreal, tied with Kansas City. The first half today we were up 2-1. So, no, this team isn’t going to fall. Now is a great time to keep learning. We have a very strong group, and I’m behind these guys 300 percent. I’m very proud of this team.
On picking up the momentum…
I’m going to be quite honest. I could have helped them more in the second half. My boys did a great job on trying to get out of those difficult spots. Really, it comes down to me. I didn’t (perform) as well as they did, and that’s the bottom line.
Seattle Sounders Head Coach Sigi Schmid
On the result of the game…
I think the wind had an impact on the game, sort of made it a game of two halves. When they had the wind in the first half, it allowed them to keep some pressure on us. Second half, we had the wind behind us and it allowed us to keep pressure on them. Disappointed in the first goal we gave up, obviously, but I think Stephen (Frei) showed great character, and came up with a couple big saves in the second half. That’s a tough thing to do when you make an error like that, and I thought our team’s ability to come back in the second half was superb.
On Clint Dempsey’s play…
Clint is an important player for us, and we needed to find him in the first half and didn’t find him enough with the ball. Didn’t find Oba(femi Martins) enough with the ball. So, as a result, our offense stagnated. In the second half, once we started finding Oba, and the subs, I thought Marco Pappa had a good impact on the game. I thought Chad Barrett had a good impact on the game. At that point it was better. The other thing we did wrong in the first half, our midfielders sometimes pushed too high to press, we got ourselves stretched by pushing up too high trying to pressure Keel and some of their midfielders that dropped deep and that opened us up in the midfield. We did a better job in the second half not getting stretched out.
On the chippy play throughout the match…
We told our guys to make sure they were cautious. We didn’t want somebody to pick up a second yellow or anything like that. There was one, I think, were (the referee) gave a yellow to (Hendry) Thomas for a foul on (Gonzalo) Pineda, but he let play continue so they end up with a free kick deep in our end of the field. I would rather have (the referee) called the foul right away and given the yellow at that point. It would have been our ball. Those are things, overall, I thought the referee tried to manage the game in the first half, and he did it through the cards. That was his way of managing it, and we told our guys to make sure we’re careful with it. One of the reasons we probably took out Lamar (Neagle), as well, is because he was sitting on a yellow, and wanted to make sure he didn’t pick up a second.
Thoughts on the midfield pairing of Pineda and Alonso after the first half…
I thought it was better in the second half because they sat more together. That was the thing, they got stretched apart in the first half where one of them was pushing really high to pressure, and we talked about it at halftime. So the second half was better.
On having this back four combination together for the first time…
It was ok. Obviously, Dallas did a couple of good things. (Mauro) Diaz did some good things, and he had some good splitting passes in behind our defense. (Fabian) Castillo got a lot of good looks. I thought (DeAndre) Yedlin did much better in the second half getting control of Castillo. That was important for our team, as well. The goals we gave up the one was goalkeeper error, the other was a penalty kick, that was a penalty. I’m not going to dispute that, but we bent a lot and really didn’t give up anything off the run of play.
Did he feel fortunate going into the half down one goal…
We were hoping to go into the half tied. We were really sort of pissed off that we gave away that penalty right at the end of the first half. We felt if we can get in at halftime 1-1 we improve and do a much better job with the second half.
