Happy Memorial Day!
We won't have a live show tonight because of the holiday, but here's a quick recap of the weekend.
Hello from sunny Southern California, where I hiked up with a group of Scouts to 10,800 feet and almost regretted every minute of it. Seriously, my legs are dead.
FC Dallas Lose to Seattle 1-0
That hike took me out of cellphone range, so it wasn’t til I came back down to the flat land that I saw FC Dallas lost to Seattle 1-0 on Saturday. In a way, I was relieved, worried that the squad that lost in PKs to New York earlier in the week would lay a major egg on the road. Instead, they battled, even if Seattle looked the more dangerous side throughout.
Still, the team as a whole is not in a good place, even if Eric Quill is preaching positive messages to the press and team.
“Feel disappointed for our guys that fought. They fought, and to lose like that is hard to swallow. Proud of their fight, and we've got to look at it, and we got to become better for it,” Quill said after the game. “We can't feel sorry for ourselves and blame. We gotta stand up to this, and we gotta understand how the margins work in this league, and where the margins lie. And it's finding a way. We gotta find a way to be better in certain moments that we can punish the opponent and better, some decision making, but the effort and the fight was there. Just to lose on that goal, on the penalty it is hard to swallow.”
The long travel days don’t slow down for FC Dallas as they turn around and head to Cincinatti on Wednesday night in what will be a tough one and then return home to face the red hot Philadelphia Union. Brutal week for a struggling team.
North Texas Beats the Defiance, 3-2
On Sunday night, I was able to grab a nice seat on my couch and watch North Texas visit Tacoma Defiance, one of the offense-rich teams. And they showed it, dominating most of the first half until John Gall tweaked some things at halftime. Sam Sarver and Faisu Sangare found excellent goals, and North Texas has now won four straight.
Faisu’s goal in particular was nice and a big boost for the newcomer to the side, who the announcers remind us (multiple times) was once part of Wolverhampton’s youth setup. He also went off with a red card on a reckless foul. Maybe a bit harsh?
Head coach John Gall spoke about Faisu’s arrival to Afterburn Soccer after the match.
“One of the things we look at when we bring in players is to see their compatibility with the staff and the environment we are creating. We want players with big personalities, who are courageous and hungry,” Gall said. “The kid has gone through some difficult things in his career, and he has learned a lot in his young career. He has a great mentality and work effort that he brings to the group. Disappointing that he got the red card towards the end for himself, but the first thing he says coming off the field is if we can appeal it. This is the type of player that he is. He does not want to miss matches. I’m happy that he got his first goal of the season tonight.”
Sam Sarver now has seven on the season, and his leadership and attacking mentality are driving this team.
We’ll do a makeup podcast sometime this week, or I’ll figure out how to take some post-game commentary to give you a glimpse of what the coaches are talking about.