MLS FC Dallas

FC Dallas Falls to Portland Timbers 2-1 in the Knockout Round

Published on November 1, 2018 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Dallas News Release


FRISCO, TEXAS - FC Dallas loses to the Portland Timbers 2-1 in the Knockout Round match Wednesday night at Toyota Stadium.

First Half:

12' - FC Dallas appears to take the lead in the 12th minute through Reto Ziegler but it is ruled offside following a VAR review.

23' - Diego Valeri opens the scoring for Portland Timbers with a curling free kick that evades Jesse Gonzalez in goal.

26' - Michael Barrios nearly ties the game after a long run down the wing but his shot deflects off the keeper before striking the crossbar and going out.

31' - Matt Hedges gets on the end of Maxi Urruti's corner kick but his ambitious first-time volley is too high.

43' - Dallas creates a great chance through Michael Barrios and Maxi Urruti's link up play on the edge of the box but the eventual shot from Maynor Figueroa is just off target.

45' - Diego Valeri has a chance to double the lead from a Zarek Valentin cross but his volley ends up over the goal.

45' - Another big chance goes begging for Dallas when Reto Ziegler heads Maxi Urruti's cross just wide of the post.

Second Half:

46' - Dominique Badji sends a dangerous ball across the face of goal but no Dallas player is in position to tap it home.

58' - Larrys Mabiala receives a red card for denying a clear goal scoring opportunity when he pulled down Dominique Badji who was through on goal.

71' - Diego Valeri scores his second goal of the night after Jeremy Ebobisse forces Jesse Gonzalez out of the box and makes a quick pass to Valeri.

90'+4' - Matt Hedges extends his right foot and scores the first goal of the night for FC Dallas.

Lineups:

FC Dallas - Jesse Gonzalez; Maynor Figueroa (Ryan Hollingshead - 76'), Matt Hedges, Reto Ziegler, Reggie Cannon; Carlos Gruezo, Victor Ulloa (Roland Lamah - 65'); Santiago Mosquera, Maxi Urruti (Tesho Akindele - 85'), Michael Barrios; Dominique Badji.

Substitutes not used - Jimmy Maurer, Marquinhos Pedroso, Jacori Hayes, Abel Aguilar.

Portland Timbers - Jeff Attinella; Jorge Villafaña, Liam Ridgewell, Larrys Mabiala, Zarek Valentin; David Guzmán, Diego Chara; Sebastian Blanco, Diego Valeri (Lawrence Olum - 81'), Andy Polo (Bill Tuiloma - 60'); Jeremy Ebobisse (Dairon Asprilla - 85').

Substitutes not used - Steve Clark, Alves Powell, Samuel Armenteros, Lucas Melano.

Scoring Summary:

POR: Diego Valeri - 23'

POR: Diego Valeri (Jeremy Ebobisse) - 71'

FCD: Matt Hedges (Santiago Mosquera, Roland Lamah) - 90'+4'

Misconduct Summary:

FCD: Maxi Urruti (caution) - 22'

POR: Liam Ridgewell (caution) - 38'

POR: Diego Chara (caution) - 45'+6'

FCD: Carlos Gruezo (caution) - 45'+6'

POR: Larrys Mabiala (ejection) - 58'

Weather: Showers, 54

Attendance: 10,297

Referee: Alan Kelly

Assistant Referee: Eric Weisbrod, Corey Parker

4th Official: Armando Villarreal

VAR: Dave Gantar

FC Dallas head coach Oscar Pareja

Overall thought's on tonight's match...

There is a lot of frustration obviously on not accomplishing the next objective. It is, as you know, frustrating to get to this point again and at an early stage and not being able to advance for our fans and for the people who also work for this franchise and the people who have supported us and were expecting us to keep moving forward and reach that goal of being in the MLS cup and win it. I want to tell them that I'm terribly sorry for not being able to do that and that has to lead into the leadership that I have with this group andI have no regrets, but at the same time I want to tell you and all and our fans that I have had tremendous support from my players and our ownership and the club and not being able to advance this is obviously a big responsibility on me, but as you mentioned the game plan. I thought we played well I got to tell you that you know sometimes it's more desperate in the intelligent but the overall game just being aggressive in the first half and having that many options to score is probably an old story and very repetitive just to say well we didn't the ball in the back of the net and then five shots that Portland had, three of them on goal and they score two and we had twenty two so it's tough and hard to digest but I thought the boys gave their energy and they gave all they had and we were not finding the goal again and were paying the results.

On not scoring the last four games...

The game is like that, if you don't put the goal in the back of the net, you don't get points. The next two games were pretty similar, so you know if I say we play well but we don't score goals than I'm probably being very subjective about the game. My answer to you is we were not scoring in the last 4 games, today we scored one and in the last 3 games we scored just one more and we needed more and that was the lack of points in that period and unfortunately, we were not good defending either, the goals today were not good.

On what went wrong...

I like the team, I got to tell you the truth and it probably is an answer that we don't want to hear because we want different answers. That probably softens our hearts and souls, but I have to tell you what I see. So, the team is giving what they have and creating chances in the first half. [Michael Barrios], Maxi [Urruti] and Reggie [Cannon] on the right, I thought it was great and we created options, but we didn't score goals. We didn't finish when we got the ball there, 12 or 13 meters away the goal and we're not fine. So everything just starts looking bad, but the boys played hard and I respect them a lot. And I said this before, it's an honor for me to coach them. I have not seen any side of lack of desire or commitment. It's just that the coach sometimes makes decisions where probably I'm not accurate or whatever, but the boys are doing their job.

