FC Dallas fell on the road Saturday night, losing 2-1 in the Leagues Cup opener against St. Louis CITY SC.
LIneups
FC Dallas: Paes, Twumasi (Scott), Ibeagha, Tafari, Farfan, Arriola, Sainte (Ansah), Ntsabeleng (Pondeca), Junqua, Farrington (Kamungo), Musa
Subs not used: Carrera, Maurer, Sealy, Gonzalez, Illarramendi, Endeley, Ramirez
St. Louis: Burki, Reid, Hiebert, Parker, Totland, Lowen (Girdwood-Reich), Durkin, Hartel (Vassilev), Teuchert (Klein), Thorisson, Becher (Kiljima)
Subs not used: Lundt, Olivares, Watts, Markanich, Nerinski, Yaro, Wentzel, Blom
Scoring Summary
FCD - Sam Junqua (Paul Arriola) - 18’
STL - Cedric Teuchert (Nokkvi Thorisson) - 27’
STL - Marcel Hartel (penalty kick) - 49’
Misconduct Summary
FCD - Tsiki Ntsabeleng - 21’
STL - Jayden Reid - 54’
FCD - Sebastien Ibeagha - 64’
STL - Kyle Hiebert - 65’
STL - Tim Parker - 66’
Stats
FC DALLAS POSTGAME QUOTES
Interim head coach Peter Luccin
General thoughts about the game…
“I don't have a problem with missing a penalty kick. I have a problem with the way that we managed the game. St. Louis put in a lot of energy, a lot of heart. We knew coming into the match that they were a good team. We controlled the game in the beginning, we had many chances on goal. We showed attitude tonight, the players played with heart, they showed good effort, good energy and good intensity. However, we were unable to manage the game. Our passing at times was sloppy, we missed easy passes. We have another game in four days against Juárez and we know that the only option we have is to win if we want to go through to the next round. We have to recover and make sure that the players will be ready for the next game.”
On what the team needs to improve on…
“We need to be more consistent and have better sequences with the ball. We cannot have ten good minutes and ten bad minutes, we need to be more calm with the ball. We saw tonight that when we play in space we can score.”
On the performance of Carl Sainté, Tomas Pondeca and Tarik Scott…
“The youngsters showed a lot of energy. I'm very happy with the young players, however, they need to adapt a little bit more to the match flow. This will help us maintain the level throughout the entire game. We need to be a little bit more consistent, but I am very pleased with the way they played tonight. Tarik Scott when he came in, he changed the flow of the game.”
Defender Sam Junqua
On his goal…
“It’s something we’ve been working on in training where I bend the outside back backwards and Paul (Arriola) receives the ball low and draws out the center back so there’s space for me to run into. The timing was good and I was able to just slot it away.”
On finding consistency on the road…
“The game is comprised of moments and we had some very good sequences we can be proud of. There were times where I felt we kind of turned off and we’re not consistent in these moments. That adds up to these results where we do almost enough but not quite enough. If we do what we did in part of this game for 90 minutes we’re going to get a result on the road and that’s what it takes.”
Forward Paul Arriola
On finding consistency away from home…
“It’s one thing to talk about and one thing to go out and perform. For us all, that’s been our problem, we’ve shown amazing moments like our goal tonight and other good sequences that turn into good opportunities. But in the end, we’re just kind of turning off, maybe a lack of communication. For us that’s the million-dollar question. If we were doing everything right we’d be in a better position and winning more games. We just have to continue to work hard, put our heads down, understand we’re not the finished product and hopefully by doing that it’ll keep us motivated and able to pick up better results.”
On the play building up to the goal…
“When we studied St. Louis this week, we saw that they like to press high. Knowing that, we knew that we had to take advantage of the high press defensive line. We left Petar (Musa) alone with the defenders and when Sebastien (Ibeagha) played the long ball to Petar (Musa) and he found me, I played the ball in space to Sam (Junqua) and he was able to finish the play. It was a great goal, but it wasn't enough to win the game tonight.”
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