Today FC Dallas battled Racing Club to a pair of 1-1 draws in Buenos Aires on Saturday morning with Tesho Akindele scoring the goal in both matches on feeds from Anibal Chala and Paxton Pomykal respectively. Here are Oscar Pareja's thoughts on the matches.
Overall thoughts on the game...
Another great exercise for us playing against one of the best teams in Argentina with all of their starters playing. After the games we have played, the boys are finding a way to keep themselves strong and I have to just highlight and recognize the boys embracing the idea of overloading ourselves with these type of games and the road for us is growing mentally.
How did you feel your units controlled the ball?
I thought we did well. In the first 35 minutes[of the first match], I didn’t like a whole lot but I have to give credit to the boys because they came out from a long night yesterday and this morning was early so it took a little bit of time to spark the team. The second half from the first unit was great. We changed the model and I saw our team again.
In the second game, the whole game was very level and they played very well.
Tesho scored both goals today what have you seen from him?
Tesho is doing a great job adapting to different models that we have and his fitness is getting back to what we want. I see him getting very strong.
Anibal Chala had a great assist to Tesho...
Anibal is adapting to us very well and he’s growing every day. He’s understanding our methods more and more.
Paxton had a nice assist in the second game...
I’m proud to see a product of our academy playing against professionals for one of the best leagues in the world. He’s a smart player.
Kellyn Acosta calmed things down coming in at halftime of the first game...
He knows the game with Carlos but we’re also trying to bring Cermeno into the game as much as we can. He’s working on his fitness right now with coaches pushing him but Kellyn is set in that position right now with Carlos they know each other well.
Chris Seitz stopped a PK that had to be nice to see...
Jesse stopped one yesterday and Seitzy stopped one today, it’s good.