FC Dallas midfielder Victor Ulloa

Initial thoughts on the game...

A little pain, a loss like this at home after such a great season they we had, being in the top of the Western Conference for the majority of the season. I mean our past three games weren't good enough, we needed a result to get that bye but unfortunately we couldn't do it. We put ourselves in this situation. I mean it hurts a lot to go out this way.

What are you feeling right now...

I think it's just a roller coaster of emotions, obviously getting that goal back gave us a little more hope that we could tie it up but unfortunately we were short tonight.

What are your thought going forward...

I think at this moment we're really just disappointed with this season. We know that teams change every year. We'll see how our team looks next year but overall just disappointed and frustrated with ourselves that we disappointed ourselves and disappointed the fans that so much want a cup for the city.

FC Dallas midfielder Michael Barrios

Overall thoughts on tonight's match...

Sad. We wanted to advance and continue our objective we had all year, to win the MLS Cup. We knew it was going to be step-by-step. It was a difficult game... We had two chances to score, but we were missing the finishing touch. We know that's what affected us in the end and the two goals that were scored against us.

Message to the fans...

First and foremost, thank you for supporting us from the start of the season to the final minute. We still have hope that we will advance, and we will bring joy to you, ourselves, and our families. And we're deeply sorry for not being able to give you a win, to give you the title that I wanted as well. But I hope we fix our errors we made during the season, so we come back next season ready to work and go after our objectives.

Portland Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese

Overall thought's on tonight's game...

It's exciting, we understand the difficulty of this match that we had. [FC] Dallas is a good team and as we said, we have to go one game at a time. Today, the guys did a fantastic job. They sacrificed and worked very hard, it wasn't an easy game nor a pretty one. But we defended very well, and we found the right moments to score the goals. [Diego] Valeri was fantastic but everyone on the pitch did great.

On importance of scoring the first goal of the game...

It's everything. You have the game in control and the lead. You have to be calmer and it was very important to find the goal.

On importance of the team scoring the second goal...

I think that was a moment where the team knew how to be smart and keep its discipline. They made sure to make it difficult for them. When we had the chance to go forward, we were quick and able to react fast. [Jeremy] Ebobisse did a fantastic job to find Valeri and was clinical enough to score the second goal.

On importance of Diego Valeri to the team...

Big players know how to be important games. He came up big today.

Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell

On tonight's game...

Obviously, it was a great win. Dallas is always a tough place to come. They're a very good side, very good attacking team, and very good at home. It showed how pleased we were with the result because they're such a good team.

On getting the first goal...

It was massive. Anytime you come here, you know you're going to get overloaded, you know they're going to play well, you know they're going to pass the ball out and create chances and you've just got to try and ride that storm. With a little bit of luck, VAR coming in and giving it the offsides, it might have been a little bit of a different match. For us to pick ourselves up after that, go on and score and win the game was massive for us.

On the red card in the 65th minute...

We were defending on our backs anyway. It was tough, obviously we saw it and knew it was coming so getting Bill (Tuiloma) on and getting him into shape was very good. We were sitting back for most of the second half, anyway, so it didn't really change. It just means we didn't have anybody up front or we couldn't attack as much, so it didn't really change the mentality

On the game's physicality...

Any time we play Dallas we have a bit of a ding dong with them, and something always flares up. That's the nature of football, and that's playoff football. It shows how much they want to win, and how much we want to win. Things flare over and I think the referee did very well not sending anyone off or ruining the game. Second half we came out, and got on with it and showed a very professional performance from the boys.

Portland Timbers goalkeeper Jeff Attinella

On going into halftime up 1-0...

It was huge. We knew that if we could come into halftime up a goal or at zeros, that would be a really good start because they were going to come out pretty fast. Fortunately, video replay is a thing, and it worked out for us, I think that jolted us awake a little bit and we grinded out the first half with good momentum coming into halftime.

On the mentality after the red card...

We have a lot of good veteran leaders on the field. Once he got the red card it was kind of a state of calm. We knew what we had to do and kind of knew what the game would turn into so we leaned on our veterans and they did a good job.

On the seven minutes of stoppage time to end the game...

I figured it was going to be long. THAT seemed really long (laughs). Felt like about 30 on the field. There's a lot of different things going on, normally in playoff games stoppage time is a little bit longer. It felt like 30 but fortunately we got through the seven alive.

Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri

On tonight's game...

It was an even game until the second goal. Actually, after our red card they came really hard and they attacked very well, putting in a lot of crosses, forcing us to be deep on the field. The condition of the field wasn't the best, and it was an ugly game. Very hard to play and clear, but we were more efficient.

On his free kick goal...

I was very confident, it was a good angle and distance. With the confidence of my teammates, I just tried to hit it as hard as a can and with direction. Sometimes it goes to the roof and sometimes it goes in.

On the importance of getting the first goal...

It was important. If they score on the set piece and we don't get lucky with the VAR, that could change the game. Our first goal changed the game a little bit and made the more anxious to score a goal. Using that pressure, we could manage the that tension of the game. After the second goal, it's just defending.

On his second goal...

That was from making a good run, making a good pass to (Jeremy) Ebobisse, and then when he turned, I just tried to be close to him in a range of shooting and it was the only place to kick. But it was all about Jeremy. He was the best player on the field today.

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