- Homegrown Jesús Ferreira scored his seventh goal of the season and 25th MLS goal overall in his 91st career match, surpassing his father’s FC Dallas goal-scoring total of 24 he netted in 113 matches while with Dallas from 2009-2013.
- Winger Paul Arriola scored his second goal of the season. He now has 22 career MLS goals.
- FC Dallas players Ema Twumasi, Alan Velasco, Nanu and Jáder Obrian all registered an assist in tonight’s match.
- FC Dallas announced its second sellout crowd of the 2022 season with 19,096 fans.
- MLS Box Score
Frisco, Texas (May 7 2022) – FC Dallas (5-1-4, 19 points) shutout the Seattle Sounders (2-5-1, 7 points) 2-0 thanks to goals from Jesús Ferreira and Paul Arriola in front of a sellout crowd.
Game Summary
First Half:
- 10’ – SHOT (DAL) – Alan Velasco floated in a cross from a freekick that connected with Matt Hedges inside the box whose shot bounced off Stefan Cleveland’s post.
- 40’ – SHOT (DAL) – Tsiki Ntsabeleng’s right-footed shot from the edge of the box went high and wide over Cleveland’s goal.
- 43’ – SHOT (DAL) – Matt Hedges played a long ball into Paul Arriola who squared his cross into the box to Alan Velasco, but his shot went over the goal.
Second Half
- 60’ – SHOT (DAL) – Paxton Pomykal played a ball into Velasco whose shot attempt was saved down low by Cleveland.
- 65’ – GOAL (DAL) – A nice build up ended with Ema Twumasi’s cross into the box for Jesús Ferreira to control and slot his shot in the bottom right corner of the goal to give FC Dallas the 1-0 lead.
- 88’ – GOAL (DAL) – Jáder Obrian played a ball into Nanu’s run who crossed it into the back post run of Paul Arriola whose first time shot went in to make it 2-0 for FC Dallas.
FC Dallas Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Nico Estévez
Initial thoughts on the match…
“I would like to congratulate Seattle Sounders for their CONCACAF Champions League accomplishment. It is a great accomplishment for the league and U.S. Soccer. Even though they rested key players, it wasn’t an easy game because of the way they approached the game defensively. It makes it difficult to break down and it forces us to make mistakes and lose our patience. They are able to attack and gain confidence because of that. We were patient and controlled that very well. We created more chances to score in the second half. I like the attitude of the team because it is frustrating playing a game where the team drops down and defends. We were controlling the ball, but they were comfortable with that because they can be a team that can change the outcome of the game with two or three plays. But overall I am happy with the performance of the guys today.”
On the halftime adjustments…
“Sometimes we are able to take over in the second half because we tire the opponents out in the first half. We hold the possession a lot and we try to get them to move from one side of the field to the other. In the first half, we didn’t do a good job of finding our pocket players. We were able to find Paxton Pomykal a few times but we weren’t able to find Tsiki Ntsabeleng for the majority of the half. When they would receive the ball in a great position, they would not make the best decisions. We showed them clips at half time about these situations so they could have a look of what they were facing. For the second half, it was pretty clear how we had to attack them. We had a good start to the second half by creating chances and taking more shots at goal. It was a matter of time. This is why we brought Franco Jara into the match so he could pull defenders and create that space that we were needing. In Jesús’ goal, you can see the perfect example of why we brought Jara into the game. This is something we were missing going forward in the second half. We generated crosses but would not have enough numbers in the box so they would always clear those away.”
FC Dallas forward Jesús Ferreira
Initial thoughts on the match…
As a team, we knew Seattle was going to come in and give us a challenge. No matter if they had rotations or not, we know their roster has a lot of quality players and whoever plays, they’re going to do a good job. Their back five was really hard to break, that’s what took us a while in the first half. But after the break, we knew we had to change something to find what could work. Obviously, we put it into place and it worked for us. The goal came a little bit later. But I’m happy that it came, tomorrow is Mother’s Day and having my mom here is always an honor.”
On passing his father’s goal-scoring record for FC Dallas…
“To pass my dad, that was another goal of mine. I’ve always said that I want to make my own history here and now that I passed my dad, I want to keep going. I’m happy, I’m excited to be able to say that I’ve done that, especially at this club with the number (#10) that he had. So, it’s a lot of emotions. I never thought that it would happen when I first signed.”
FC Dallas midfielder Paul Arriola
On persevering to secure a win after being a scoreless first half...
“I think there was frustration. It was a tough game. Obviously, they’re coming in on a high and playing younger guys, guys that are hungry and maybe haven’t gotten a lot of minutes. For us, after halftime, you’re frustrated. It’s zero-zero, expecting some of the other guys to come in but I think for it’s just the motivation, motivation to win. Having that confidence and pride to make sure you get a result at home which we’ve done for the most part all year. I don’t think there was any more motivation for us. Yeah, we get frustrated. What are you going to do? This team isn’t just going to roll over and settle for a tie. We’re going to keep going and, obviously, even after the first goal, we’re still going and pushing and trying to close the game and I thought we did a really good job of that today.”
On last-minute adjustments the coaching staff made in preparation for the Sounders...
“It starts with trying to deal with adversity. The entire week we trained, expecting them to be in a 4-3 or 4-4 and so for them to come out with a five back, you know, it was tough to really understand. I thought the team did a great job of staying connected in the quick instruction that we had before the game, you know, trying to manage the first half.
In the second half, we were able to make a couple more adjustments once we saw how clear it was they were going to play. I thought the team did a great job facing adversity and being able to overcome that.”
