Coming off a disappointing 3-2 loss on the road against Sporting Kansas City, FC Dallas is looking to come back into Major League Soccer action with a victory against a tough New York Red Bull side.
In a match Dallas coach Oscar Pareja called a “measuring stick test”, the team fell short. It looked like Dallas had a chance to win, but Yohan Croizet smashed a great volley into the back of the net in the 88th minute to secure a victory for SKC.
“We could have been better because the objective was to advance in the cup,” Pareja said. “Obviously, we did not achieve that goal so, there is some frustration but at the same time, I thought we compete very well and we had our chances to win it. That made me feel that it was a good match and there was a lot of positive but at the end, you know what I’m thinking. This first division, professional game is a matter of getting results. Sometimes that just frustrates us. Overall, the boys played well, especially in the first half. I thought we had chances.”
FCD midfielder Jacori Hayes says the match gave the team confidence for a future match at Children’s Mercy Park, such as in the playoffs and in other key matches. Since FC Dallas rebrand from the Dallas Burn, the team has not played Sporting Kansas City in the playoffs.
“I think we did pretty well,” Hayes said. “It was at their place, it’s a tough place to play, and we’re the two top teams in the West right now. Great goal by them at the end to win it but there’s a lot of positives we can take from that game. We won’t be scared if we have to go to that place during playoffs, or later on in the season when we face them or go to other tough places for the rest of the season. We know we can play well away from home.”
Dallas will now travel to New York, to take on the Red Bulls, who currently sit fourth in the Eastern Conference. The Red Bulls have broken out this season and are known by Jesse Marsch’s high press, which has caused issues for many squads. It’s the one feature that makes the Red Bulls distinct from anyone else. When asked if it is either difficult or easier when one team has a specific tendency, player and coach gave similar answers.
“It’s kinda a mixture of both,” midfielder Kellyn Acosta said when asked about whether it was difficult or easier to prepare for a specific aspect of a team. “It’s something we can be mindful of, we can replicate in training as best as we can. At the same time, they’re good at what they do. We’re not going to experience it until we step on the field. We just gotta take the game to them. We know they like to press, they get a lot of numbers in the midfield and there’s some special guys. Bradley Wright-Phillips, Kaku, Tyler Adams and numerous guys that are dangerous on their team. We just gotta be mindful of what they’re good at and take it to them by playing our game.”
“Since I took this job, I haven’t seen anything that’s easy,” Pareja said with a laugh. “Everything is hard. Competing is hard.”
One player that struggled with a press was Hayes, who could not handle the quick, deep press against New York City FC. He was subbed off after 53 minutes and never could get his rhythm during the match. He hopes to learn from that match in preparation for the match against the other New York team.
“Just gotta speed up play,” Hayes said. “Just kind of think what you gotta do and try to play out of the press a couple times and hopefully, they’ll back off because you’ve beaten them a couple of times through that. Just gotta learn from the NYC game and just get the ball off my foot a little quicker.”
Match Information:
Where: Red Bull Arena (Harrison, NJ)
When: June 23 (5:00 PM CST)
Broadcast: Unimas; Radio- FCDallas.com/Radio (English), 1270AM (Spanish)
Stream: Unvision Deportes Online