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MLS FC Dallas

FC Dallas Claims Copa Tejas Following 3-1 Home Win Versus Austin FC

July 17, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Dallas News Release


FRISCO, Texas - FC Dallas (8-11-5, 29 points) defeated Austin FC 3-1 (8-10-6, 30 points) to claim Copa Tejas for the first-time since 2021. Petar Musa, Paul Arriola, and Marco Farfan scored FC Dallas' goals tonight.

CAPI ARRIOLA SCORES

Captain Paul Arriola scored FC Dallas' first goal of the night in the 10th minute of the first half. Arriola's goal gives him two on the season, with both of them being scored at Toyota Stadium.

BIG DOG THE PROVIDER

Dallas' 2024 MLS SuperDraft pick Logan Farrington provided his fifth assist of the season in Dallas' first goal of the night. Farrington leads all 2024 MLS SuperDraft rookies in assists (5), points (8), and is tied for first in goals (2). Farrington and Sebastian Lletget lead FC Dallas in assists with five.

A CAREER FIRST FOR THE MOOSE

Petar Musa scored his 13th MLS regular season goal in the 51st minute. This is Musa's first-ever converted penalty kick and gives him three game-winning goals on the season. Musa leads FC Dallas with 14 goals across all competitions and is now tied for first all-time (Damian Alvarez and Jason Kreis) for most league goals scored in their first year with FC Dallas. Musa is also tied for fourth in goals scored across MLS and has scored in four-straight matches.

100 APPEARANCES IN MLS

Defenders Ema Twumasi and Nkosi Tafari reached 100 appearances in MLS regular season play tonight. In that time, Twumasi has scored once and assisted six times, while Tafari has registered six goals and six assists. In 2024, Tafari leads all defenders with two goals and is tied for first in ball clearances with Sebastian Ibeagha. FC Dallas now has eight players on the active roster with at least 100 appearances.

FARFAN FINDS THE BACK OF THE NET

Defender Marco Farfan netted his first goal of the regular season in the 74th minute of the match, becoming the fourteenth different goal scorer for FC Dallas this year. Farfan's last goal came against St. Louis CITY SC at Toyota Stadium on June 7, 2023.

DEFENDING HOME

FC Dallas earned its third-straight win at Toyota Stadium and improved to 8-3-2 at home. The eight wins by Dallas is tied for the second-most wins in MLS. Dallas is undefeated all-time at home against Austin holding a 5-0-1 record.

UP NEXT: A RARE VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND

FC Dallas takes on the New England Revolution on Saturday, July 20 from Gillette Stadium. The match will kick off at 6:30PM CT. The match will air on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, the FC Dallas app in Spanish and English and Talk Radio 1190 AM in English.

FC DALLAS POSTGAME QUOTES

Interim head coach Peter Luccin

On the win over Austin FC...

"It was very important for us to win in our house. But, there are so many things that we need to improve. It was Copa Tejas which is important for the club. I'm happy but at the same time, there's some concern. We have another game in four days in New England and have to change some attitude and some behavior. I'm very happy with the team responding after the tie, it was very good and we made some adjustments for the second half. Right now you can see me, I'm not reacting because we need to do better. Very happy about the win with our fans but we have a game in four days and we have to change some things if we want to win our first game away."

On playing from the back and counterattacking...

"This is FC Dallas style, we want to play from the back. I like the ball, I think the team likes the ball, but to play from the back, we need courage to show in the right moments. This is a thing that we'll have to improve because in the very specific and important moments, we didn't show up for the ball. But it's fine, we are working on that and it's going to take time. Right now what we can see and I think what everybody can see is that the team is ready to compete. The team is competing every single game. Now we have to compete, we have to be smart and play with courage. All of that stuff, we will have to increase our level a bit."

Forward Petar Musa

On what this win means...

"It means a lot, especially with this hard week. We have a really hard schedule right now with so many games in a short time. I'm really happy because tonight we saw this team's spirit, maybe we didn't play that nice soccer, but we fought together as a team until the end. I'm happy for this teamwork and three points."

On how he is feeling after this week...

"For all of us (MLS teams), it is the same schedule so we cannot make any excuses. I was sick with a small cold so I personally haven't felt very good. I didn't train with the team for three days this week, I just stayed in bed. For me today, it was hard but my teammates helped me and in the end, it's a great night. We won."

Defender Nkosi Tafari

General thoughts on tonight's game for him and the team...

"This is a massive game for the team. For me, I don't care, I'm more of a pawn in the system. This is a massive game for the team. We were four points behind Austin going into this game, we know where the playoff spot is and we're one point behind them. We're closing the goal differential gap, we know what we're doing."

On winning Copa Tejas...

"It's massive. Like I was saying, we know what the table looked like going into this game and now we closed the gap on a playoff spot. It's been a rough season for us, a lot of injuries, a lot of adversity. We pride ourselves on that and being strong and tonight was really massive."

Defender Marco Farfan

On winning Copa Tejas...

"It means a lot, thinking about how the whole season has gone from the start to now you know we're still fighting, we're still pushing for playoffs and being able to get this win means a lot."

On scoring his first goal of the season...

"The goal means a lot to me, it was a special goal. I saw Paul (Arriola) running into space and it was difficult to catch up to Paul in space, I knew I had to put out the right pass and for me that was the best part of the play, I just had to finish the play and score."

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