FC Dallas frustrated in their loss to CF Montreal
There really wasn't a lot of good in the loss to Montreal.
The night was meant to be more for FC Dallas as they debuted newly acquired Designated Player Petar Musa in front of a sellout crowd at Toyota Stadium. Musa scored his first goal, and things looked positive until a defensive lapse helped CF Montreal find a go-ahead goal from Josef Martinez in the 60th minute to seal the victory for the visitors.
Following the match, FC Dallas manager Nico Estevez was pretty blunt about how he thought his team performed on the night.
“I didn’t like all of the game. I’m not happy with what I saw,” said Estevez. “We did not try what made us successful all of preseason, and it hurt us tonight.”
After dominating most of their season opener a week ago against San Jose, Dallas struggled on Saturday night against Montreal, with only ten shots total, 12 fewer than the week prior. Dallas ended up with seven shots on target, forcing Montreal’s keeper, Jonathan Sirois, to make six saves during the night.
Estevez chalked part of the offensive issues down to having a lot of newcomers on the field Saturday night and the disconnect most of them had with one another for not having a full preseason together.
“Some of our players haven’t been playing the whole preseason. It is their first game together. Paxton [Pomykal], Patrickson [Delgado], Omar [Gonzalez] and [Sebastian] Lletget, who is coming from an injury, are all almost new players that couldn't work with us this preseason.
“I think we have to be patient, but it's a good punch in the face to wake us up and see that there is a lot of work to do that we already knew. The season is long. We're building something that we believe is going to be good.”
The Dallas goalscorer echoed his new manager’s comments, saying these connections on the field take time.
“Yes, I still need some time to adapt to the team,” said Musa. “They need to know me, and I also need to know them. So yes, we will have more time to get to know each other and let's focus on the next game.”
On the defensive side, Dallas had more injuries as Sebastien Ibeagha was unavailable due to a calf strain and veteran midfielder Asier Illarramendi was pulled at halftime as a precautionary measure. Newcomer Omar Gonzalez expressed his feelings on the night in one simple word.
“Frustrating. Frustrating because we weren’t able to play the way we wanted to, and Montréal frustrated us,” said Gonzalez. “The missed passes, the turnovers, not being able to get good pressure to them, the straight balls through our team, and them running through was all very frustrating. And it’s frustrating not to get three points at home where we say we want to be great, and tonight we didn’t do that.”
FC Dallas will look to turn things around next weekend when they travel for the first time in the 2024 regular season when they take on the New York Red Bulls next Saturday.
The only thing more frustrating than the game were the two loud fans behind me turning 100% negative in the 61st minute with more than thirty minutes left acting like the whole season was soon to be lost. Unfortunately, Section 106 is above singing and chanting (and confrontations?) so we are stuck with them. hope the team shuts them up soon before I do lol.