FC Dallas 2-0 over Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Post game reactions from the coaches:
Dallas head coach Oscar Pareja
Opening thoughts…
There was a lot of [good] soccer today on the pitch. It was a game that had a lot of emotions and a lot of great plays. Great footballers – both on our team today and also Vancouver. They were a very good team with a very good coach. There were tremendous plays today. I think our fans and the people who came to the stadium enjoyed a game full of great moments. Vancouver made it difficult for us during the first 15 minutes, but after that we started clearing our chances and dominated.
The second half was more level. We knew that they were going to provide us with a ton and we wanted to hold the line and see if there were some spaces behind. The plan worked well.
On Je-Vaughn Watson…
I would start with [JeVaughn Watson’s] commitment to his team and the versatility that [he] brings is incredible. He stayed the week here knowing he had an important game with his national team in Korea because he wanted to win this game. I think that the game rewarded him; it was a great performance by JeVaughn.
On Ezequiel Cirigliano…
It was positive to see [Ezequiel Cirigliano] growing with the team. He is very clean with the ball and he’s understanding the pace of the league more and more. Sometimes he gets caught here and there with the ball as sometimes in South America we have more time and more space to play. In Major League Soccer, it’s a little bit quicker and more physical. He’s realizing that now and I’m happy for him to get the 90 minutes tonight.
Vancouver head coach Carl Robinson
On tonight’s game…
Certain moments change games. They managed to take their chances. They have good players. They’re a good team, coached very well. We didn’t take our chances. We had numerous chances, numerous shots, but we couldn’t score.
His thoughts about making a tactical change at halftime…
Tactically, I think we were very good. David (Ousted) makes a save on a penalty at halftime, which maybe Casper (the Friendly Ghost) is given. I cannot believe it’s a penalty. I’ve watched it about 10 times. It is, but if it would have gone in, I probably would have changed it earlier. Five minutes into the second half, we concede. Bad goal. Miscommunication. We take a chance, but great character shown when you’re 2-0 down. It’s easy to buckle, but we didn’t. We stepped on. Great credit to Marco Bustos coming in making his debut, made things happen for us. We created chances, but we just couldn’t score.
